NHL: Owners' offer shows 'movement'

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday league owners have made a second collective bargaining proposal that features "meaningful movement." The commissioner said the offer -- which comes two weeks after the NHL Players Association made a counterproposal to the owners' initial offer of July 13 -- features the owners' reaction to its provisions, ESPN reported. "It is a proposal we believe is significant and has meaningful movement," the commissioner said. "It was also designed to address issues that they raised with us and to address the proposal they last made to us in terms of structure and format." The owners' first proposal called for a cut in the players' share of hockey-related revenues from 57 percent to 46 percent per year and a series of other concessions. The NHLPA responded with a counteroffer that accepted a cut in hockey-related revenues but called for more local revenue-sharing between wealthy clubs and franchises in financial trouble. Bettman said this month the league will lock out the players if no new deal is reached by Sept. 15, when the current labor deal expires. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr told reported players would study the proposal Tuesday night and reconvene Wednesday.