Gary Bettman and Don Fehr on the two sides seeing the world differently

“There’s still a number of issues where were looking at the world differently, ” Bettman said on the sides being far apart.

Bettman continues to hint that the revenue splits in the NBA and NFL as something he’s seeking. “I’m not sure there’s yet been a recognition of the economics in our world, and I mean the greater world in our sports industry, taking into account what recently happened with NFL and NBA…..”Players in other sports {in the last year} have recognized the importance and need to make adjustments.”

“There’s still a wide gap between us with not much time to go. “This is a process that we’re going to continue to work hard on. It’s fair to say the sides are far apart and have different views of the world.

Bettman expressed frustrations indicating the NHLPA hasn’t made a full proposal, while Don Fehr refutes that.

“I think without getting {into specifics}, they have yet to have all of their proposals on the table, ” Bettman said. “I’m not in position to make a counter proposal {as} they’re not at that point yet. It’s a little disappointing to not have their full proposal in with a little month to go.”

Meanwhile, Don Fehr rightfully has tried to downplay the similarities between the NFL and NBA, claiming the economics are different in every sport. “Every sport has it’s own economics, ” Fehr said in response to Bettman’s reference of the deals between the NFL and NBA.

“They said clearly that they see it differently, ” Fehr said of what he was told by Bettman about the proposal.

“They have almost everything, ” Fehr said about Bettman saying a lot of the proposal is not in. “What the players agreed to do (in their proposal) was cut their future salaries substantially and allow the owners with the continued growth to address the problems that underlie the proposal that they made.”

Fehr’s final comments of the day were fitting in that he made it known that this time around the players won’t be making the significant concessions they made in 2005.

“This is an industry which the owners insisted on and got with more concessions from players last time with stated expectations that this would fix things. Well there position now is that it didn’t fix things.”