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BY BRIAN MURPHY
Pioneer Press
With time and hope running out for the NHL to settle its labor crisis, the Wild and their parent company are bracing for the first wave of lockout-related layoffs and pay cuts.
Three percent of Minnesota Sports and Entertainment's 225 full-time employees will lose their jobs, and salaries will be slashed across the board unless the league and the players association strike a deal before the collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, chief financial officer Pam Wheelock said Thursday.
Wheelock declined to quantify the reductions or identify those targeted for layoffs. But about a half-dozen entry-level and low-level workers are expected be cut from the hockey operations department, which could be devastated by a long work stoppage.
Three company sources said the vast majority of employees would take pay cuts of 10 percent, including the Wild's coaches and trainers. Supervisors gave notice to employees beginning Wednesday. The cutbacks would go into effect by Sept. 27, the first payday after the lockout deadline.
"This is going to be an extremely challenging time for our employees, and we were sensitive about communicating these changes to our employees as quickly as possible," Wheelock said.
In the past four months, at least 10 teams have issued layoff notices and slashed payrolls. The Wild's announcement, in essence, was a grim reality check for an organization that had held the line on cutting costs while preaching a business-as-usual mantra heading into its fifth season.
It could have been worse.
The NHL has issued layoff notices to 60 percent of its full-time workers at offices in New York, Toronto and Montreal. Carolina fired 15 percent of its staff three days after the season ended. And the Maple Leafs plan to cut salaries 25 percent if a lockout stretches into January, according to reports.
The league and union are nowhere near an agreement on a new economic model for the financially troubled sport. Many hockey insiders predict that a lockout could wipe out half or all of this season and drag into 2005-06.
"This should get us through unless (a lockout) becomes extended," Wheelock said. "We will re-evaluate as the league gives us more direction and we get closer to the end of the calendar year."
MSE manages the Wild, the Xcel Energy Center and the RiverCentre convention hall. With professional lacrosse plus a full slate of concerts and other events booked into both venues, the marketing and corporate relations departments have enough work — for now.
But without the Wild's training camp and 41 home games, the hockey operations department would start gathering dust, forcing a shift of responsibilities for some workers.
"Across the company, people are going to have to pitch in and do things that might be different from what they're now doing day to day," Wheelock said.
Bill Robertson, vice president of communications, said the arena could be used to hold open skates for season-ticket holders, youth hockey tournaments and town-hall style gatherings with team executives — anything to validate the $7.7 million rent the team pays each year to St. Paul.
Coach Jacques Lemaire and his assistants, Mario Tremblay and Mike Ramsey, might play host to instructional clinics to keep busy.
Ramsey said he is preparing for training camp as usual. Tremblay said he would work at his restaurant in northern Quebec. Lemaire is the optimist among the bunch.
"I don't see a lockout. Never did," Lemaire said. "I think the players realize more the owners' situation. I have in mind that I'm going to work."
Pioneer Press
With time and hope running out for the NHL to settle its labor crisis, the Wild and their parent company are bracing for the first wave of lockout-related layoffs and pay cuts.
Three percent of Minnesota Sports and Entertainment's 225 full-time employees will lose their jobs, and salaries will be slashed across the board unless the league and the players association strike a deal before the collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, chief financial officer Pam Wheelock said Thursday.
Wheelock declined to quantify the reductions or identify those targeted for layoffs. But about a half-dozen entry-level and low-level workers are expected be cut from the hockey operations department, which could be devastated by a long work stoppage.
Three company sources said the vast majority of employees would take pay cuts of 10 percent, including the Wild's coaches and trainers. Supervisors gave notice to employees beginning Wednesday. The cutbacks would go into effect by Sept. 27, the first payday after the lockout deadline.
"This is going to be an extremely challenging time for our employees, and we were sensitive about communicating these changes to our employees as quickly as possible," Wheelock said.
In the past four months, at least 10 teams have issued layoff notices and slashed payrolls. The Wild's announcement, in essence, was a grim reality check for an organization that had held the line on cutting costs while preaching a business-as-usual mantra heading into its fifth season.
It could have been worse.
The NHL has issued layoff notices to 60 percent of its full-time workers at offices in New York, Toronto and Montreal. Carolina fired 15 percent of its staff three days after the season ended. And the Maple Leafs plan to cut salaries 25 percent if a lockout stretches into January, according to reports.
The league and union are nowhere near an agreement on a new economic model for the financially troubled sport. Many hockey insiders predict that a lockout could wipe out half or all of this season and drag into 2005-06.
"This should get us through unless (a lockout) becomes extended," Wheelock said. "We will re-evaluate as the league gives us more direction and we get closer to the end of the calendar year."
MSE manages the Wild, the Xcel Energy Center and the RiverCentre convention hall. With professional lacrosse plus a full slate of concerts and other events booked into both venues, the marketing and corporate relations departments have enough work — for now.
But without the Wild's training camp and 41 home games, the hockey operations department would start gathering dust, forcing a shift of responsibilities for some workers.
"Across the company, people are going to have to pitch in and do things that might be different from what they're now doing day to day," Wheelock said.
Bill Robertson, vice president of communications, said the arena could be used to hold open skates for season-ticket holders, youth hockey tournaments and town-hall style gatherings with team executives — anything to validate the $7.7 million rent the team pays each year to St. Paul.
Coach Jacques Lemaire and his assistants, Mario Tremblay and Mike Ramsey, might play host to instructional clinics to keep busy.
Ramsey said he is preparing for training camp as usual. Tremblay said he would work at his restaurant in northern Quebec. Lemaire is the optimist among the bunch.
"I don't see a lockout. Never did," Lemaire said. "I think the players realize more the owners' situation. I have in mind that I'm going to work."
