The High Cost of Winning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Reg or Rog?
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There were similar discussions wrt the Beach situation in Chicago and Marc Bergevin coming to the La Kings.

At the end of the day, as I stated in that thread, that it sux for my ticket rep but we did not re-up.

The league should have removed the names form the cup that yr instead of the fine. As the narrative here, win at all costs and deal with the circumstances later.

I read on HF someone defending Kane that his gambling is a disease. That may be so, but that is only an excuse.
 
KOPI! PEVS! said:
Addiction is addiction, and it comes in many forms.
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Very true. But with Kane, his issues appear to go deeper than just a gambling addiction.

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I even went to bat for Kane in a thread here on LGK last year, defending him on the "He said/She said" aspect of his relationship and accusations by his ex that he bet on his own hockey games. Then as more information came out...especially from his own teammates...I felt foolish for doing so.

So who knows how much...if any... of that was or is true, but he sure seems to fit nicely into the scumbag category.

I'm just glad he's not playing on my team. That would be quite the conundrum.
 
Reg or Rog? said:
Very true. But with Kane, his issues appear to go deeper than just a gambling addiction.

16384580743104.jpg


I even went to bat for Kane in a thread here on LGK last year, defending him on the "He said/She said" aspect of his relationship and accusations by his ex that he bet on his own hockey games. Then as more information came out...especially from his own teammates...I felt foolish for doing so.

So who knows how much...if any... of that was or is true, but he sure seems to fit nicely into the scumbag category.

I'm just glad he's not playing on my team. That would be quite the conundrum.
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Well said!
 
Reg or Rog? said:
Very true. But with Kane, his issues appear to go deeper than just a gambling addiction.

16384580743104.jpg


I even went to bat for Kane in a thread here on LGK last year, defending him on the "He said/She said" aspect of his relationship and accusations by his ex that he bet on his own hockey games. Then as more information came out...especially from his own teammates...I felt foolish for doing so.

So who knows how much...if any... of that was or is true, but he sure seems to fit nicely into the scumbag category.

I'm just glad he's not playing on my team. That would be quite the conundrum.
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The classic part about this stuff, and to the point of my earlier post, is that Edmonton fans support the guy even in the face of every piece of evidence. It's all about winning.
 
LAKingSteve said:
The classic part about this stuff, and to the point of my earlier post, is that Edmonton fans support the guy even in the face of every piece of evidence. It's all about winning.
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Bingo! It’s not so much the organization, but rather the fans.
Edmonton knows their fans don’t care, so they picked him up.
If they knew for a fact their fans would revolt if they picked him up, they would not have done it.

Blame the fans.
The NHL makes hardly any money from broadcast rights. They make their money from game day revenue.
The fans hold ALL the cards when it comes to the bulk of the $$$.

If fans make a stand with their wallets, especially in the NHL, these players would have nowhere to play in this league.

Blame the fans.
Hold your team to a higher standard.
 
Moog said:
Bingo! It’s not so much the organization, but rather the fans.
Edmonton knows their fans don’t care, so they picked him up.
If they knew for a fact their fans would revolt if they picked him up, they would not have done it.

Blame the fans.
The NHL makes hardly any money from broadcast rights. They make their money from game day revenue.
The fans hold ALL the cards when it comes to the bulk of the $$$.

If fans make a stand with their wallets, especially in the NHL, these players would have nowhere to play in this league.

Blame the fans.
Hold your team to a higher standard.
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Yep, folks vote with wallets and won't show up when a team is playing bad but will show up in droves if a team is good even if they had a guy (or 5) like Kane. Heck, even in Chicago, where they had a bad season, they still averaged 93.8% of capacity or 18500 people per game even after the Kyle Beach travesty.
 
LAKingSteve said:
Yep, folks vote with wallets and won't show up when a team is playing bad but will show up in droves if a team is good even if they had a guy (or 5) like Kane. Heck, even in Chicago, where they had a bad season, they still averaged 93.8% of capacity or 18500 people per game even after the Kyle Beach travesty.
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Edmonton is a special case in that all they wanted to do, no matter what, is break the 1st round exit curse. I am truly surprised though by how many Oilers fans are clamoring to bring Kane back next season and do not seem to care about the integrity of the game. That said, my there are more casual fans in Edmonton than we realize.

From a casual fan perspective it is likely many do not know about situations like Kane's background or the Beach situation. All they know is what they see on the ice during the limited games they attend. Truly, though, and Organization is either ethical or it is not. It's not up to the fans to police it and hold the Organization accountable. If the Organization is making ethical decisions it never gets to the point in which the fans would typically have to react. To me the argument is similar to saying a corporation can be as corrupt as they want if people keep investing in their stock and using their products. Instead, people should be able to trust that regulators, in this case the NHL, are enforcing proper ethical behavior rather than putting such action on the shoulders of investors, or in this case fans.

The one sports team I can give credit to is the Kansas City Chiefs. Had they not done the ethical thing and cut Kareem Hunt in 2018 it was very likely they'd have gone on to win the Super Bowl that year. Instead they did the right thing, and hurt their chances at winning the Super Bowl significantly in the process only for the Browns to pick him up the next season. As karma turns out, they went on to win the Super Bowl in 2020 without him. I can't think of too many other sports team, or possibly any, who have stepped up like that.
 
DryKing said:
Edmonton is a special case in that all they wanted to do, no matter what, is break the 1st round exit curse. I am truly surprised though by how many Oilers fans are clamoring to bring Kane back next season and do not seem to care about the integrity of the game. That said, my there are more casual fans in Edmonton than we realize.

From a casual fan perspective it is likely many do not know about situations like Kane's background or the Beach situation. All they know is what they see on the ice during the limited games they attend. Truly, though, and Organization is either ethical or it is not. It's not up to the fans to police it and hold the Organization accountable. If the Organization is making ethical decisions it never gets to the point in which the fans would typically have to react. To me the argument is similar to saying a corporation can be as corrupt as they want if people keep investing in their stock and using their products. Instead, people should be able to trust that regulators, in this case the NHL, are enforcing proper ethical behavior rather than putting such action on the shoulders of investors, or in this case fans.

The one sports team I can give credit to is the Kansas City Chiefs. Had they not done the ethical thing and cut Kareem Hunt in 2018 it was very likely they'd have gone on to win the Super Bowl that year. Instead they did the right thing, and hurt their chances at winning the Super Bowl significantly in the process only for the Browns to pick him up the next season. As karma turns out, they went on to win the Super Bowl in 2020 without him. I can't think of too many other sports team, or possibly any, who have stepped up like that.
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Good call on Kansas City. I have nothing but respect for the Chiefs organization after they dumped Hunt the moment that video was made public. And Hunt had just had one of his best string of games in his career, but Kansas City didn't flinch. They saw the tape and he was gone.

That's one thing about videotape evidence. No grey area. He threw a woman on the ground and kicked her. Point blank.

And as for Kane, I'm just glad he's not a King. That would be awkward for me as a fan. And at this point I'm rooting for whatever team plays the Oilers. God forbid we get to see Kane skating around with the Cup in June. That would suck.
 
It takes a lot of willpower to stop gambling in casinos because it's like giving up drugs. I admitted my gambling addiction two years ago. My friends tried to keep me completely away from casinos, but they didn't succeed. I used to gamble big money, but I realized it was a big mistake. I found a 10 dollar minimum deposit casino, and now I only play there. You don't lose a lot of money by playing for small amounts, but you get the same feeling. Now I even manage to save money.
 
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IzaiahFranco said:
It takes a lot of willpower to stop gambling in casinos because it's like giving up drugs. I admitted my gambling addiction two years ago. My friends tried to keep me completely away from casinos, but they didn't succeed.
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I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope you get the help you need.

I'm also sorry to say I have known two people...both women, ironically enough...that literally gambled their houses away. One was my biological mother, and the other was an electrician that worked with me for Rick Caruso at The Grove. Her husband was also working on that project, and he was my partner for the last few months after she disappeared.

I asked him where his wife was. He said, "She just got two weeks of overtime pay, so I'm assuming she's somewhere in Nevada betting her wages." I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything.

By the time the project ended, they were separated, on the road to a divorce, and she lost their house in Vegas on a binge.

I saw him a few years later. Apparently she was up $30,000.00 at one point, but instead of walking away....well...you know the story: It did not end well.

Gambling is a hell of a drug.

Good luck.
 
Anybody know what's going on with Matt Johnson? Hopefully he got the help he needed.
 
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