NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA head Donald Fehr are already exchanging words through the media over talk about another lockout upon the CBA’s expiration.
NHLPA head Donald Fehr told the media that all signs pointed to another lockout when the CBA expires after the 2021-22 season. NHL Deputy commissioner Bill Daly took exception to that, pinning the blame squarely on the union head. Does all of this sound familiar? It should. It’s the same song and dance the two sides have been moving to for nigh on 25 years now. Some things never change, it seems.
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“If you put baseball to the side where there’s no cap, I don’t see anything yet which suggests any of the other three [North American] leagues are likely to break out of the phenomenon of a lockout every time,” Fehr told The Hockey News, “because a salary cap produces that phenomenon on the management side. [Owners] think they’ve got nothing to lose: ‘Let’s just go see what happens, and maybe we’ll get a little bit more.’”
It’s tough to argue that. Every lockout in the NHL, NBA and NFL has been driven solely by the owners’ desire to grab a bigger piece of the pie, then prolonged by the union’s refusal to do so to such an extent.
Daly sniped back at Fehr, telling TVA’s Renaud Lavoie, “It’s a fairly naive and uneducated view of the situation, particularly as it relates to this league’s collective bargaining history and the reasons why we have endured work stoppages in the past,” Daly said. “Don’s musings are also entirely inconsistent with his own collective bargaining history, which is highlighted by his own precipitation of repeated work stoppages and unprecedented labor strife in an ‘uncapped’ sports league.”
Ah, yes, that’s right. It’s the union’s fault, everyone! After all, it’s the union who decides when lockouts happen. Wait, what’s that? Oh, right, lockouts are by definition enforced by the owners when the players don’t accept sweeping pay cuts in the next contract. But there’s that dirty word the league loves to use — uncapped. Anything to make the unions look bad, yes?
As long as pro sports rake in billions, there will be lockouts. As we said during the last NHL lockout, get used to it or find new programming. In this case, at least be happy until there are eight more years until the NHL’s CBA expires. Once that hits, you’ve been warned.
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