It’s been a long and arduous journey, and there’s plenty more road left to clear, but it appears as if the NHL and NHLPA have a framework in place to settle all their outstanding issues, writes TSN’s Frank Seravalli. The deal has yet to be finalized, but when it is, it’s expected to include an extension of the current CBA, some of which we went over here, as well as the final details of the return-to-play initiative. Plus, of course, there’s the final announcement about the hub cities.
Multiple sources at the Athletic, however, confirm Bob McKenzie of TSN’s initial report that marked Toronto and Edmonton as the NHL’s chosen locations for hub play, per The Athletic’s Michael Russo. The 12 participating teams from the Western Conference would play in Edmonton, with the 12 Eastern Conference clubs headed to Toronto. Of course, that means that both the Maple Leafs and Oilers will have the “advantage” of playing in their home city. The NHL doesn’t view this as much of an advantage, however, given that fans won’t be in attendance. Besides, there’s at least a chance that neither the Oilers nor the Maple Leafs would advance past the Qualifier round.
Not to mention, there remain obstacles to finalizing the plan as currently constituted. Seravalli kindly laid out the next steps: “Once a deal is finalized, it will require ratification votes from both the NHLPA’s full membership and the NHL’s Board of Governors, which could come as soon as this weekend. A simple majority vote is needed from the NHLPA; a two-thirds vote is required from the BOG.”
Still, after hemming and hawing for weeks to finalize these details, it does appear as if the NHL and NHLPA are close to pulling off the monumental task of coming to an accord in just a manner of days.
gosh just finalize it. its been too long already.
Why did it take so long to report this. The bob father reported this over 12 hours ago
Bob’s your uncle
While I’m sure the league is doing what they think best as to the health issue, having both hub cities in Canada is going to hurt them in the U.S. television market. Just no way around that.
@Gbear – I think we have to hope that Bettman & Co. do, in fact, have the sense God gave to Francis The Talking Mule and there will be U.S. TV coverage, and, hopefully, streaming on NHL.com. But, we know where that has gotten us before… ;)
@mac – While I’m sure NBCSN will preempt their current coverage of dirt bike races from 2018, I’m not so sure there will be many eyeballs watching if all the games are being played north of the border. We already tend to be preoccupied during the summer here in states with outdoor activities, will take some considerable buzz to get people inside to watch the games and that’s unlikely to happen if their are no games being played anywhere remotely close to you.
I agree with Brian Burke’s take on this. Choosing just two hub cities was foolish. Should be at least 4 hub sites to start with until they get down to the final 8 or even 4 teams. If the league can’t find at least 4 cities they feel comfortable playing in, then why are they even doing this?
@Gbear – We both know the why: $$$. I’m perfectly fine with a business, any business, really, to try to get things back to normal. But, there should always be an intelligent, well-designed plan to follow, rather than sticking the old wet finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Banking on massive TV ratings that might not materialize for the very reasons you and I have stated, could very well turn into a dicey gamble. That said, what other choice do they have? We don’t want to see a financially-crippled NHL for the foreseeable future, so they are going to have to be extraordinarily creative with this.
@mac – I agree that the league does need to salvage this season somehow, but I’ve become less optimistic that they’re going about this in a way that will payoff in the end. Empty arenas with games played thousands of miles away from a teams fanbase isn’t going to be a big TV ratings event in most cities, IMO.
The push back of the 20/21 season to, I imagine, December isn’t going to help either. Hopefully fans can attend games by then at least.
@Gbear – Like we’ve said before, people that have been cooped up in their homes for months need to get outside and do stuff. Unfortunately, some of them would have been the normal NHL-viewing audience. And, speaking of that partial attendance idea, there could be a real hornet’s nest if you allow season-ticket holders to take all of the 50% arena capacity, stiffing John and Jane Q. Public out of the in-person experience. And, you know that said season ticket base might be more than happy to scalp, er, “re-sell” their tickets, for a premium. Kinda doubt Bettman can come up with an amicable solution for most of the folks… The answer is the currently-unavailable “Cure-all Vaccine.”