Negotiation and Bargaining taught by Prof. V. S. Veeravalli at Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai

1. NEGOTIATING ON THIN ICE- NHL DISPUTE A
FT201032
Disha Ghoshal
Barrier Analysis:
BARRIERS:
 Tension arose between NHL and the players due to the lack of transparency led to the
formation of a union.
 The NHLPA’s mistrust of the numbers presented by the team owners and the league
with respect to NHL's revenues and profitability
 They were also accused of manipulating information and just providing selective
information that increased the unrest
 Since the league and the union were not able to come to terms with the negotiations,
there was a lot of blame game.
 The mindset of the unions was that billionaire owners only care about revenues and
not about hockey created bitterness.
 The attrition caused by the mistrust led to a lot of good players being sieved out and
as a result the game itself lost meaning for a lot of fans.
 Bettman and Goodenow were at the helm of the situation but did not budge due to an
ego clash.
SOLUTIONS:
 There is a severe lack of transparency between the union and the owners and the
problem was that they did not trust the financials let out by the team owners.
The information about the finances should be accessible to everyone so that there is
no scope of any mistrust.
 Re-establishing the trust is the key to make sure that the league happens as usual and
they must avoid the loss in revenue for everyone including team owners , veteran
players and rookie players who would’ve been looking to play their first league games
 This is possible only when the owners take full accountability of the situation and
become fully transparent about their funds.
 In a nutshell, Bettman and Goodenow who are leading the negotiations to make NHL
happen, should make sure that they leave no stone unturned to come to a middle
ground so that they come to an amicable conclusion that is effective to both parties.