I see your point, rumby, but there's also just the emotional/psychological component of the negotiation process. The DT camp probably wants to stay as low-key as possible for as long as possible so that something isn't publicly said or done that changes the negotiation dynamic on the other side. I'm grossly oversimplifying things here, but let's say they have to negotiate points A, B, C, D, and E to finalize everything with Mike. B ends up being a really difficult issue that takes a long-time to hammer out, but after some time has passed, both sides calm way down concede enough to reach a tentative agreement on B. Then they move on to C. Then D. Then before they get that last issue wrapped up, they announce the drummer, and some stuff is said that makes Mike mad. Then he says some stuff that makes the DT camp mad. Then the deal gets hung up. Then somebody says, "yeah, well given what's going on, this changes everything, and I'm not happy about B anymore, so that's off." And then you're just back to square one. Again, that's a gross oversimplification, but that's the kind of thing that happens all the time.