A group of APSE sports editors met in April in New York with commissioners from the four major sports leagues, plus the NHL and Major League Baseball players associations, NASCAR, U.S. Track and Field and the United States Olympic Committee. Here's what they had to say.

If there has been an uncommon sense of urgency to this season's Stanley Cup playoffs, it's being fueled by the widespread perception that the tournament is the last NHL competition that will be available to hockey fans for a while.

The collective bargaining agreement between NHL owners and the Players Association expires on Sept. 15, 2004, and the two sides are so far apart on the core issue of "cost certainty" — the NHL's euphmism for a salary cap — that a lengthy work stoppage is considered inevitable.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman attempted to dispel that gloomy scenario in an April 23 meeting with APSE sports editors at the NHL offices in New York. Bettman insisted that a new agreement could be reached once the two sides "agreed on a number" — a number significantly below the reported 73 percent of league revenues currently devoted to player compensation.

"We can't continue as we are," Bettman said.

The Players Union has been equally adamant in rejecting a salary cap in any form.

Bettman urged the editors to read the Levitt Report, an NHL-commissioned financial study by Arthur Levitt Jr. that showed NHL teams losing $273 million in the 2002-03 season.

"The numbers don't lie — it's right there in black and white," Bettman said. "That's documented evidence from one of the most reputable firms in the country."

Bettman confirmed a Players Association assertion that owners had accumulated a "war chest" to help less well-funded teams cope with a work stoppage, but said the emergency fund was no different in principle from players attempting to line up jobs overseas to maintain an income if the NHL sits idle.

Bettman said there was plenty of time to make a deal ahead of the CBA's Sept. 15 expiration date, and that relations were cordial between his staff and Players Association President Bob Goodenow.

Bettman and Goodenow met briefly two weeks after Bettman's editors' briefing. Press reports described the meeting as inconsequential.

— Dan McGrath
Chicago Tribune