NHL and possible lock out!

[RoadDawg]

Well when the agreement expires this wednesday (9/15) the NHL might end up being doomed this season and more to follow. I remember how it hurt attendance last time, and to be honest I don't think it quite recovered from it's former glory. So I think it's gonna let the fans down even more and even disinterest some in the process. Anyone else feel that this could be the downfall of the NHL?

[DaveEllis]

If they're complaining about salaries they can go jump in a lake.

If they're unhappy with the 1 million a year they make now they can go find another job.

Frickin bums.

[gimp]

I dont blame them for wanting more money. Don't they get paid less then the other main sports? Basketball, baseball and football? I'm pretty sure they do. Considering how much more physical hockey is than all these sports, they should get paid more. I'm not saying that football isn't physical, it sure is, but they only play once a week, and they play on nice soft grass. I just can't stand baseball and basketball.

I think hockey players should be paid the most out of all the 4 main sports, but I also think they all should be paid less. If that makes sense. Needless to say, I love hockey. Go bruins!!!

[Thordic]

Hockey players can make more than basketball players when hockey as a sport makes enough money to support it. Right now the NHL's revenues are far behind those of the NFL, MLB, NBA, and even NASCAR.

Also, the average hockey player (in the NHL) is making more than the average football player (in the NFL, I'm not counting minor pro leagues).

There needs to be an agreement which links salaries to revenue because right now the NHL is losing money.

[ShooterJM]

Yeah. And, if your market won't support your team....Tough. You're the one who bought the team and you're the one who agreed to the contracts. Either move to a city that will support you or turn into a minor team or something. OR think about shrinking the league.....

[rkjunior303]

Right now, the biggest 'gripe' the NHL has with the current system is that 75% of the revenue taken in by the league as a whole goes towards salaries. They would like to see this closer to 50%. I seriously think they need to contract the a few teams as well, to try and help some of the losses the league has taken over the last few years. Only a handful of teams MADE money last year. They will probably end up with some form of Luxury Tax system since a hard cap is out of the question.

I'm ticked there won't be any hockey this year. I was looking forward to wiping the floor with my fantasy team. I will settle for watching BU/BC games here in MA and the AHL teams (there's like 8 around me).

[Jeffy-CanCon]

It certainly looks like no hockey this year. The NHLPA refuses to accept the accounting which shows that 20 of 30 teams are in the red, and they have a $100M strike fund.

The average salary in the NHL is about $1.8M, and salaries account for 76% of all revenue. Compared to a range of 56%-64% for the NFL, NBA and MLB. Really, though, the owners brought this on themselves. The league organization is weak, and allowed a few rich temas to inflate the players salary expectations without considering how this would affect the smaller teams, or the quality of play.

I think the players deserve a fair share of the proceeds, but I think the owners deserve some profit, too. I think they need a hard salary cap. MLB has a luxury tax, and the NYY pay more in luxury taxes than some teams pay their whole roster. It makes no differnce if you have the money. With a salary cap, everyone could afford to stay in business, and the richest teams would simply be more profitable.

[SoccerPaintball3]

there already overpaid what do they need all that money for anyways. i think they should pay all pro sports players less (except paintball players they dont get paid enough), especially baseball players, they are so overpaid. all they do is stand around for three hours and every now and then catch a ball.

[Thordic]

there already overpaid what do they need all that money for anyways. i think they should pay all pro sports players less (except paintball players they dont get paid enough), especially baseball players, they are so overpaid. all they do is stand around for three hours and every now and then catch a ball.

One reason baseball players make so much more money is they play a ridiculous number of games.

Baseball teams play what, 162 games a year? Yankee Stadium holds 58,000 people, and if you estimate $30 per ticket, thats a max of $281,880,000 a year just in ticket sales alone. Granted they don't sell out every game, but even if they make half that, the ticket sales alone almost pay for their payroll.

And the Yankees make most of their money off TV, Radio, and Merchandising.

So baseball teams have a lot more money than, say, football teams. Football teams sell out their games more often, and have bigger stadiums, however they only play 16 games a year. They also make most of their money off TV & radio type stuff, but due to the fact they play so few games, their players are going to make less money.

Hockey plays 82 games a year, but in front of only about 17,000 fans (thats about an average hockey arena). The NY Rangers sell out almost every game, so if you use the (low) number of $35 for tickets, they make about $49 million in ticket sales. Whereas the Yankees can almost pay for their roster out of ticket sales, the Rangers only raised about 2/3 of their roster this way (I realize I am using two highly overpaid teams as examples here).

Im just trying to point out the reasons for the differences in player payroll. People often forget there is a huge difference in the number of games played between the different sports.

Hockey SHOULD be on par with basketball, scaled for popularity and team size (Not sure how many players a bball team carries). They play the same number of games in the same size arenas.

[logamus]

being a teamster, i fully support my nhlpa brothers. lets face it, the people to blame here are the owners and the owners alone. if a player asks for 5 mil a year and nobody will pay that, guess what he has to play for less. as long as someone will pay 5 mil why not ask for it. when your contract comes around, you have to get all you can get and its stupid on the owners part to blame the players for taking the money the owners give them. just stupid.

[rkjunior303]

If you were making 7 million dollars a year and your boss came to you one day and said, we renegotiated your contract now even though you are still the same worker as before, maybe even a better worker you are only going to be making say 5 million dollars a year.

How would that make you feel?

I can see both points of view. It's the matter of finding a happy fuzzy area in between so they can all kiss, hug, and get a season going.

[Thordic]

So you'd want everyone to make more money even if it means in 3 years everyone in the industry would be out of a job?

Idiot.

Plus, union people aren't screwing fans.