Reuters: Sports News: Hockey League, players make progress on non-core issues

Reuters: Sports News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Hockey League, players make progress on non-core issues Sep 28th 2012, 23:49 Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:49pm EDT (Reuters) - The National Hockey League (NHL) and union representing its locked-out players reached agreement on drug testing and player safety on Friday but did not address the core economic issues standing in the way of a new labor deal. "We're taking baby steps right now." Mathieu Schneider, a special assistant to the NHL Players Association's executive director, told reporters in New York. "We are not really discussing anything that has to do with the core economics," he said. The NHL locked out its players on September 16 when the previous labor deal expired with the two sides at odds over how to divide a $3.3 billion revenue pie. The lockout, which is the NHL's fourth work stoppage in 20 years, has already forced the league to cancel its entire preseason schedule. Regular season play is scheduled to start October 11 if a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached in time. More meetings are planned for Saturday and Sunday. "We like to say nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, but we've certainly made some headway," Schneider said. "A lot of it was done previous to this morning." One item discussed was increasing drug testing during the playoffs and offseason. Schneider said neither the league nor the players believed the use of performance-enhancing drugs was a problem in the NHL. But he added, "It's in the players' best interest as well as the sport to close off any possible time during the year where players could use." (Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Frank Pingue) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions