What do you think about the NHL Labour Dispute?

This will kill the penguins franchise.
Tickets for pro hockey game hover right around $40/game per person.
Thats $20 to much.

The lockout is a good thing. The players are milking the golden goose to much and killing it as a result.

 

This, after Canada took World Cup. Kind of redefines butt-ending, doesn't it?

It's hard enough as it is to pack a rink - real fans will definitely be upset if they can't catch action, but whether it starves borderline NHL "fans," I can't say yea or nay to just yet. With US putting the "N" in NHL, traditionally superior Canadian teams deserve to be on the ice, but garner lowest TV ratings when they're in Stanleys. Ugh.

 

It is a total mess...I have a few friends in "the show" and the harsh reality is the NHL over expanded, the quality of play has diminished, and both sides are to blame...The owners cry poverty, yet overpay players, case in point one "buddy" becomes unrestricted, team A offers X$...team B offers X$*.25...Would stay at team A but the NHLPA goes nuts...He signs with B...If the lockout occurs and the season is nuked a few Teams become history, less players= smaller union...The owners are still pissed about 95 and want to send a message...Who wins? Pavel Bure/Scott Stevens who still get their millions a year because they are "injured"...Stevens yes, Bure POS...

 

It's tough because the funding is now pretty much all from the US, and they have transplanted the teams from Canada - where hockey is a religion on par with MLB and NFL - to the US where the interest is much less per capita outside the Northeastern states. Then pay gets out of hand and the "nouveau hip" revival hockey had in the mid-90's with the US expansion teams and the moves south (ie. San Jose, Tampa, Colorado etc) dies out and who knows where the money will come from.

 

I am totally against a salary cap. Players have the right to earn as much as someone is willing to pay them.

Someone above mentioned talent diminishing because there are so many teams. I disagree with this. Whereas once upon a time, when there were fewer teams in the league, the majority of players were from North America. Now, there are players from all over the world in the league, so the pool to choose from has grown with the league's expansion.

 

I don't think the players are to blame. Rather the owners who agreed to pay the players the big bucks are the reason for this big mess. The players have said that they are willing to take 5% pay cut but that obviously isn't enough. Maybe a 15% paycut would do it. Like others have said there has been too much expansion. TV Contract is basically worthless too. The players are earning too much but they didn't force owners to pay them the money. The players say they will not go for any type of Salary cap and the owners said that they will only except a salary cap. Something has to give. I have a feeling this is going to be a long lockout. I read an article that said that the next "real" meeting between the NHL & NHLPA might not take place until December. I just hope we don't lose anymore Canadian teams. Watching a game that is being played in Canada is usually more exciting since the crowds are always into the game.

 

I don't have an opinion. I didn't know there was a labor dispute.
Now that I know, I STILL DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The antics of hockey players is so far down my list of things to waste brain cells on.

They are even lower than the goings on at the Bridgehampton Motoring Club.


Erich

 

You want to blame anyone, blame the Islanders, the Avalanche, and the Red Wings. Because of huge budgets, these teams were able to woo the best players from every other team in the NHL. For example, Rob Blake, who was wooed away from the LA Kings to play for the Avs, was given an $8.5mil salary (or something like that) which was essentially double what the Kings were paying him. Rob Blake, albeit a GREAT hip checker, was not, and is not, worth $8.5mil. The Avs wanted him, however, so they paid for him.

What this did was create a desire for all other players of Rob Blake's ability level to get paid $8.5 mil when they, like Blake, were not worth it. The next rung of players said "Hey! We're not worth $1 mil! We're worth $4 mil!" and so on and so on.

Anyhow, the Wings, the Avs, and the Islanders have spent the past decade or so buying the team of dreams, creating a huge glut in overpaid players and bloated team budgets.

I'm a big proponent of paying professional players what the market will bear - I don't think Arod is worth $100mil, but then again, I don't watch baseball, and I understand that baseball brings in a dongload of money, and the MLB can support huge contracts.

Hockey, on the other hand, CANNOT support such huge salaries. Say what you will, but the NHL market cannot bear $12mil contracts.

It pisses me off, because I love hockey, and I will be relegated to watching the Monarchs, instead of the Kings, play this year.

 

You won't waste brain cells on thinking about hockey players, but you will waste your time and our time by posting a stupid and condescending post that adds absolutely zero value to the discussion at hand?

SMART!

 

It's utterly ridiculous! You would think any professional sport would look back to the baseball strike of '94 and see how much of an affect it had on the MLB. Baseball is just now finally coming back to where it was prior to that point.

 

Yep! Its a fun game and I see we both know how to play.

 

your an idiot.......

 

Like pots said, the NHL over-expanded, which is a big problem IMO. There's always a balance of greed on both sides in situations like these, and whenever sports labor and management can't sit down and agree on how to divide up wealth, then they deserve all the negative fallout that ensues. Look how long baseball suffered after the last "labor stoppage". What's pathetic in Chicago is how Bill Wirtz has alienated some of the most loyal, hard-core sports fans you will ever find. He's cheap and greedy and always seems to miss the bigger picture with the Blackhawks. I'm sure this scenario is/has played out in many other cities as well.

 

Perhaps team owners can solve their problems by outsourcing the players jobs to offshore workers from India and China, as other business owners do.

 

LMAO!!

"Ramidisinji passes up to Ikgyengar, to Sun Tao, he shoots!... SAVE by Hsin Chi Tsu!"

I could see hockey fighting involving a lot more kicking.

Actually, getting a star Chinese player (ala Yao Ming) would be wonderous for NHL marketing... you could sell 500,000,000 jerseys in China (10,000 of which made by your company, 499,990,000 counterfeit).

 

Ok, just talked with my dad who has been in baseball ( i know we are talking hockey but baseball has had strikes many times before) his whole life and since he has been the front office for some teams he has had to deal with this kind of stuff before. Its not the players that are striking, its their union that is making them. also, its prob the same in hockey but strikes are usually b/c the owners of the teams arent compling with the players union and therefore the union says "fine we wont give u any players." The owners being shrewd businessmen resist the temptation to give in and usually try and hold out. If it were up to the players, MOST not all would just play and not worry about this union crap, but hey this is america and there is a union for everything.

 

I hope so. The players have agreed to cut all current salaries by 24%. That is pretty significant. Would you agree to a 24% paycut at your current job? I know a lot of these players make a substantial amount of money but a 24% reduction is still a big deal. I mentioned in a previous post that I thought the players had to increase the amount they were willing to cut from 5% to 15%. The players agreed to even more. The owners would save a lot of money right away and all new contracts would take into consideration the 24% cut. Thus $10 million contracts will be a thing of the past at least for the time being. The players are still against a salary cap and I can't blame them. It will be interesting to see if the owners go along with this. If they say a salary cap is a must the season is over and who knows when hockey will start up again. The NHL and NHLPA have to come to some type of agreement soon. After that then they have to look at how they can make the game more accessible to the public. By this I don't mean changing the rules drastically. The NHL has got to try to televise as many games as possible in HDTV. Have any of you watched a hockey game on HDTV? It is unbelievable. The picture and the sound is really incredible. It looks better than being there in person. As HDTV becomes more popular the NHL needs to make sure that they are part of it.

 

There is a larger difference between someone that makes 100k with 3k in the bank going to 75k then someone that make 4 million with 2 million in the bank going to 3 million.

It's hard to feel sorry for them. I think we should buy every player a box of pamprin.

 

I don't think you should feel sorry for the players. Do you think the players should have given up a higher % of their salary?

 

If they want to save their job, then yes.

Hockey does not have the draw that basketball, football or baseball. It took the MLBA years to recover from a lockout. Attendance was down for a long time.

Factor hockey into the mix that had low attendance to begin with, it is going to be a disaster. Also there are 200 NHL players, right now, playing hockey in Europe. They are not having a hard time keeping food on the table.

I think everyone should get paid what they are worth but, in context, they only play hockey.

 

I live in an NHL city...where on this morning's FM radio talk show they reported a national news poll across Canada had a 71% approval response that people wouldn't care if the season was ended now. Seems like we've moved on.....and I for one feel the better for it.

I don't think salary caps should be allowed...the market should determine someone's income...but when clearly all common sense has gone out the window on both sides of the equation.....what can you do. The owners have a right to profitability....but it's not the player's fault that the owner's agreed to pay them what they did either.

I haven't gone to a live game in ten years....$30-100+ bucks a head is nuts !!

Great avatar Peter !!! Looks Brasilian....

 

Oh, was there supposed to be a hockey season?

DL