While being interviewed by Dave Hodge on TSN, Gary Bettman said that a new CBA structure was needed to fix all the league's problems which "are obvious to everyone" claiming that 76% of the league's gross revenues go to the players. He claimed that the biggest problem right now in discussions is that the PA doesn't want to discuss how much of a share the players should get.

I don't doubt that the players don't want to discuss a percentage of the revenues. How can they believe someone who twice during the interview brought up affordable ticket prices as a goal of the new collective bargaining agreement? Anyone who's taken an economics course at university should understand that the CBA has nothing to do with ticket prices. Ticket prices are dictated by what the owners think can bring them in the most money. That is all based upon consumer demand. Smart businesses don't project revenues to cover expenses - they project revenues to be maximized.

If Gary Bettman can make baldfaced lies on national television, why should the PA believe anything else he has to say? How can they? The only way they see they get their fair share is through a system that allows teams to spend whatever they can afford to spend. They don't want to negotiate a share of the gross revenues because who knows how accurate those figures are. It's like negotiating with a car saleman. What he tells you the dealership paid for the car and what they actually paid for it could be two totally different things.

Some people are going to say that all the two sides need to do is get an accounting firm to do an independent audit of the books. I got three words for that. Arthur, Anderson and Enron.