Here are some stream of consciousness NHL lockout ramblings:
How can a league that lost a full season just seven years ago, be on the verge of another work stoppage??? With each passing day, the players and owners appear to be further apart on getting a deal done…..And there appears to be no urgency from either side to settle…….Another long-term lockout would be professional suicide, for the NHL….I mean, The league has grown in popularity and revenue in every season under the recently expired CBA….Why would you want to stop that momentum with another work stoppage???? The NHL lost a whole season seven years ago, because the owners wanted a salary cap…..Ever since they got, said cap, they have found ways to circumvent it…..Whether it is through front loaded contracts or insanely long-term deals, the owners have been unable to help themselves…..Teams had been in a race to sign players to long-term contracts before the CBA expired last week……John Carlson was signed to a six-year contract the day before the lockout went into effect….Meanwhile, the owners want five-year contracts to be the maximum years allowed in the next CBA???? How does that make sense??? Gary Bettman had to be pissed when deals like that went down last week……Because he looks like a total idiot when his owners are signing players to crazy deals the day before the lockout, and then claiming that player salaries are out of control…..This is a league that saw the Toronto Maple Leafs make $88 million dollars last season….At the same time, many other NHL teams lost millions of dollars….This is not a sustainable economic model for the NHL….There has got to be a better form of revenue sharing in the NHL…..The large market owners have to come to the realization that, although they will make less money in the short-term, in the long run, they will increase their profits through revenue sharing……The NFL is the most popular and financially successful professional sports league in the world…..How did they become that way???? Revenue sharing…..Revenue sharing is the reason a team from Green Bay can compete with a team from New York City, in the NFL…..With a better and more complete revenue sharing model, the NHL’s business would grow at an even faster rate…..If more small market teams could sign their best players and be able to compete with the large market teams, the NHL would increase its fan base…Fans love to root for a winner….And winning is the best way to increase a team’s fan base…..An increased fan base means; more ticket sales; more jersey sales; more concessions sold; and more parking lot revenue….Add all of it up, and the NHL’s revenue pie is now larger……The Players deserve blame for the lockout as well…..They refuse to negotiate a 50/50 split of hockey related revenue…..And in the end, we all know that a 50/50 split is what the finished deal will include…..The players, even with a short lockout, will be losing more money than if they would just settle with the owners…..And it is money, that they will never make back…..Mike Modano, claimed to have lost $7 million dollars because of the previous lockout…..Are the players really prepared to lose that kind of money again??? Also, the players have to look in the mirror when it comes to their salaries…. Should Zach Parise and Ryan Suter be making as much money as Tom Brady??? The answer is no….The NHL is not making or pulling in nearly as much money as the NFL….Yet, the top players in the NHL are making as much as the top players in the NFL….Now, I’m not blaming the players for signing these contracts…..I would too…..But, they have to understand that they may need to give a little back, in order, to keep the NHL a successful and growing business…..The players have to realize that the NHL is the only league, in which, they could make the kind of money that they do……What scares me the most about this lockout??? The fact that only two North American professional sports leagues have ever not awarded a championship, due to labor strife; the NHL in 2005 and the MLB in 1994…….What does the NHL’s current labor problem have in common with those two labor situations??? Gary Bettman led the NHL’s negotiations in 2004-2005 and Donal Fehr was the MLBPA’s head negotiator in 1994. And now these two men, are heading up the NHL and the NHLPA, respectively, in this years labor battle……So, we know both men are not going to blink in this labor debate….Sadly, that means we could be in for a long drawn out battle……In which, neither side will win….And the fans most assuredly will lose……
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