Anschutz leans toward . . . .

From Bob McKenzie at TSN.ca

4/13/2005

The concept of replacement players is a highly contentious issue -
that, we know for sure.


We also know that there's a group of owners out there led by Tom Hicks
in Dallas, Philip Anschutz in Los Angeles and Greg Jamison in San Jose
who want replacement players. They want any kind of players, so long
as they start hockey next fall.


These guys want that so much that they met in Dallas about a week ago
to talk about how they would market replacement player hockey and that
caused a bit of a stir.


We also know there are a large group of owners who want nothing to do
with replacement player hockey. They are philosophically, morally and
practically imposed to it. A lot of NHL general managers don't want
anything to do with it either but they may have to follow orders from
their owners if they absolutely have to.




The question is; where does NHL commissioner Gary Bettman come down on
all this?


Well, there's an executive committee meeting on Wednesday in New York
and I have no doubt this subject will come up. It will be up to
Bettman to chart the course coming out of Wednesday's board of
governors meeting and while everybody has assumed all the way along
that there would be hockey this fall with replacements if necessary,
it's now beginning to look as though a lot of people are opposed to
this.


It may well be that the NHL comes out and simply announces they would
do a deal with the NHLPA when they get the right deal and until they
do, there's not going to be any NHL hockey.


For TSN.ca, I'm Bob McKenzie.