On Wednesday, league negotiators reportedly cut short a bargaining session and canceled a meeting set for the next day. In a Thursday conference call with the league’s owners, the move was characterized as “normal,” according to Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal.
“These kinds of things -- ups and downs, bad sessions and good ones, are an inevitable part of a messy process,” a management source told Kaplan. “It is like watching the sausage being made. It is ‘normal’ in that sense.”
Fine, but dinner is due to be served in three weeks, and the two sides haven’t been able to agree on the method for killing the pig.
Look at it this way. If the league wasn’t able to get enough seats in place in time for Super Bowl XLV, the changes of getting the labor deal worked out by March 4 currently stand at somewhere between slim and none.
At least the league seemed to be trying to get the seats in place on Sunday. With Thursday’s meeting scuttled and, as far as anyone can tell, no other talks scheduled, precious time is being wasted, and we’re becoming more convinced that each side believes a better deal can be done after a lockout commences.