A good mediator will be saying those types of things privately to both sides. But yeah there's no benefit to doing it publicly. Or, as it turns out, privately. Apparently. The owners want to crush the players again and are taking the cynical, but probably accurate, view that they can afford to lose the season. [expletive] some of them barely make any money or lose money anyway. Make no mistake, at this point it is crystal clear it is the owners holding this thing up. Nearly all the movement has come from the players. Problem is they hired Fehr to strengthen the union and avoid a repeat of 2004. But it's out of his hands.