NHL Cancels Season

Vanity

[Loyalist]

Gary Bettman makes it official: 2004-05 NHL season has been cancelled.

Damn you.

[Betis70]

>>(How they've been able to keep teams in places like Dallas and San Jose I'll never know.)

Lots of displaced northerns live in San Jose--techies from Canada, the "M" states (that's Minnesota, Michigan and Massachusetts, where 90% of US hockey players come from), plus LOTS of youth leagues and adult leagues keeps it here. Oh and having 5 rinks within a 20 minutes drive isn't too bad either.

The Sharks do quite well and have managed to keep their payroll down for the most part, though sometimes the play is dreadful as a result.

[Big Digger]

In other news, the sun came up this morning.

[Gorjus]

who's the bad guy:

When four of the teams are bankrupt, and even the teams with full arenas are losing money (like Dallas) unless they get deep into the playoffs, the salary structure is too high.

But, as you indicated, both sides are too blame. The owners don't have the discipline to keep salary offers down to an economically viable level. You can understand that. If adding a million dollars to a $60 million payroll makes the difference between elimination and a Stanley Cup, you might as well go for it. And then there's the next million (because Team X just added a million to their payroll) and so on. So the owners wanted a salary cap, fixed between 52% and 54% of total team revenue, instead of now where player salaries are as much as 75% of total team revenue.

The players feel they've been fair because they've offered to take cuts in pay that bring the total for player salaries down to the viable range, but they absolutely refuse a salary cap (though all the other major sports have them) because they know the bidding wars will start up as soon as the new contract is in place.

My own solution would be true revenue sharing - as in Moby Dick. Each player would negotiate a share of the team revenues. If the team makes a lot of money, they get a lot of money. If they team only makes a little money, then the players don't get much either.

Unfortunately, that would continue the concentration of better players into the high-paying markets, and most areas of the US would no longer be able to field competitive teams (and Canada would be out of it entirely). So I can certainly understand why the league is looking for a cap instead.

Overall, in this case, the players are probably closer to being the 'bad guys.' They have no obligation to make money for the owners. But if they owners are losing enough money to shut down the league, they've gone over the line.

[Freedom_Is_Good]

Hockey, doo-doo, poopy - Just more crap to deal with

[EveningStar]

I don't know much about hockey. Is the AHL a rival league or a minor league?

[Luke21]

They blackout Sunday ticket too, and this past year blacked out the satellite channels where the local yokels were showing games. Convenience went out the window and the product actually became more inferior.

[TXBSAFH]

Minor league, like AAA baseball. The local team in Houston is owned by the Minn. Wild.

[lilylangtree]

How about H'weirdos going on permanent strike too?

[Rennes Templar]

Probably 3/4 of America didn't even know the season was on hold.

[mitchbert]

Dryden's a lawyer as well, IIRC.

[EveningStar]

LOLOLOLOL!

[CollegeRepublican]

Lacrosse. http://www.majorleaguelacrosse.com/ Go Bayhawks.

[Zhangliqun]

They blackout Sunday ticket too...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[retrokitten]

We are lucky here, because the Wolves broadcast every game, home or away. It was really funny last season when they started doing it, because the media (and the fans) all knew it was a polite dig at the the Hawks who only broadcast away games, but the Wolves front office said, "Oh no. It has nothing to do with the Hawks decision to broadcast only away games." Suuuuure it doesn't.

[cspackler]

No, I love wings! Hooter 3 mile are the bomb!

[Alberta's Child]

There's been a lot of talk about getting rid of the red line, but I think there are bigger issues than this. The real problem is that the league is so big that there really isn't enough solid hockey talent to fill all the rosters. The deterioration of the game is more a function of a lack of talent than a problem with the rules, I think.

[retrokitten]

It's kind of like the last stop right before the NHL. Lots of younger kids who would have been rookies/sophomores in the NHL this season if it had happened.

[Professional Engineer]

Well, lookit that, will ya', the sun still rose in the East. Shazaam.

[CurlyBill]

Agree.... however, unlike many others, I feel that expansion was a positive thing for the game. You need to grow and eventually become a big time sport. Let's face it, hockey is FAR MORE exciting than baseball or basketball, particularly in the playoffs. I don't know how people can sit through an NBA game. Looking at youth hockey in the US, some of your better clubs and teams are based in Florida and Texas. This would not have been possible without the NHL in both states. The base is slowly growing, but too many people are priced out of it based on what you just mentioned.

[Thebaddog]

Dude, you have to drink decaf in the morning. The Twins are good, that's ok. But what happened to the Viqueens?