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Bettman: “We need to be paying out less in player costs”

NHL Awards Show

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 22: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman speaks during the 2011 NHL Awards at The Pearl concert theater at the Palms Casino Resort June 22, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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The NHL owners won’t run the league for another year under the current agreement. They want a new CBA to replace the one that will expire on Sept. 15.

The owners have made their initial proposal and the players’ counteroffer is expected to be released Tuesday.

However, as NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr put it, there’s a “meaningful gulf” when it comes to revenue sharing.

“The biggest reason was, it seems to us that both overall and on a club-by-club basis, all of the revenue-sharing payments -- both the new ones and the existing ones -- would be paid for by player salary reductions,” Fehr said, according to an ESPN report.

Meanwhile, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that “we need to be paying out less in player costs.”

“That’s something that while revenue sharing has been an important part of the existing collective bargaining agreement, we intend to have it going forward in an enhanced way,” Bettman added. “Revenue sharing isn’t the key element. It’s an element that has to be dealt with, but the fundamental economics need to be dealt with first.”

The players’ union and league are expected to meet at least three times next week.