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Originally Posted by NastiMarvasti
Yes, from a fans general POV that is true. But the fact of the matter is if parity was such a big concern I think you'd see more effort on the owners part (in ALL leagues not just the NHL) take care of it. The labor agreements really concern themselves more with team profit and player's salary issues...and frankly I don't think they really give a damn about what the fans think. That is...until the fans stop coming. which I don't see happening too soon.
jom
Interesting points being made in this thread.
- I, too, am one of those wondering what is going to happen to the popularity of the game given an extended lockout. Birdman - I share the same kind of feeling and I have about 5 or 6 other friends who feel the exact same way. We are all very devoated fans of our teams and we're all kind of struggling with this. I have seen a couple hockey guys (can't remember exactly who but it was of the LeBrun/Friedeman/McKenzie variety) speculate that fans are very annoyed. People understood how bad the system was 8 years ago but now they are having a much harder time understanding the issues. I think a prolonged lockout actually would have a bad result on fans.
- Some people are comparing the baseball system that Fehr instituted in baseball. Good points there. The one point also seeming to being lost in the middle of the Yankees talk, at least I think personally, is how there is really a burgeoning strong middle class there now. Don't forget that baseball, like hockey, is experience record revenues right now and its not exactly the most popular sport anymore. Yes, there are always those really high end top teams that spend, but now you are seeing a lot of teams in that 80-100 million payroll. Thats a big middle class. Those teams all have a few highly paid players on them as well. Yea.. maybe not as level of a playing field considering the Yankees can outspend, but there are a lot of teams in baseball now that have realistic chances every season to win. And a lot of teams that are really bad in baseball are going with the hockey model of almost being bad on purpose to accumulate picks... just like the Kings did. Some of these rebuidling teams (Nats, Reds, Orioles) will all be spending big money to keep their team together. The parallels are very similar to the Kings. I wonder if this is playing a part in anyones thinking.
- Finally.. curious of any of the big sponsors and/or NBC start exerting pressure. NBC has a lot of money invested there. I saw how the NHL is looking at possible record tv deals in Canada in 2 years. NHL IS starting to gain some traction. Good olympics. Winter Classic and 24/7 on HBO were very helpful. Wouldn't mind at all seeing some outside pressure exerted here....
Most of the hate for the Yankees is because they win so much (and can spend as much as they want to do it). Most of the hate for the Canucks is because they are a bunch of diving d-bags. A-Roid maybe could be an honorary Canuck.
But don't you think, and others can answer this as well, that the NHL is now losing traction by going through 2 prolonged lockouts in less than 10 years? I fail do see how that helps the NHL in any way at all. To me, it causes severe damage that will last a very long time. That damage quite possibly may end up being permanent damage. And the outside pressure point is a great one. I believe though, that if the outsiders (for lack of a better term) actually cared they would've already exerted pressure on the NHL and NHLPA to pull their collective heads out of their asses. These "outsiders" are far more concerned with basketball and football and poker and NASCAR. Which brings me to a point I keep bringing up. The NHL and NHLPA have seriously underestimated the popularity of the league in the United States. The Coyotes, Devils (to some extent), Panthers, and Stars are examples of this.
Looking at the numbers, the only way the NHL is proposing to do this is to shave of 12% of all the players salaries, right now, on every contract. That's the biggest issue the players have.
And I agree with them a bit, the drunked GM's put them in this mess, why should the players bail them out? The Wild shouldn't get a 12% break on those contracts that Weber and Parise signed last summer. I bet you ALL the teams were planning for a 50/50 split, and some of them planned based on their being a reduction, and some didn't. Lombardi's one 750K contract short of being under the new cap figure, carrying one extra contract.
Fehr's reasoning on why bother to negotiate also makes sense. We're not going to do a rollback, so let the drunken sailors spend during the UFA period.
The only way I see the owners getting to that new cap figure for the 14 teams over the new cap figure, without a reduction with Amnesty Rights being provided to the owners for multiple contracts this year, or playing next season under last seasons cap number. The new cap number for 2013/14 becomes the 50/50 number. Hell, do both. Give the owners a 50% buyout of the remainder of any contract with 2 years or less remaining.
This isn't actually as bad as I thought it was. You have to get creative on how to get to 50/50, but damned if it can't be done. It really seems to be only about a $130M Delta.
at the draft party a couple of years ago, and under a considerable haze, i heard Birdman yell out the following (about 4 or 5 times, i think) - "don't marry yourselves to players!" he went on to reiterate that idea more than once on the boards, and i believe it to be absolutely sage.
---gescom
It's kind of one of those damned if they do damned if they don't type situations. With the CBA expiring on Sept 15 and the whole summer of UFA signings preceding it, the owners had to sign players this past summer. If they didn't offer the big money deals, Fehr would have been screaming collusion.
Yes but Every single player and agent understands that all contracts are based upon the CBA and the sharing of HRR. If someone signs a 10 Million dollar deal, but the players portion of HRR goes down by 7%, then they really have a 9.3 Million dollar deal. The players knew this when they signed their deals. Any player who signed last summer did so with the full knowledge that the new CBA wasn't going to be for 57%, and that they would functionally make less money than the contract appeared to represent. They also understood that signing for $10 Million under the old CBA would functionally be the same as signing for 9.3 Million under a 50/50 split. Everyone who is saying it's wrong for the players to not get every penny owed to them under the contracts is simply misunderstanding the structure of the contracts. The players will get every penny owed to them, just as they have for the past 7 years as many owners bled. The owners have lived up to every one of their contractual obligations. The players know this, but keep playing this card because they think that we fans will think it's wrong for the owners not to honor the contracts. That said, go ahead and give the players the full amount of pay but then by year three of the contract it should be more like 60/40 of HRR in the owners favor. At least the owners would get long term gain for short term pain. I always thought 50/50 was too high for the players as is. The owners asked the players before all this to keep the salary cap frozen this season because of this potential damage control... the answer was no. So we have it as it always was...Doughty's large 7 mil salary based on 57% (so it could actually go up or down every season) or now 7 mil based on 50% (still could go up or down every season but certainly down the first 2).
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