Idoit40fans wrote:Everyone realizes that the players need to give up money...including the players. Its easy to side with the players because they have agreed to the loss of their share moving forward. They have agreed to restrictions on their contracts moving forward. They are losing and the league is gaining. They agree on the money, players are trying to mitigate losses to contract rights they have. Rights that have nothig to do with year to year dollars.
The thing that Daly and Bettman articulated was that the money and the contracting rights and everything was all part of one big package. It's not something where they can negotiate make whole dollars, then when that settles negotiate contract length, then when that settles negotiate escrow and compliance buyouts, then when that settles negotiate CBA length.
It's "OK we will give you 300 million dollars above your 50/50 share (effectively making it 55/45 for the first year - which wrongly assumes no financial hit), but you've got to give us our 3 three key points."
So the union might say they agree on the money, but the money doesn't exist as its own entity, but rather a part of the package.