NHL vs. NHLPA

[goldenpig]

Members of the NHL Board, after the last two days of meetings, accused the NHLPA of not being serious regarding finding a resolution to the upcoming labour stoppage.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Do you support the NHLPA, the NHL or neither one?

 

[scott231]

Blame the fucking owners they are the idiots that pay these players the big dollars, Martin LaPointe, Bobby Holik are NOT worth that much money but the stupid owners pay that and are now crying poor, the NHL is a struggling league in the U.S. that doesn't have a billion dollar tv deal, they have bad attendance in all the cities in the U.S. except, Denver, St. Paul, Detroit, and Manhattan. Yet the owners pay big dollars but can't fill the stands, and have shitty ratings as The World Series of Poker gets better ratings than the NHL.

 

[BYSON]

scott231 I agree with you all the way, this topic seems to piss you off a little.

 

[scott231]

It does because ticket prices are fucking way to high in the NHL, I have season tickets to the Canucks Half season pack and they are expensive but I can afford them, however other fans that want to go can't because the tickets are too high, A father can't take his family to a Canucks game because he will shell out close to $500 on tickets parking, food and other things. The crowd you see at GM Place today is totally diffrent then than the crowd 15 years ago at the Pacific Coliseum, lot's a families before, now there are alot of executives at the games today. I don't care wether you're rich or not ticket prices have to come down. An NFL, NBA and MLB game is cheaper to attend than an NHL game and those leagues are doing better than the NHL.

 

[OkanaganGent]

Hockey is too expensive

... A father can't take his family to a Canucks game because he will shell out close to $500 on tickets parking, food and other things.

That's why Dad goes pooning. He'll still have money left over.

 

[scott231]

Going to Canucks games do rock BUT like I said earlier the tickets are way too expensive, last season Brian Burke told the season ticketholders that he would have to increase season ticket prices by 8% if he was able to resign Todd Bertuzzi, Gary Bettman in the last few weeks has said tickets have to become affordable again and that's his goal in the cba talks.

 

[tongue]

Time for a cap.

Two of the other leagues have a salary cap, and another one has a luxury tax.

What is the point of having a salary cap, or a luxury tax, if the owners won't agree to it anyway.

Does Steinbrenner fear the luxury tax?
Does Kevin McHale fear the salary cap? Anyone remember his Minnesota Timberwolves Joe Smith deception scandal?

 

[The Lizard King]

Blame them all. The owners are the ones who ultimately agree to pay up but on the otherhand, if all teams decided not sign a single UFA over the summer, the players would cry "collusion".
Regardless, it's always the fan that gets "Jennifer'd".

 

[mr. ed]

Obviously Scott 231, you haven't been to an NBA game recently, as their pricing is not any more affordable than the NHL. The salary cap is a great idea, thus allowing the small market team to afford real players and hopefully put entertainment back into the game. Once and for all put an end to the trap, brought into the sport to allow less talented teams to compete with major markets. These coaching systems are killing the marketability of the greatest spectator sport on earth. Hockey!!! As the entertainment returns , so does the revenues and the salary cap goes up. The owners win, the players win, the fans win and most importantly the game of hockey lives to see another season.
IMHO.

 

[scott231]

Actually an NBA game right now is cheaper to attend than an NHL game. A balcony seat @ General Motors Place this past season cost $68.00 for one seat and that's a nose blead seat. At a Los Angeles Lakers game I attended earlier this year at Staples Centre it cost me $70.00 USD for a lower bowl ticket, upper bowl seating at Staples Centre for Laker games started at $15.75 USD for a nose blead seat. Bottom line NHL needs a salary cap, the other sports have some form of a cap and right now are thriving and having no problems. I'm 24 years old and 15 years ago at Canuck games you saw alot of families at the Pacific Coliseum now all you see is businessmen in the Air Canada section and high rollers at GM Place very upsetting.

 

[Hardatwork]

Re: Time for a cap.

What is the point of having a salary cap, or a luxury tax, if the owners won't agree to it anyway.

Does Steinbrenner fear the luxury tax?

I don't think it's the fact that Steinbrenner fears going over the luxury tax cap that's so important, it's the fact that if he chooses to go over the cap, then other small market teams get compensated.

The best run business in my mind is the NFL. Their cap is fair for both the team owners as well as the players because they have a salary cap with both a ceiling and a floor. The revenue is distributed evenly so that a team in Green Bay, Wisconsin has just as good a shot at winning the Superbowl as a team from New York. I’d love to see the NHL adopt a similar business model, but that doesn’t seem too likely.

 

[kehoe]

The NFL is so successful largely because of the incredible TV deal they have. Each team is so heavily compensated with TV money that they are already in a break even position before they sell a single ticket which is why a team like Arizona will always be content being shitty. Why spend money to be more competitive when you're going to be in the black anyway? Not to mention licencing (jerseys, hats, etc). All this excess money makes it easy to go after big name free agents so most teams at the beginning of the season have a decent shot at the Super Bowl. Another feature they have that I really admire: not every contract is guaranteed. So, if a player sucks one year after signing a homerun contract, he can be dumped with no money owing. The flip side is that the clubs pay huge signing bonuses but the other leagues do as well. It's close to being incentive based, which is what I would love to see in all sports, particularly for the marginal to middle of the road players.

Anyway, this is all moot because theNHLPA is never going to consider any of these options. They will win this battle ultimately. They won't keep status quo but they will end up with way more than the league is prepared to give right now. Oh well, let's hope the WHA is for real. Failing that, go to a Vancouver Giants game. For $15 you can't beat it.

 

[scott231]

I got a real kick out of Ed Jovonaski's comments about the on going cba discussions "a salary cap won't work for us". Well sorry Eddie but the state of the NHL says that you need a salary cap, if you want to keep jobs and teams in Florida, Carolina, Anaheim, Nashville, New Jersey, Phoenix and so on. Bottom line the NHL needs a hard cap 31 million USD for those teams to survive and ticket prices have to come down, the real problem is that the NHLPA and the NHL are speaking two diffrent languages, as stated by Bill Daly www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=96389&hubName=nhl

 

[godzilla]

Small markets.

If small market Calgary and Tampa Bay can make the Finals, then the players will just say that the small market teams aren't suffering that much.