from Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News,

Bettman and some owners may proclaim that a 50-50 split of revenues and other concessions from players in the current bargaining will secure the future of the league.

They are likely wrong, just like they were the last time.

Then, their bargaining tactics were almost precisely the same. Now, the results are likely to be comparable, leading to similarly tortuous circumstances when the new agreement expires.

That seems particularly likely if one of the main actors, Bettman, who is taking his league through a third disastrous lockout, is still in office.

"I think a big driver in this is the commissioner," said Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor relations and law at the University of Illinois, who has written extensively on work stoppages in the major sports leagues.

"He has repeatedly taken an intransigent, draw-a-line-in-the-sand stand. If Bettman is around, I find it hard to see them coming around to a peaceful solution."

At no point since last summer have Bettman, the owners and the players engaged in the sort of negotiating or planning that would provide the basis for something approaching rational bargaining the next time.

more