Wayne Gretzky: “lockout Over By January 1″ (Courtesy Troy Parla)
Lockout Over By January Thinks Gretzky
The National Hockey League has so far canceled the first two weeks of the 2012-2013 regular season.
The lockout by owners is in reaction to the players’ demand for increased hockey related revenues.
Wayne Gretzky is certain the lockout will by over by January 1st, reports the Toronto Sun.
The NHL Hall of Fame player is hopeful that the current rift between the players’ and team owners is not as wide as in the past Gretzky is optimistic that the two can find some middle ground to strike an agreement.
“I think that in 2004 we were changing the whole landscape,” Gretzky told an audience during a personal finance conference on Monday. “Ownership wanted to have some sort of revenue sharing, and once we came to the revenue sharing, the hard part — from my point of view — seems to be out of the way.
“Now it’s a question of working out the number that both sides think is fair.”
Gretzky is guessing — and hoping — that an agreeable middle ground can be found in the next three months.
“I believe in my heart, maybe because I’m such a big hockey fan, that they will be playing by Jan. 1,” he said.
The NHL owners and NHL Players’ Association held talks for three straight days over the weekend and are expected back to the table on Tuesday. This is the second NHL owner’s lockout of players in the last eight years.
The 2004-2005 lockout was also about how to split hockey revenues. The rift was too wide between the sides and wiped out the entire season.
