Lockout | featured news

NHL hockey is finally back, and this time it's official. Nearly one week after a tentative labor deal was agreed to by the league and its players, the sides agreed to a required memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Saturday night that truly makes the lockout a thing of the past.

The National Hockey League and NHL Players' Assn. reached tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement early Sunday morning, opening the way for training camps to open later this week after both sides put on paper and ratify the terms of the complex agreement.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before — following another round of failed CBA negotiations, the NHL has canceled a slate of games and a marquee league event. This time, it’s all contests from Dec. 1-14 and the 2013 All-Star Game, which was to be played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Jan. 27.

The 48-day-old NHL lockout took on a more ominous tone Friday when the league officially canceled the Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game that was expected to draw more than 114,000 fans to Ann Arbor's Michigan Stadium to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Detroit Red Wings.

The NHL and NHLPA are scheduled to meet in New York Friday to discuss non-core economic issues marking the first time the two sides will hold a formal bargaining session since Sept. 12. With no indication that a new collective bargaining agreement is imminent, though, the NHL has canceled all remaining preseason games.

The N.F.L. and the referees’ union are close to reaching an agreement to end the lockout, but a remaining issue is how quickly the regular N.F.L. referees can return to work.

The good news is that there’s a tangible sign of progress between the NFL and the locked-out officials. The bad news is it’s progress on a lesser issue, while the major issue between the two sides is no closer to being resolved.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that the owners have voted to
approve a lockout Thursday if a new collective bargaining agreement
is not reached before Saturday's midnight deadline, according to
the Toronto Sun.

The Three Stooges is a passion project for Peter and Bobby Farrelly and in order to get it made, they essentially worked for free. Any compensation they will receive will have come from a backend deal, and depending on how that is structured, it's possible for them to see little to no money.

David Stern was meeting with NBA owners in Dallas when he got word of how things went at a gathering of NBA players in Las Vegas....