NHL Hockey

[BradMc76]

I'm hoping for no hockey. As someone who runs poker tournaments, it blew up in 05 when the last strike was on, and my job went wild.

 

I could use another year of good turnouts, lol.

 

It's not for money, but for points, like any kind of bowling/darts league. You don't have to know poker or be good at it, because we are a training league. All we ask is that people purchase from the establishment (restaurant) so you're not loitering.

 

We were getting up to 50 people a night at each of our different locations the last time the strike went on, and I wouldn't mind those numbers again.

[moxie]

This poll needs a "Do you care?" option.

 

Ditto. Who cares?

Edited September 2, 2012 by moxie

[Rod Caster]

I care. Without hockey, my cable service is completely useless.

[trevy727]

I care. Without hockey, my cable service is completely useless.

 

 

X2. I love hockey. I play and watch hockey all winter long. NHL, OHL, any hockey that's on, I'll watch. Best sport in the world.

[jedimaster]

Personally, I love nhl hockey. If I wanted to watch second rate, not good enough players I would watch ohl or ahl. I watch the nhl because they are the best. If you had two tv shows on about fishing. One amature that knew nothing about fishing, and say dave mercer, who would you watch? I might flip to the amature for jokes, but I am gonna watch dave. NHL or bust for me.

[davey buoy]

Personally, I love nhl hockey. If I wanted to watch second rate, not good enough players I would watch ohl or ahl. I watch the nhl because they are the best. If you had two tv shows on about fishing. One amature that knew nothing about fishing, and say dave mercer, who would you watch? I might flip to the amature for jokes, but I am gonna watch dave. NHL or bust for me.

 

:good:Personally,I like all levels of the game. Still see a game or two a year watching the colts!.

[Broker]

I too will be lost.. No hockey on sportcenter in the morning before i head to school would be brutal. I play midget rep hockey and love the game, I can stay at the arena and watch hockey all day, then come home and watch NHL.. What are saturday nights withouy hockey night in canada?

[kickingfrog]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-elliott-nhl-labor-20120902,0,6653644.column

 

 

NHL good at getting labor negotiations wrong

By Helene Elliott

September 1, 2012, 6:35 p.m.

 

"I know the league's future is bright, and this will be to the benefit of the game. We had no choice but to get it right." — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, July 22, 2005, announcing the labor deal that ended a season-long lockout.

 

Whoops…. Maybe Bettman and the owners who authorized him to cancel the 2004-05 season didn't get it right after all.

 

The collective bargaining agreement they negotiated with the NHL Players' Assn. expires Sept. 15, and the league is again pushing hard for substantial givebacks by players. No new deal, no new season, Bettman has decreed, leaving the hockey world to face the third league-imposed lockout since 1994.

 

It figures: The Kings waited 44 years to win the Stanley Cup and the NHL will implode before they can raise their banner.

 

This dispute was predictable the moment the NBA and NFL won concessions that dropped players' salaries to 47% of agreed-upon revenues in the case of the NFL and to 50% in the case of the NBA. The NHL, which navigated the recession surprisingly well and generated $3.3 billion in revenues last season, wants to change an equation that favored players by 57%-43% and make it 54%-46% in the owners' favor.

 

The cut actually goes deeper because the NHL, citing higher business costs, wants to exclude some currently accepted hockey-related revenues from what players would share in the next deal. If business is booming why shouldn't players share the bounty? The 57% share they want in the fourth year of their proposal is probably a bit high, but the NHL's offer of 46% of a smaller pie is too low.

 

"We need to be paying out less in player costs." — Bettman, Aug. 9, 2012.

 

Maybe so. But who told the New Jersey Devils to overbid for winger Ilya Kovalchuk, offering a 17-year deal that was reworked to $100 million over 15 years? How could the small-market Minnesota Wild afford to sign free agents Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to identical 13-year, $98-million deals in June?

 

The ink on that "get it right" labor deal hadn't dried before general managers found ways to shred it, principally with front-loaded, long-term contracts that reduced the average annual value and salary-cap hit. Another escalating factor has been the huge jump players are taking from their entry-level deals to their second contracts. That rising tide brought other boats up with it.

 

The seven Canadian teams, helped by their dollar's increased strength and the NHL's return to Winnipeg, continue to account for about one-third of ticket revenues in a still heavily gate-driven league. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens will always be pillars of strength, but one small downturn in the value of the Canadian dollar could create havoc.

 

While Bettman is fond of pointing out that the NHL has increased its revenues from $2.2 billion before the current labor agreement to $3.3 billion, he's less fond of discussing the franchise values of some unprofitable small-market teams.

 

In a story dated November, 30 2011, Forbes reported that Bettman had said three years earlier that no NHL franchise was worth less than $200 million. However, since then the Buffalo Sabres were sold for $165 million (plus debts), the St. Louis Blues sold for about $130 million and the Phoenix Coyotes' sale has become a sad, strung-out saga. Former San Jose Sharks executive Greg Jamison has had trouble assembling the financing to meet the $170-million price tag the NHL set for the Coyotes, whom it has operated for nearly three years. Large-market teams are strong, but smaller markets struggle to operate profitably while meeting the rising salary floor, and they've gotten little help through revenue sharing.

 

That made it comical when Bettman last Friday dismissed the NHLPA's insistence on discussing revenue sharing as "distracting." In truth, he's trying to placate powerful big-market owners who don't want to share much with their small-market brothers. It's clear several markets added through the NHL's over-reaching expansion — and others that have been mismanaged — are causing problems owners won't solve on their own, making lockout threats a certainty each time a labor deal expires.

 

"I hope it never happens again. We're both going to kill each other if we do it again." — Mike Gartner, then the NHLPA's director of business relations, on losing a season to a lockout, July 21, 2005.

 

Sorry, but it looks like deja vu all over again. "We recovered last time because we have the world's greatest fans," Bettman said Aug. 23, and with reason. He has two advantages: Hockey remains best seen in rinks rather than on TV, and he knows fans' bottomless passion will bring them back.

 

Whatever happens over the next two weeks fans will return, sadder but wiser. For the moment, they're just sad this is happening again without much apparent chance of a long-term solution.

 

[email protected] twitter.com/helenenothelen

[davey buoy]

I too will be lost.. No hockey on sportcenter in the morning before i head to school would be brutal. I play midget rep hockey and love the game, I can stay at the arena and watch hockey all day, then come home and watch NHL.. What are saturday nights withouy hockey night in canada?

 

And Don Cherry!!!!!!!!!

[kickingfrog]

What are saturday nights withouy hockey night in canada?

 

July and August… sometimes.

[chris.brock]

yeah the players are greedy and likely overpaid, yeah I would love to knock Bettman out and then wring his neck

 

but I hope the season starts on time, winter is long, dark and cold

I love my NHL hockey, and always look forward to my Leaf games, win or loose (mostly losing, but I'm a die hard fan)

[glen]

I just want to watch the NHL. But I can't because of greedy people.

[chris.brock]

I have nothing but disdain for modern day unions.

 

The term lock out is ludicrous. It's a strike.

just curious, and off topic too, what line of work are you in?

[i2cool2fool]

Meh. I used to eat, breathe and sleep hockey. Not so much anymore.

 

I am not a fan of unions but don't outright hate them. (btw I am in the technology side of the banking industry).

[kickingfrog]

But you don't understand the difference between a lock-out and a strike?

[kickingfrog]

I have nothing but disdain for modern day unions.

 

The term lock out is ludicrous. It's a strike.

 

 

I'm a mechanical engineer.

 

But you don't understand the difference between a strike and a lock-out?

[kickingfrog]

I'll contend that there is a difference between the owners not honouring contracts that they are still signing players to and players striking.

[kickingfrog]

I understand why unions want you to believe there is a difference.

 

 

I'll also content that there is a significant difference between nhlpa and other unions.

[chris.brock]

I understand why unions want you to believe there is a difference.

let me guess, a mech. eng. working for a company with unionized workers?

[Headhunter]

Well if the NHL does go on strike AGAIN... I just might reach my lofty goal of being mediocre at bass guitar! More practice time for me!

HH

[lhousesoccer]

I have a question that's probably stupid, but I've always wondered ..... who is Bettman's boss? He must answer to someone, and why hasn't that "someone" fired his ass a LONG long long time ago? I'm guessing it's some Board made up of the team owners or something like that, so that's probably why he hasn't been, because he makes them too much money, and doesn't really give a crap about what the game really is or means to the fans across Canada and the US. Personally, I just can't stand the little NY weasly twerp.

[jedimaster]

Sounds like both sides are digging the trenches for a long one. Opening on time looks impossible at this stage. I hope they don't miss a full season, that would really hurt the game at ALL levels.

[Harrison]

Selfish, but the calibre of my "beer" league rose quite a bit with the last lock out.

[jimmer]

I can't even stand listening to all the media reports on the so called CBA negotiations. They're all full of it or themselves.

Was always my favourite sport to watch, but it looks like it will be the american hoggers this winter! LOL

[kickingfrog]

I have a question that's probably stupid, but I've always wondered ..... who is Bettman's boss? He must answer to someone, and why hasn't that "someone" fired his ass a LONG long long time ago? I'm guessing it's some Board made up of the team owners or something like that, so that's probably why he hasn't been, because he makes them too much money, and doesn't really give a crap about what the game really is or means to the fans across Canada and the US. Personally, I just can't stand the little NY weasly twerp.

 

Bettmens boss is the 29 owners (the nhl "owns" the yotes, thanks to betts). And he'll get his 8 million dollars this year no matter how much hockey is played. Who knows he may get a bonus on top of that.