If you haven't heard the NHL has recently cancelled all games up to November 1st and it is very unlikely that a full 82 game season will be played this year. While I personally think a shortened season may be good for the NHL, look how popular the NBA was last year with only a 66 game schedule, many die-hards (Canadians) would be disappointed in a 6 month season. (The fact that the NHL and NBA seasons are way too long is a completely different issue than how the owners have just lost all touch with reality). The owners will also lose money during the lockout seeing as the NHL just reported record profits last year, which makes no sense to me at all because the only point of having is a lockout is that you would lose money by playing the season. The players on the other hand are either taking it easy playing pick up hockey in the states or bringing in the cash over in Europe. Because the players have other options than playing for the NHL, the NHLPA is by far the strongest Player's union in sports. NBA players could go to Europe, but basketball in Europe is nowhere near as strong as hockey is, and European basketball leagues and the NBA do not get along as well as the NHL and European hockey leagues. MLB players have almost no where to go and NFL players prefer not playing because it saves their brain from concussions.
| Garry Bettman- Represents the Owners |
There are two main reasons for the NHL owners having a lockout this year; the first one is that they want to decrease the amount of hockey revenue that players get from 56% to 50% and the second is revenue sharing. Let's start with the first one. In addition to decreasing the amount of revenue the players get the owners want to limit contracts to a maximum of 5 years down from the seemingly unlimited amount of years in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement. Why do the owners want to cut down on the length of contracts? Idk, maybe cause players have been signing 15 year contracts so that the owners can work around the salary cap that they set up. So you are probably asking yourself right now, the owners are the ones offering these deals right? The answer is yes they are, so they only have themselves to blame for this. The other half of this is that they want to cut back on the amount of money that they are players. Again, they are the ones that have to approve of the contracts, so they should really be blaming themselves for what is going on. In the last CBA, the players had to take about a 20% paycut on contracts that owners approved of. The owners don't even need a salary cap, they could enforce an unwritten one (even though that is illegal under American labor laws, no one needs to find out). So basically, the owners want to cut down contracts that they offered to the players 3 months ago.
Next, the owners want to work on revenue sharing. This is no reason to cancel a season however, the owners could work on how to share the revenue while letting people watch hockey. This is actually a big problem in hockey because some teams are able to pull in a lot of money while some are struggling or even possibly in the negatives. I think it is laughable that the owners a creating a work stoppage while they are having problems with each other. If you would put this in the non-sports sphere, would it make sense for a company to shut down a factory because the bosses are not able to decide how they want to spread the money amongst themselves. I don't think so, and this just shows a lack of connection with the entire rest of the world.
| Sydney coughfaggotcough Crosby |
Pretty much, the owners are being more than selfish here, they are completely ignorant to what is going on. NHL players do not need the NHL, they can play in Europe and many of the younger players have been sent down to the AHL by their organizations. Many players are currently forming "Elite Beer Leagues" with each other not so that they can stay in shape, but because they love playing hockey together. I believe that of the 4 major North American sports, hockey players would be the ones most likely to only play for $100,000 a year. 90% of hockey players are essentially NFL linemen while Alexander Ovenchkin and Sydney "Cindy" Crosby are among the 10% that live flashy lifestyles.
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