How to get a deal.

TORONTO (Ont.); NEW York (N.Y.); NEW York (State); MONTREAL (Quebec); QUEBEC (Province); CANADA; UNITED States

The article focuses on NHL lockout and offers an eight-step plan for negotiations. The NHL lockout will be inconvenient for TV networks and radio stations, and fans will miss their game. But the real casualties of this bitter standoff are thousands of team and arena staff in 30 North American cities whose jobs disappeared last week when the league locked out its players. Among them are 50 per cent of the NHL's office employees in Montreal, Toronto and New York--administration personnel, salespeople, the folks who don't get rich off the game--who were told back in July that they'd be terminated as of Sept. 20 if a deal didn't get done. This isn't like the 1994 lockout when people were kept on in hopes a deal would get done. There is no deal that's close to completion here. This isn't a negotiation. It's a war of attrition. The opportunity for compromise passed more than a year ago, leaving a philosophical divide between players and owners that can only be bridged if one side caves. Don't hold your breath -- there were no talks planned for the days before and after the Sept. 15 deadline because both sides had their positions pretty much etched in stone eons ago. The NHL says its business can only be saved by major restructuring because payrolls eat up three-quarters of all revenues. Players association boss Bob Goodenow, who blames league losses more on mismanagement than on salaries being driven higher by a free market, vows he'll never agree to a cap.