The National Hockey League canceled another week of games through Nov. 1 as a lockout of players continues.
The league said in a statement that a total of 135 regular- season games have now been lost to the shutdown, which started when the old collective bargaining agreement expired on Sept. 15. It earlier called off the first two weeks of the season, which was to have begun Oct. 11.
The league and the players’ union are at odds over how to split revenue that reached a record $3 billion last season. The league proposed a 50-50 split this week, and rejected union counter-proposals yesterday. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the latest talks were a “step backward.”
“It’s clear that we’re not speaking the same language in terms of what they came back to us with,” Bettman said yesterday.
The players received 57 percent of hockey-related revenue under the previous contract, reached in 2005 after the league lost an entire season to a lockout. Union Executive Director Donald Fehr said players would stand to lose 12.3 percent of their salaries under the latest NHL offer, which proposed a full 82-game season to start Nov. 2.
“It’s not hard to figure out why the owners think this is a good deal,” Fehr told reporters yesterday.
The cancellation of the preseason and first two weeks of the regular season caused a loss of about $250 million, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has said.
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