Posted on 02/09/2005 6:37:29 PM PST by SamAdams76
I think that in keeping with their playoff structure, they should wait until sometime in May, announce a one-game schedule with the winners of each game going on to the playoffs. One game first round playoffs, and 3 game 2nd and later round playoffs.
What the hell, introduce something new into the game as well. Start letting the ice thaw at the start of the game. When it becomes to slushy to play, the game is called with the winner being the team that's ahead.
Actually, no. This weekend The Michigan Striped Weasels, errrr, Wolverines come to town for a weekend series. Thank The Lord for hockey apart from the NHL! Game-On!
The best use of a soccer field is a good, fast, (and somewhat violent) game of Lacrosse!
Mark
We aren't on the same page. There is no duty for the NHL to negotiate in GF, so we're not talking about that standard which would be actionable.
However, the NHL is purporting to be actively negotiating with the players, which they are not. They have hardly budged. That is perfectly fine. But don't tell me how hard you're negotiating when all you're actually doing is basically resubmitting your same offer over and over.
MLB doesn't have a salary cap. Apples and oranges
Hockey isn't a sport .
Actually, I think the NHL will fold and new league replace it. Bad TV contracts go away, any old business just disappears including overly paid players.
I would like to see hockey do the following:
Drop ticet prices to the level of say.. baseball.
Drop the BS over fighting and let the guys duke it out as they used to. No pansies allowed on the ice please.
I've actually watched lacrosse on TV. As I said, i'll mwatch most anything. It was surprisingly fun.
mwatch=watch
MLB needs one.
Re: MLB - I would not be opposed to stiffer penalties for breaking the limits, but I hate the cap, which is absolute.
I think if you've got the money and are in a window where you have a few years to contend, that team ought to be able to tip the scales for a few years.
The Yankees don't just tip the scales, they knock them over and set them on fire. I think they exceeded the spending limit by over $100 million last year? The problem right now is the penalty is stiff enough to deter most teams, but not the Yankees. I think a better system would place a progressive penalty for violating the limit which gets steeper each successive year the team exceeds the limit.
I have had some AAA hockey league experience as a devotee of the short-lived San Francisco Spiders. I can't afford good seats at a Sharks game, but got decent seats at the antiquated Cow Palace for the Spiders. The team sucked for the first month, but caught fire after a trade, and ended up winning more games in their first (and only) season than the Sharks won in their first two.
IHL hockey wasn't NHL hockey by any means. But after being forced to watch college and amateur puck on cable, a downgrade to the AHL may not matter.
I used to live for baseball season. Despite the ineptness of the management of my Giants year-by-year, I would go to breezy, dumpy Candlestick Park just in case the G-men happened to win one when I was there -- after all, even the worst teams win about sixty games a year.
What nearly killed my love for baseball was the way that striking major leaguers boldly predicted that fans would come crawling back. I felt like I was being treated like a battered wife, slinking home to cook dinner for some profane A-shirted bum. When Selig dictated that the players flip third out fly balls to the fans, it was a small gesture, but I accepted it. I am still a baseball fan, but the owners and the players have damaged our relationship forever. It will never be the same.
I have noticed that hockey players have no such arrogance. That's keeping me hanging on.
Detroit..the vanising, shrinking city..with a clown prince of a mayor..as an aside, the RedWings' home white uniforms..most beautiful of any sport
Eddie Shore!
bump
That's absolutely true, but there's something to keep in mind here: The unique nature of competitive sports is such that "normal" economic principles cannot be applied to a professional sports league.
In the auto industry, the predatory nature of competition works just fine. If Ford and General Motors can't keep up with Toyota and Honda, then the first two will lose market share to the latter two. Under a worst-case scenario, the first two may even go out of business. Such is the nature of capitalism.
The problem in sports is that the competition is the product, which means all of the teams in a league must walk a very fine line -- they have to adhere to souond business practices and function in a normal competitive manner from a financial perspective, but at the same time they must ensure that their competitors remain, well, competitive!
I'm not a huge fan of a salary cap in general terms, but there is no question that a league comprised of teams with disproportionate levels of financial strength does not have a strong future.
John Kerry actually played NHL hockey for the Leafs in Cambodia during the winter of 1969 when the Mekong had frozen over.
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