NHL club owners, players far apart as deadline nears

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says new contract talks with players to avoid a lockout next month are stalled because players want to maintain the status quo while club owners seek a better deal. The NHL, which lost the entire 2004-2005 season in a labour dispute, faces a September 15 deadline to produce a new deal, with Bettman saying the NHL will impose a lockout and shut down the league if no new deal is struck by then. That would jeopardize the scheduled October start of the 2012-2013 campaign and scuttle the popularity the sport has rebuilt with supporters since the shutdown. "We are focused on making a deal," Bettman said, claiming the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) "wants to keep things the way they are and that is slowing the process" and sides are far apart on financial terms. NHLPA executive director Don Fehr, a former baseball union leader who was not involved in talks when the NHL season was lost, said club owners and players would resume talks on Tuesday in New York. "The parties would be better served by taking the time between now and Tuesday to review where we are, to work internally on various things and then to meet again on Tuesday in New York and to focus on the core economic issues going forward," Fehr said. "That's the plan and hopefully it will be productive when we get to it. We have a lot to do. I have always believed that there's enough time." The union made a proposal to the club owners on issues related to waiver rules, the NHL Draft, contract buyouts and boosting playoff payouts to levels last seen before the lost season. "Can we find a way to accommodate everybody's interests? We'll find out," Fehr said. Owners were able to impose most of their agenda after the prior shutdown but only after losing an entire season, a first in North American sport, because they could not agree with players on how to divide $2.1 billion in revenues.