The owner of the Eagle Street Grille in downtown St. Paul across from the Xcel Energy Center – home to the Minnesota Wild – has laid off two-thirds of his staff because of the National Hockey League lockout, the Pioneer Press reports.
Tavern owner Joe Kasel posted a copy of a letter he sent to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL players negotiator Donald Fehr on the bar’s Facebook page.
Game nights account for more than 50 percent of gross annual revenue, Kasel says in the letter. He’s among business owners in NHL cities nationwide who are suffering big profit losses due to the lockout.
Seventy-five days into a player lockout, the league and player negotiators are still far apart in their contract dispute, the Associated Press reported.
