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NLL Cancels 2008 Season; No CBA Deal Reached
Topic Started: Tuesday Sep 25 2007, 02:05 PM (398 Views)
WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

From Lacrosse Magazine Online:
Quote:
 
There's a lot of news coming out of the National Lacrosse League these days, the latest of which you'll find here on Lacrosse Magazine Online: the NLL has imposed an Oct. 15 deadline to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the Professional Lacrosse Players Association, or it will cancel the 2008 season.

Working on this story was interesting. I'm always interested in matters of the NLL, as it is as professional a structure as any in lacrosse.

The league draws over a million fans a year, makes good on most of its promises, represents a sustainable income for players and, in the cases of some teams, actually makes money. The NLL's following dips well outside the traditional lacrosse confines, and its New York-based league office is responsive to the needs of the players, owners and, as I have found in this latest inquiry, the media.

But sometimes it is stretched too thin. Perhaps unfairly, the NLL must be held to the standard it has created in its 21st-century growth.

For instance, although a high percentage of the league's players also play for other entities such as Major League Lacrosse in the U.S. and the Ontario Lacrosse Association and Western Lacrosse Association in Canada, the PLPA deals (and gripes) solely with the NLL.

PLPA president Peter Shmitz said NLL franchises have recently sold for as much as $3.5 million, compared to the $1.5 million Philadelphia Barrage general manager Keith Mecca is seeking for his three-time MLL championship team.

And yet, the MLL managed to secure a 10-year TV deal with ESPN2, while the NLL fiddled on Versus for a year and cannot lock a major network into a long-term deal. While that can be attributed to the time of year during which the respective leagues play, it does not help when a triennial face-off between the NLL and PLPA imperils the league's otherwise promising future.


Full article.

Ouch. That's the last thing the Boston expansion needs is for their first season to be canceled. I'm sure they can come to some sort of agreement - they have the fourth best average attendance among indoor sports in the world. A good TV contract would be nice, though...
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WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

Quote:
 
The National Lacrosse League has announced that the weekend's negotiations with the player's association concluded earlier today without reaching a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. No further talks are scheduled between the two sides at this time. The league's 2008 regular season will be cancelled should an agreement not be reached by Monday, October 15th (tomorrow).


Full article.

:mellow: :unsure:
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PSUSyr5
The Board Idiot

It's not like it's as big of a sport as the NHL. They better come up with something soon because I don't think they'll be able to rebound as well as the NHL did.
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WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

The 2008 season is gone.

Quote:
 
The National Lacrosse League has announced the cancellation of its 2008 season. The cancellation was triggered by the Professional Lacrosse Players Association's executive committee rejecting the league's last Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) proposal.

"I would like to apologize to our fans, first and foremost", said NLL Commissioner Jim Jennings. "We are deeply disappointed that the PLPA's executive committee rejected our proposal without permitting all of the players to vote on the league's final offer. The offer included annual raises for all players in each year of the contract. Our owners made the best offer they could make while maintaining a
sound business model".


Full article.

Hell of a way to introduce your expansion team. :rolleyes:

Maybe I don't know enough about CBAs, but if I was there, I'd try to get them to sign a one-year extension to the current CBA, which would give them a season and time to work out a long-term deal that both sides like.
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Cougar
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Seems that the CBA always gets a league to have at least one lockout season.
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PSUSyr5
The Board Idiot

WeatherManNX01
Oct 16 2007, 12:04 PM
Maybe I don't know enough about CBAs, but if I was there, I'd try to get them to sign a one-year extension to the current CBA, which would give them a season and time to work out a long-term deal that both sides like.

Yeah, it seems like if they can't agree on a new one, at least have them go one more year with the current one, so at least they are still playing while they are figuring things out. Maybe there is some sort of behind the scenes thing that we don't know about.
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WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

Season to make a comeback?

From Inside Lacrosse:
Quote:
 
Inside Lacrosse has learned that the PLPA sent the NLL a counter proposal Tuesday night. As reported earlier by IL, talks between the NLL and PLPA are back on. There’s no guarantee a deal will be reached but at least the two sides are working toward that end. The NLL has been silent for the last few days and Tuesday afternoon the PLPA asked its players to follow suit. An inside source said that it’s in the best interest of both parties that they work on this, “without any distractions”.

Last week I said that real negotiations happen when the two sides stop talking to the media. This past weekend, the NLL and the PLPA got awfully quiet. That led me to believe that something is happening.

Monday night, reliable sources told me that there was contact and discussions between the two sides in the last 24 hours and a new proposal was on the table. I don’t have any details about what the new proposal entails, but if a deal is to be struck, it will have to be done this week. I was also told that the PLPA reps were on a conference call Monday night.


Full article.

Even if they do work something out, there has already been one casualty of season cancellation.

They've announced it as canceled. They shouldn't go back on it now.
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WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

From NLL.com:
Quote:
 
The National Lacrosse League has announced the reaching of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Professional Lacrosse Player's Association. The agreement is a seven-year term that begins in 2008 and run through the 2014 season. The agreement marks the longest labor deal in the 22-year history of professional indoor lacrosse. The league's previous three-year agreement with the PLPA expired following the 2007 season.

"Reaching a long-term collective bargaining agreement with the players was our number one priority in this process", said NLL Commissioner Jim Jennings. "We've been building positive growth in the league over the past few years. Securing long-term labor peace puts us in a position to take our league to the next level."

The agreement also means that professional indoor lacrosse will be played in 2008. When a new CBA had not reached by the league's deadline last week, the 2008 season was canceled. A new schedule for the 2008 National Lacrosse League season is expected to be announced next week.


Article.

Wow. I love these hardcore deadlines that end up being flexible. :rolleyes: And just when I had accepted that there would be no NLL this season. Not to mention that Boston has no team this season, and Versus axed their TV deal because of the labor unrest. Whoo.
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WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

Another victim falls to the lockout.

From Inside Lacrosse:
Quote:
 
A league source said late Tuesday night that the Arizona Sting will not play the 2008 National Lacrosse League season. The Sting join the expansion Boston Blazers in going dark for ’08, following a two-week period of uncertainty regarding a new collective bargaining agreement.

Arizona entered the league for the 2004 season, and it has been by an overwhelming success on the floor. After just missing the playoffs in their inaugural season, the Sting made it to the Champion’s Cup final in 2005, losing to host Toronto. In 2006, Arizona made it to the West Final, losing to eventual champion Colorado. Last season, they made yet another Champion’s Cup final, hosting Rochester because the higher-seeded Knighthawks couldn’t host the game because of a scheduling conflict. Rochester beat Arizona at Jobing.com Arena 13-11.


Full article.

While not a good thing exactly, it at least gives the league an even number of teams, assuming no others drop out.
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PSUSyr5
The Board Idiot

They might end up having a season, but no teams this year the way things are going.
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