NEW YORK — Talks between the NHL and the players' association turned sour Thursday, with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman saying that a “wide gap” divides the two sides and that the owners will not proceed with the 2012-13 season if no new collective bargaining agreement is in place when the current one expires on Sept. 15. Bettman spoke soon after Donald Fehr, the union's executive director, told reporters that a “meaningful gulf” separates the owners and players. The prospect of a lockout delaying the NHL season, already a strong probability before Thursday, now seems stronger, according to a New York Times report. “I reconfirmed something that the union has been told multiple times over the last 9 to 12 months: namely, that the time is getting short and the owners are not prepared to operate under this collective bargaining agreement for another season,” Bettman said after the two-hour negotiating session in Midtown Manhattan. Last month Bettman indicated that the owners would not continue after Sept. 15 if a new agreement wasn't in place. But his statement Thursday was unequivocal. Bettman and Fehr's characterizations of contentious differences between management and union were the first public statements by either side indicating anything other than cordiality. But privately, union officials have long expressed consternation over what they see as a radically hardline stance taken by Bettman and the owners. The owners' initial proposal, made on July 13, would cut the players' split of league revenue from 57 percent to as low as 43 percent. It would also limit contract lengths, extend entry-level contracts from three to five years, make players ineligible to become restricted free agents until 10 years of service rather than the current seven, and eliminate salary arbitration. The players' association has not yet made its initial offer, but Fehr said it was likely to come Tuesday at a negotiating session in Toronto. In that proposal, the union is expected to reject any reduction in the players' split of league revenue. Instead, the union will likely propose that clubs adopt a broader revenue-sharing plan among themselves to help the NHL's roughly half-dozen money-losing clubs. But such a proposal was effectively given the cold shoulder last week by Bettman, who revealed that the owners had proposed only a slightly tweaked version of the current revenue-sharing plan. That plan provides a relatively small amount to some of the money-losing clubs, but nothing to those in large markets, like the Islanders. — Agencies
