Donald Fehr
Donald Fehr
Donald Martin Fehr is the executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. He became nationally prominent while serving as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1985 to 2009...
absolutely baseball based central charge club condition country decision determines economic management players recent ticket web
Players have absolutely nothing to do with ticket prices. We had nothing to do with the recent decision to charge for Web broadcasts. These are management decisions, which management makes based on what each club or central baseball determines is the economic condition of the country and each market.
agreement both evident failure far given interests reach shared thus
Given our shared interests and the association's evident willingness to compromise, our failure thus far to reach a comprehensive new agreement is both frustrating and disappointing.
understand
I don't understand one thing. It's traditional in this country, when someone is accused, to let him tell his story to an independent body.
expect gets hard paid
I expect it to be pretty hard bargaining. That's the way it always is. That's what we get paid for. That's what the commissioner (Bud Selig) gets paid for.
agreement baseball beer central contract dog funds hard hot improve money national parking payroll performance quality receive revenue says sell sharing teams television ticket
There are teams that receive more money from central baseball -- between the national television contract and revenue sharing -- than what their payroll is. That's before they sell a ticket or a hot dog or a beer or a parking space. There's a provision in the agreement that says revenue-sharing funds are to be used to improve the quality of a team's performance on the field, so we'll have to take a hard look at that.
record track
We have some track record of working things out ...
agreement coming internal issues meetings relevant specifics talk
We never talk about specifics of internal meetings. We have an agreement coming up and we talk about issues relevant to preparation for that. We keep our internal meetings confidential.
business far last people prediction suggest
We were able to get it done the last time, but having said that, I am so far out of the prediction business and have been for 10 or 12 years that I don't want to suggest I know things that other people don't because I just don't.
increased revenue
I don't see a need for increased revenue sharing.
expect financial hear heard kinds past widespread
I do not expect to hear some of the kinds of things that sometimes we've heard in the past about widespread financial distress. We'll see. It's not up to me.
clubs comments deal distressed economic equivalent fiscal hear landscape point surprised virtually
The fiscal and economic landscape is not at this point equivalent to what it was in 2001 and '02. And obviously, when you go into bargaining, you deal with what is, not with what used to be. The clubs have made a lot of comments in virtually all of our negotiations about distressed economic conditions. I will be very surprised if we hear very much of that this time.
bad good hopefully issues lead people relationship relationships
All of the years when people said the relationship was bad, it never was as bad as they said. Now when people say it?s wonderful, it?s not as good as everyone says. There are issues that are in need of working out in a businesslike manner. Hopefully it will lead to harmonious bargaining, but you just can?t tell.
activity certain far respects seen
The kind of activity we've seen so far in certain respects is encouraging.
ability economics happens industry last predict
The economics of the industry are good. But my ability to predict what happens in negotiations over the last 25 years has not been good.