Page 6 of Here Be Dragons
"Why didn't you adopt these concussion protocols that the players suggested?" she asked. "They seem pretty reasonable."
"They cost too much," George said with a shrug.
"They don't cost that much," Ava said. "Accepting them would help get the negotiation process back on track."
George just gave her a bored look and crossed his arms over his chest. He was here on behalf of Jason Stewart, who owned the Bay City Bears. Jack knew him when the two were working on building their tech companies out west, and Ava's brother never had anything good to say about the guy. He was talented, Jack said, but his talent didn't cover the fact that the guy was a total jerk that no one ever wanted to be around. The only reason his company had become a success was because he found people that were dedicated to making video games and didn't mind getting pushed around to make it happen.
Ava hadn't met any of these lawyers before she walked in the door today, but she was sizing them up pretty quickly. Bill was a pushover, Joe was a neutral observer from the league to keep an eye on things, Neil was trying to interject when he could but wasn't making any progress yet. Ava thought he looked relieved that there would be someone else on his side in the owners' room, even if he was representing Chicago's owners. They were a major rival of Detroit's, like Cleveland, but they were tenuous allies in this room.
And they were all up against George. Ava had seen this type of lawyer before. She affectionately called them "Negative Normans" -- not to their face of course. But she had crossed paths with a few of them over the years. They didn't really want the merger to happen or were trying to stall or wanted to get a deal that would only help them at the cost of alienating everyone else. But hey, as long as they got their deal, who cared about everyone else? George was definitely the Negative Norman in this room.
"Can we look at the costs of health care for a moment?" Ava asked. "I know it's not as much of an issue for Canadian teams, but that's why I think the proposal to put money in a fund for all the players may be a good idea."
"Too expensive," George said dismissively.
"It's not that expensive when you consider that the players are asking for preventative care to be covered," she explained. "That can mean fewer days lost to injury, which is a good thing for every team."
"We went over this, Ava. It costs money."
Ava put her hands down over the papers in front of her, leaning forward so she could stare down at the idiot across the table. She watched as George squirmed a little bit in his seat. She loved it when she got under the skin of some dumb old lawyer who underestimated her.
"George, a hockey team costs money," she said with only a bit of condescension. "Did Jason not realize that when he bought the Bears?"
The lawyer stared at her for a moment. Then he puffed out his chest and tried to sound like a tough guy without much success. "He is well aware," he said with a sneer. "Perhaps you would understand that if you had been here while I tried to work on a deal."
"You tried to work on a deal?" she asked sarcastically.
He sat up a little straighter. "Yes, I did."
Ava stared at him a bit more, just enough to make him squirm again, before she leaned back in her chair and looked around at the other lawyers in the room.
"And yet in the three weeks that all of you have been here in the Hamptons, nothing has been accomplished," she said. "The players union has sent you proposals and you haven't even sent one counter proposal back."
Bill and Joe couldn't make eye contact with her. Neil had a bit of a smile on his face like he finally had someone else on his side, but that didn't change the fact that he wasn't standing up to support her. A few of the other lawyers in there just looked at each other, hoping one of them would encourage someone else to speak up since none of them were going to do it themselves. Ava had seen this before. A bunch of blustering old men with no real courage to do anything except tell their clients how much their hourly rate was. Her hourly rate was just as high if not higher, and she had a brother who had no problem paying her what she was worth. But as a real lawyer, as opposed to these idiots, she actually tried to justify her paycheck.
"So I just want to make sure I understand." She started looking around the room at all the lawyers who wouldn't look back. "None of you have spoken up or debated this or did anything to get the season back on track because you've all be sitting her letting George lead you around by your dicks?"
A few of the lawyers finally looked at her with disdain. Neil was smirking from his seat at he gave a sideways glance to George, who was turning red.
"That's a rather unfair assessment from an interloper who just walked in the door," George said with a bit of anger dripping from his voice.
"Really?" she asked. "What were you going to do today if I didn't walk in the door? Were you actually going to negotiate anything or just sit around shitting on every single plan the players sent over?"
Ah, yes. She recognized that sound. The quiet shock and horror of a bunch of stodgy old men who just heard a young woman in a professional outfit swear in front of them. Was it lady-like to swear? Probably not. But it got the job done when Ava had to put a bunch of lawyers in line.
She grabbed her Mont Blanc pen and leaned forward again, staring George down on the other side of the table. "Now, are we actually going to work on a deal today or not? Because I think we owe it to the owners to get our jobs done so the season can start again."
George scowled while she could hear some of the other lawyers flipping through papers and one coughed nervously.
"Where do you think we should start?" Neil asked.
She turned to see him eagerly looking at her. He seemed to finally be breaking out of his haze after probably being beaten down day after day by George. Maybe he was going to be the ally she needed after all.
"Well, I think the concussion protocol issues should be the easiest to work on, don't you?"
Neil gave her a warm smile. "I think that's a great plan, Ava. Let's get started."
* * *
