After three hours of talks, owners of the 30 NHL teams formally rejected a proposal put forward by the players here last week, and had a counter offer turned down, reports lycos.co.uk
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said no new collective bargaining sessions were scheduled and it was up to the players to decide whether they wanted to talk again.
But he praised the players' offer last week of a 24 per cent rollback in salaries, made in a bid to stem huge losses sustained by many teams.
Teams in the United States and Canada are adamant on the need to tie player costs to revenues to achieve “cost certainty”.
But the NHLPA, under top representative Bob Goodenow, is sworn against such a system, suggesting divisions cannot be resolved before next month, the cutoff date for a meaningful season.
The players' proposal included a scheme for a luxury tax to limit salaries and to redistribute revenues to cash-strapped teams, but owners have ruled out the idea.
In its latest proposal, the league proposed a cap of player costs set at a maximum of 54 per cent of league revenues.
