ECHL season will open on time

The ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players Association agreed in principle to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement on Tuesday, ending four months of negotiations and a five-week long players' strike.

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With training camps set to open later this week, and the season opener less than three weeks away, ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna and PHPA executive director Larry Landon emerged Tuesday with a new deal after the two met for five straight days at the bargaining table.

The agreement ensures the 2003-04 ECHL season will open on time Oct. 17.

With the PHPA on strike, ECHL teams had been preparing to open the season with makeshift rosters of only American-born players.

ECHL teams would not have been allowed to sign Canadians or any non-U.S. born players to comply with American labor laws. The National Labor Relations Board prohibits U.S. companies with union employees on strike from petitioning foreign employees to enter the country.

"Except for crossing the T's and dotting the I's, it's a done deal," Landon said.

Details on the new CBA were not immediately available.

McKenna is expected to announce the agreement on a new CBA at 6 p.m. Tuesday, when he conducts a conference call with the media.

--From the Tuesday, September 30, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle