I think the fall out from the last minute CBA talks will be something likee

1. An agreement to run 2011 under the same situtation

Neither side wants to be the guy to stop a deal getting done nor escalate things to the next level.

2. An agreement to work with the mediator to get a deal for 2012 with a fixed deadline.

There may be an agreement in principle for several of the issues (or close enough there is something to work from), but it is going to take time to work out all the details in a meaningful way.

I could see something like that as well. Although I think we can agree they have had plenty of time already. This should have been resolved months ago.

Pizan wrote:I could see something like that as well. Although I think we can agree they have had plenty of time already. This should have been resolved months ago.

True, but both sides just prepared contigency plans and left it until the last minute.

At least both sides are talking (and the mediators help), which a couple of weeks ago looked like a long shot.

I think it is important that the leading antagonists from both sides have been sidelined to some extent.

I am hopefull Mara will really help develop some solution.

Both sides broke negotiations early today before continuing tomorrow. Both sides have been very positive about the progress of the talks.

whats the bet this break is to allow each side to update their stakeholders with whats been happening and to get there buy in for whatever course of action is going.

I am still picking an an extension of the current agreement for 2011 (ie an uncapped year) to keep football happening with an "in principle" agreement in place whilst talks continue with mediation to have a new CBA in place for 2012 by a fixed date (maybe 1 June)