So the NHL season has been officially cancelled. The last offer was with a salary cap of $42.5 million by the owners and $49 million by the NHLPA. So what do you think about it?
So the NHL season has been officially cancelled. The last offer was with a salary cap of $42.5 million by the owners and $49 million by the NHLPA. So what do you think about it?
I think both sides are morons. NHL hockey has seen decling viewership, game attendence and game related revenues for a few years (correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe I am). This has obviously put pressure on the owners and their response was a reasonable one, price caps, however they played their hand very poorly. For equally obvious reasons players want to avoid price caps but again they negociated poorly.
Both sides will see a massive loss in profits this year, the players will recieve no pay for the lost season, something few if any of them would likely make up over the course of their career should prices caps never be implemented. The owners will likely lose money this year on things like facilities fees and manitence and may be required to repay money to the networks (don't know what those contracts are like), it would take a very long time indeed for the money saved with price caps to have ballanced the money lost this year.
IMHO of greater concern for both sides is the potential loss of general sports fan interest and worse still the alienation of the die hard hockey fans (the ones who keep TV viewership up). There is the possibility that should NHL hockey return next year that any salery caps implemented won't make up for general loss in revenues due to fan disinterest.
Final analysis: players=dumb; owners=dumb
How about the sub strata that derived a living from professional hockey. The poor guy who owns the pizza shop across the street from the venues etc, the vendors, the local businesses who just had to sit by and go down the tubes. What a needless shame. A pox on both their houses.
"Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
Lord Byron
Take a photo tour of Cape Cod and the Islands!
www.capecodphotoalbum.com
The Owners are losing less by not having a season than by having a season in many cases.
Gary Bettman has hurt the sport especially with expansion. The game needs a revamp, but even if they were doing great we were still heading towards a slippery slope. Ticket prices are too high, expenses are exceeding revenues and we know that player salary inflation is growing at an incredible rate. Something needed to be done to stop the inflation before it got to MLB status.
However, the NHLPA made it very clear that there is no way in hell that there will be a salary cap.
Sure the owners pay the salaries, but even if you get 25 owners to keep the salaries down you get five that will pay $10 million to a second line centre. If 30 owners get together then the NHLPA will take them to court for collusion.
The agents cannot keep it down either, because if one agent claims that he can get a player $6 million another agent will tell him $8 million.
The NHL needed a salary cap. Sure they need a new president and sure they needed rule changes, and sure it was the owners fault for the escalding salaries, but that does not change the fact that the NHL needed a salary cap.
As for the decision to end the season. I was not concerned with reaching an agreement to save the season. There is less than two months is the season, and a 24 game schedule is ridiculous. I was concerned about reaching a deal for September, because I doubt the NHL and NHLPA will meet before September.
and...Originally Posted by coda
players=greedy; owners=greedy:finger: :angry:
players=poorer; owners=poorer:hammer:
I agree Harry, concessioneers, sports bars, parking attendants, ushers - all lose substancial income from the geed and selfishness of the players and owners.
But I still miss it.
With the Stanley Cup Championship season last year, Tampa was especially geared up for the 2004-5 season. Its unfortunate the players representatives couldn't work in better faith for their constituency.
As you can tell from the above, I side pretty much with the owners on this one. First, I don't see how the players expect some of the owners to continue to operate at a loss year after year. Until last year, the Lightning had never had a profitable season. Of course, the player's leadership has convinced the rank and file that the ownership is just blowing smoke (even though they've offered to have open auditing of the books). I think the fact that the owners haven't seemed overly concerned with the cancelling of the season shows that many of them are truly losing money.
Second, the NFL works with a salary cap, and the results have been good for the league. I mean, the owners should have more self-discipline, but they don't...
Finally, it seems to me the ownership was willing to be more flexible in the end than the players. Of course, perhaps this was all just a show for the benefit of the eventual arbitrator who will be determining this fiasco...
So, in the end, I offer a tsk-tsk to the players. The owners may be equally to blame for irreparably damaging the sport, but the team mascots don't age- unlike players. You just sat away a year of your career- how moronic. I mean, if you were being paid pittance wages with low benefits, I might understand. By and large, however, you are being paid over and above what the fair marketable value of your talents are (from an entertainment perspective).
Oh, and to the owners- get another commissioner!
Pete Hanlin, ABOM
Vice President Professional Services
Essilor of America
http://linkedin.com/in/pete-hanlin-72a3a74
I understand that many players have gone down to play in the minors, or to Europe to play in leagues over there. Most aren't sitting out as much as they are just taking a substantial pay cut.
Yeah, the players have dropped down to the farm system and Europe and took jobs away from the players there. If the NHL brings in replacement players the NHLPA will have a fit, yet they can go work somewhere else.
Also, what is it with profit being a dirty word. If I am going to spend $200 million on a team I deserve a return.
I went to the a Bruins game last season. It was the first time in about 8 years. The ticket was $94. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus the place was not even half full.
I put the blame on the players. Hockey is getting over priced.
JUST PLAY!
Exactly. The players claim that the owners are making too much money, but to pay the players the owners have had to drastically increase ticket prices. It is just pathetic. The worst thing is watch interviews with these players and they have no idea what is happening or anything.
What's Hockey?
Chip from Mississippi
Something you are really missing out on
Until I moved to Tampa, I was a member of the "what's hockey" club, too... Sure, I occasionally attended a Hershey Bear's game and I'd watch the Penguins on TV towards the end of the season, but I didn't really "get into" the game.
A couple years ago, I attended a few Lightning games and I was hooked. Being a local team, I could watch nearly all the games on TV (but hockey is a game you have to watch in person- I think this has been one of the problems with ratings).
Last year sealed the deal- I could name all the players and some of their histories. Plus, hockey on HDTV does work quite well (due to the wider angle, I think).
Then the player's representatives had to go and mislead them into thinking they were vastly underpaid. I mean, the owners are willing to give over half the team's revenues to the players- what more do they expect!?!
Pete Hanlin, ABOM
Vice President Professional Services
Essilor of America
http://linkedin.com/in/pete-hanlin-72a3a74
That's the reason I love hockey so much!
It's interesting that the players who are over in Europe are playing for significantly lower salaries than they get in the NHL. And they're happy just to be playing. Maybe they really know what a scam they had going over here.
They may. I think it is a pretty clear indication that the NHLPA is pretty out of touch with the rank and file. Shame.
Players don't want to play for the money the owners offer, get a real job. Owners whining they don't make enough money, sell the franchise, get a real job.
None of these people is likely to be on food stamps any time soon. Both sides are motivated by greed (don't get me started on how most of the venues are one way or another paid for by the sucker taxpayers) and are profoundly stupid: hockey doesn't have the reservoir of goodwill that baseball had to cushion its fall, nor the enormous popularity of football. Outside of a handful of markets, it's the "also ran" pro sport, really think this could be a blow from which pro hockey won't recover, given the eroding interest seen over the last few years. It's a shame really, I have been to a handful of hockey games and can see where it's a terrific sport, but always thought it suffered from poor translation from live to television, doesn't seem to lend itself as well as other sports.
Owners do not buy franchises to make huge profits. Sports teams really do not offer the best profits and offer a terrible return compared to other investments - even football. They buy the franchises because that is their dream. These owners are already extremely rich and have done it through real jobs, so most are happy to break even or loss a dollar here or there. However, the problem is now they are losing big money. Molson, which is Canada's biggest beer brewery and just merged with Coors, used to own the Montreal Canadiens, but they lost too much money and were forced to sell. Now no one wants to buy a hockey team.
I imagine there's a great deal of "vanity ownership" as you suggest. The problem it the "dream" of some owners isn't just to own a team, the "dream" is to own a team that consistently wins and therefore they will pay what the market will bear and drive players' salaries into the stratosphere. Then the same owners piously tsk tsk the players for their greed once the chicks come home to roost.
Well once the cost is too high, owners will bail and either players will see they have the goose/golden egg problem, or they won't.
And you are right. It is the owners fault for the high salaries and this is why a salary cap needs to be introduced, because if it isn't then you will always have a few bad apples killing the league. Just look at Major League Baseball as an example. It is disgusting to know that no teams outside of Atlanta, NY, LA, Boston, and Chicago will ever have a chance.
We also have to remember that these guys are franchises and while they are competing they are still working out of the shield of one big company and to push out the weak guys is not good in this situation.
Also, remember that the owners cannot collectively keep the salaries down, because that could be considered collusion, so they do need the players support.
It is the owners fault, but blaming them is not a solution.
I don't know how it is working in the other cities, but with Tampa, my $2,000.00 in season ticket money doesn't get refunded unless I demand it. They will hold it till the next season strats somewhere in 2010.
I just want to keep my foot in the door at the Ice Palace to get XO Club seats for the 2007 ACC Tournament!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"
Isn't that nice of them?
www.tsn.ca is reporting that people are working on a deal to have hockey in the spring. Names being mentioned are Wayne Gretzky (part owner and head of operations for the Phoenix Coyotes), Mario Lemeuix (Player/Owner for the Penguins), and a New York Ranger Executive.
I do not want a season right now. The season is cancelled and even if a deal was made Wednesday it was still too late. But if they can reach a deal now I think they should do something for the fans. Maybe a tournament or an exhibitions series. Also, I think they should do it for free. The fixed costs are already out there. Let the vendors charge and give something back to the fans.
I think it would be very smart on their part.
I've heard the same things on Philadelphia radio (Al Morganti is a local guy). He says there might be a press conference Monday, maybe a 22 game season with playoffs.
Let's face it: the hockey season has too many games and too many teams. A short season and then the playoffs would be like a tournament. I'm for it!
If what happened during the last baseball strike happens to hockey, I don't think it can survive.During the last baseball strike so many fans were turned off, they stopped watching.(Myself included)The only reason I started following baseball again was the sucess of the Red Sox these past 2 seasons. The greed on both sides (defined as putting your own interests ahead of the fans who pay you, or the good of the game which allows you to play a game for a living) has turned me off hockey.
"Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
Lord Byron
Take a photo tour of Cape Cod and the Islands!
www.capecodphotoalbum.com
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