Thread: Winter Classic Cancelled!!!

Owners overpaid because they had to. Whenever you have different bids, you could say there's an overpayment and underpayment. BUT it's very hard to objectively determine the "right" value that decides who overpays and who underpays. Usually, the value of certain player is his market value, so you could say overpayments don't actually exist. Why? Because what a certain player gets is based on his past record as a hockey player and/or projection for the future AND how desperate the team is to land him. It's based on subjective evaluations and priority. And here NO ONE is right.

Simply said: It's EASY for us to look back and judge. But the fact is that the sole purpose of the NHL is competition and that leads to (from now looking back!) overpayments (misjudging a certain player's ability/potential or just being desperate to improve the team). And if you don't want to see 20 teams looking to win (able to "overpay" or relying on desirability) and 10 teams looking to do some damage and survive while doing so (in most cases must overpay to get someone due to "lowly" status, but can't, due to financial restrictions), you must enable these so-called "overpayments" to all teams without them losing much money because of it.

The problem is not that the owners gave stupid amounts of money. The problem is that they were able to give players stupid numbers of years on their contracts. That was just to circumvent the flawed CBA and offer a certain player more than the competition ("overpaying"). The richer teams (and the ones where the owner doesn't care about losing much money) were able to do this - now, this will be a no-go because of contract length limit.

So please, stop using this "overpaying" as a bash against the owners. The owners are doing what the fans want - they do everything to improve the teams. The flawed CBA enabled richer teams to not just spend up to the CAP, but over it (realistically). With the new CBA, this will end (unless they find another way to somehow spend much above the CAP). And it has nothing to do with the owners being stupid and now wanting to fix the problem.

NHL and the owners want to fix the old CBA so it's more fair to the lower tier teams (As a result, yes, the richer teams WILL make even more money - but who cares? It doesn't change the fact that the league will be more fair in the end). Why? Because 8 years ago they couldn't predict revenues going that high. And they want to do all this quickly, with rollback included, so there is as little "stink" carrying over to the next CBA era as possible, and you can't blame them for that.

So, no, I don't feel sorry for the owners, but I do understand them. Also, I don't feel sorry for the players, who got extremely lucky with the increasing revenues and are now asked to sacrifice part of their "lucky" payrise for the better competition in the NHL, but I do understand them. So, who do I think should "win" these negotiations? The NHL and the owners, because it will ensure a better competition in the NHL. That's what we, fans, want in the end. And WE pay for those damn salaries (well, technically, I don't, since I'm from Slovenia ).

Originally Posted by FlyBono24

Eh whatever... it's still football season at least. And college bball starting next week.

College basketball is starting? I slept through the winter and it is March already?

I hope HRR takes such a hit that both sides will do everything to avoid the next lockout.

I hate to say this, but the NHLPA has to realize that they just don't have as big of a bargaining chip as they think they do. There just isn't enough advertising revenue produced with televised hockey as there is with foot ball, basket ball or baseball. The PA needs to realize that the owners are content with losing the small amount of advertising revenue and potential for profit this year in order to make their businesses more profitable. The owners DO NOT CARE if they created the last CBA and the players want to continue with their current salaries. They are owners of a business, and they want it to be profitable. They know that the fans will be there the season when it comes back, because it's part of our life. They still do not care.

What the owners care about is a profitable business, and they will go to whatever lengths to make it profitable. If the PA understands this the season can be salvaged. If the PA refuses to understand this, the season is lost.

I feel that is one of the dumbest things I have heard about this lock out. The owners up until the last day leading up to the lock out were signing guys to multi million, multi year contracts. They can't cry foul about the deals then sign the players to these deals at the same time. That is like complaining someone is banging your wife will your are banging the neighbors wife at the same time.

BooHoo... cares? It's not like I would have watched teams I could care less about any more than I would have without the hoopla.

Originally Posted by ThAt GuY

I feel that is one of the dumbest things I have heard about this lock out. The owners up until the last day leading up to the lock out were signing guys to multi million, multi year contracts. They can't cry foul about the deals then sign the players to these deals at the same time. That is like complaining someone is banging your wife will your are banging the neighbors wife at the same time.

You know what? They can. It takes ONE ballsy owner to create an avalanche of fishy contract offers. Why? Because the point is to WIN, and to WIN you need good players, and to get as many good players as possible, you need CAP room. You can't point fingers here. The old CBA was flawed, PERIOD. It couldn't possibly be better...do you really REALLY think the NHL and the owners could have negotiated 50/50 and max. 5 year contracts 8 years ago??? No frickin' way. It was already a rape (and a necessary one) from the players' standpoint.

Originally Posted by 24diving

BooHoo... cares? It's not like I would have watched teams I could care less about any more than I would have without the hoopla.

I agree with this but it is good for the sport itself. I want to see the sport I love start doing better but with this lockout it is going to drop even more.

Actually, I am more bummed at losing another season of 24/7 than the actual Winter Classic. I have loved the 24/7 series the last couple of years.