Mixed results on road back for pro sports
The NHL will abandon the rest of the regular season and go straight into the playoffs with 24 teams instead of 16 — if it is able to resume play.
The decision, announced Tuesday by Commissioner Gary Bettman, is no guarantee that games are coming back. The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association must still figure out health and safety protocols and solve other issues.
“This is a meaningful start, I think, but it’s only a start,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr told The Associated Press after the announcement. “We have to make sure that we can actually implement all the things which are necessary in order to protect the health and safety of the players and all the rest of the staff.”
Still, ironing out the format and narrowing down its two potential playoff host cities to a list of 10 represents significant progress since global sports were largely shut down in March as the coronavirus outbreak turned into a pandemic. Play could resume in late July or early August, with the Stanley Cup Final in September or even later.
“Realistically if we’re in training camp mid-July, that would be a good thing, and if we can be playing by the end of July or the beginning of August, that would be a good thing too,” Bettman said. “But if it has to slide more, then it’ll slide. There’s a reason that we’re not giving you dates now because anybody who gives you a date is guessing, and we think we’d rather take a more holistic approach to doing this.”
Groups of 12 teams representing each of the two conferences will be limited to playing in two cities, yet to be determined, with threeweek training camps opening no earlier than July 1. Voluntary workouts could begin in early June.
“We hope this is a step back toward normalcy,” Bettman said. “We think we’ve been able to work very collaboratively with the Players’ Association and the players to come up with a framework that is fair and has integrity and should result in a terrific, competitive playoffs and the awarding of the best trophy in all of sports.”
Earlier this week, the league and NHLPA issued extensive protocols once players are allowed to return to their facilities. They include a maximum of six players on the ice at a time, no contact and no coaches for voluntary workouts.
Teams will be responsible for testing during those workouts and training camp, with the league taking over when games begin. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said players would be tested for
COVID-19 daily.
Instead of limiting the Cup chase to the usual 16 teams that qualify for the playoffs, the league and players agreed to expand the field to 24 of its
31 teams because of the unusual circumstances.
This means the likes of the Montreal Canadiens are still alive despite being nine points out of a playoff spot when hockey was halted March 12. But not all teams will have the same path to hockey’s storied trophy.
The top four teams in each conference ranked by points percentage — Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and the Flyers in the East and St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in the West — will play separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding.
All games will be played without fans.
Games are expected to be played in two hub cities and Bettman said 10 are in the running: Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis/St. Paul in the U.S. and Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. The Canadian government’s mandatory 14day quarantine could force the NHL to pick two U.S. locales.
NEW YORK » A rookie at the major league minimum would make a higher percentage of his salary than multimillionaire stars like Mike Trout or Gerrit Cole under a six-tier, sliding-scale proposal by big league teams that players found “extremely disappointing.”
Major League Baseball made the proposal to the players’ union on Tuesday during a digital meeting rather than the 50-50 revenue-sharing plan that owners initially approved for their negotiators on May 11, two people familiar with the plan told The Associated Press. The people spoke on condition of anonymity.
In addition, the union said “the sides also remain far apart on health and safety protocols” aimed at starting the pandemic-delayed season around the Fourth of July.
“We made a proposal to the union that is completely consistent with the economic realities facing our sport,” MLB said in a statement. “We look forward to a responsive proposal from the MLBPA.”
The revenue-sharing plan earlier this month was met with immediate hostility from the union the day owners gave their negotiators the go-ahead. That plan was not presented to players when talks began the following day.
During that session, MLB gave the union a presentation claiming billions of dollars of anticipated losses and held off making a proposal for two weeks.
Salaries in the major leagues range from $563,500 at the minimum to $36 million each for Trout, the three-time MVP outfielder on the Los Angeles Angels, and Cole, the pitcher signed by the New York Yankees as a free agent this offseason.
According to a study by the AP, 369 of 899 players have salaries of $600,000 or less, according to the rosters frozen in March.
Under MLB’s proposal, the playoffs would expand from 10 teams to 14 and players would receive more money if the postseason is played. Usually, salaries are earned during the regular season only and players receive money from the postseason pool, a maximum of about $382,000 last year for a full share on World Series champion Washington.
Players agreed March 26 to a deal in which they would receive prorated shares of their salaries based on what percentage of each team’s 162-game schedule is played. In exchange, players were guaranteed that if no games are played they would receive service time for 2020 matching what they accrued in 2019.
MLB told the union on May 12 it hoped to play a season with an 82-game schedule that would have teams play 13 games against each division rival and six against every club in the corresponding division in the other league: AL East vs. NL East, for example.
Several governors have said teams are welcome to play in their regular-season ballparks but without fans due to the new coronavirus and mandates for social distancing. MLB told the union during the May 12 presentation if teams paid players prorated salaries the clubs would combine to have negative $3.58 billion earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Players were scheduled to earn about $4 billion in salary this year. Many players and union leadership have said the March 26 agreement would stand and no additional salary should be given up. Tampa Bay Rays AllStar pitcher Blake Snell , the 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner, said he would not take the mound this year if his pay is cut further, proclaiming: “I’m not playing unless I get mine.”
Teams are worried about being at risk if a second wave of the virus causes cancellation of the postseason, which results in MLB receiving $787 million in broadcast revenue this year.