New TV Deal Gives NHL Leverage for Talks

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who last week got the league’s first over-the-air network TV contract in 20 years, is expected to use that deal to try to gain concessions from the NHL Players Assn. when the sides resume labor talks today in New York.

Bettman was the force behind a five-year, $155-million agreement with the Fox network, as well as significant sponsorship ties.

“I hope these agreements give the players cause for more optimism and they want to buy in a little more” to his plan for the NHL’s growth, he said.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, acknowledged that the Fox contract will influence the talks. “But to what degree, I don’t know,” he said.

The NHL and its players’ union have not had a collective bargaining agreement since last September. A lockout is anticipated if a new agreement is not reached before the season opens on Oct. 1.

Bettman advocates what he has called a “next generation” system that links salaries to revenues. The NHLPA has rejected several plans that restricted salaries and also indicated it will veto a “luxury tax” plan in which clubs that spent over a certain level on payrolls would pay a “tax” that would go to clubs that were under the limit.