Hockey deadline nears!!!

[KingDL1]

Sept. 15 - Collective bargaining agreement between NHL and players' association expires.

This makes me ill, I love hockey I hope they get it together in some kind of last minute deal.

I don't think the NHL can handle another strike.

[KingDL1]

World > Americas

from the September 14, 2004 edition

Economics of NHL lockout

The hockey league's labor deal expires at midnight tonight, and a work stoppage threatens the entire season.

By Susan Bourette | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

TORONTO – Brian Smyth is already bracing for a winter of misery.

"It's going to be a long, cold, lonely season," he says, sitting in a downtown Toronto sports bar festooned with hockey posters, banners, and jerseys. "Hockey is our lifeblood. Without it, there will be no joy. Nothing to celebrate or talk about."

It's the same lament being uttered across Canada on the eve of a National Hockey League lockout. After all, in Canada hockey isn't just a game - it's part of the national fabric, a passion that borders on obsession.

The NHL's collective-bargaining agreement expires at the stroke of midnight tonight, and owners are expected to deadbolt their arena doors across Canada and the US, shutting down the season that's scheduled to begin Oct. 13. Owners and players are in a pitched battle over the basic economics of the system.

A study commissioned by the NHL estimated that the league lost $273 million on revenues of $2 billion during the 2002-03 season. Television ad revenues haven't kept pace with player salaries.

Owners want to cap payrolls, while players want to maintain the current market-based system. Observers say the entire season could be lost, delivering a cross-check to the Canadian economy.

"It will hit like a wallop. A loss of millions and millions," explains Richard Powers, who teaches sports marketing at the University of Toronto. "The trickle-down effect is huge."

While no one tracks hockey's overall impact on Canada's economy, many industries are already feeling the pinch. Last month, the country's largest manufacturer of hockey sticks announced it would trim its workforce, citing a slump in orders from the NHL. Pink slips have already begun to fly in the head offices of teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. The list of causalities is expected to swell in the event of a prolonged work stoppage.

Media watchers say the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, will feel the loss of ad revenues from its top show, "Hockey Night in Canada," a Saturday night ritual in bars and living rooms across the country. "'Hockey Night in Canada' is their biggest drawing property in terms of audience," says Helena Shelton of Media Buying Services in Toronto. "They're planning alternative programming, but no one is going to go there to watch reruns of old movies."

Still, the greatest cry can be heard in the restaurant and bar trade in cities with home teams. "It's a big hit for anybody that has a TV and serves beer," says Brad Marsh, a former NHL star who now owns Marshy's Bar-B-Q & Grill, a restaurant located in the Corel Centre, where the Ottawa Senators square off for home games. Mr. Marsh is opening a second location across town to shore up lost sales.

Nick Fatsis, owner of TKOs Sports Pub in Toronto, is worried. Already hit with a citywide smoking ban last January, Mr. Fatsis says he won't be able to weather this storm. "Before the smoking ban and during hockey season, you'd have to get here at 5:30 if you wanted a seat for a 7:30 game," Fatsis explains. "How I long for those days. I think this could really be the final knockout punch for us."

The league appeared to be in a genuine crisis two seasons ago when two teams, the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators, filed for bankruptcy protection, and players missed payments. Insiders now question the long-term viability of franchises in the US Sunbelt - the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers, Nashville Predators, and Phoenix Coyotes - as well as smaller-market teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins. More than half the teams are losing money and another quarter are treading water. Over the years, the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Ottawa Senators have all talked about relocating to more-lucrative US markets, home to 24 of the league's 30 teams, following the lead of the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets.

Owners are proposing a hard salary cap, like the NFL and NBA, set at $32 million. The Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers current payrolls are well over twice that. The players have countered with a small rollback on salaries (5 percent), reducing salaries for rookies, and say they're open to a luxury-tax system like that of Major League Baseball.

The NHL's last work stoppage was in 1994. A last-minute agreement was reached in January 1995 that salvaged the rest of the season

[KingDL1]

This the best article I have read yet, and it convinced me the players are the real dumb#sses in this one.

Posted on Tue, Sep. 14, 2004

NHL's ice follies could cost sport dearly

BY DAVE JOSEPH

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(KRT) - Nobody from the NHL has been formally accused of extreme stupidity and apathy, but all bets are off in the coming days.

Unable to broker a collective bargaining agreement with its players, NHL owners will likely vote today to lock them out for the coming season. A season on the brink? More like a sport with a death wish.

How can the players' union take its foolish stance against a salary cap when its sport has hit such a low across the United States, the home of 26 of its 30 teams? When asked recently if the players had a problem sitting out the upcoming season, Stars forward Mike Modano replied, ``I don't think anybody has a problem with that.''

Have Modano and his pals looked up recently at the stands? Are they blind to the empty seats? The lack of interest? How about the drop in season ticket sales? The lack of a major television contract?

There used to be four major sports in the United States. But one can argue the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball are all that remain because of the incompetence of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, players' union chief Bob Goodenow and the stars themselves.

The facts are fairly simple: In the past 10 years, players' salaries have increased an average of more than $1 million, while national television exposure has declined and revenues have stalled. U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Chair Arthur Levitt recently concluded that the league's losses of $273 million on revenues of $1.9 billion threatened the NHL's viability. Twenty teams lost a total of $300 million last year.

There's a plethora of reasons for the NHL's problems. Before expansion, 16 of 21 teams could count on revenue from playoff games. Now only 16 of 30 can count on that money and nervous general managers overspend on talent to make the playoffs.

That isn't the problem of the union. But players can't be blind to the decline of the sport across the United States. Despite a surge in popularity in the early 1990s - which included a contract with Fox television and participation in the Olympics - Bettman was unable to sustain the resurgence. He allowed expansion, giving owners a quick fix of cash while watching a diluted product perform clutch-and-grab to a bored and shrinking audience.

But the players are guilty of blindly following Goodenow. Certainly, they realize the trouble the sport faces, especially in revenues through television. Think about this: The NBA's television contract is worth $671 million. Major League Baseball's working on $559 million and the NFL $18 billion. Bettman's NHL? A paltry $120 million.

Then again, NHL ratings in the United States are lower than arena football games.

If done correctly and fairly, a salary cap will do what it has for the NFL: generate more revenue through a better, more competitive product. Eventually, interest builds, revenues increase and the cap grows. The NFL's cap has gone from $34 million in 1994 to roughly $78.7 million this year.

Unfortunately, Bettman spent 10 years doing nothing to correct the decline of the sport. And the players are blindly following Goodenow into a dead end. No wonder Hall of Fame defenseman Bobby Orr told Canadian television, ``I'm disgusted by what's going on.''

If the facts are fairly simple, so is the solution: There needs to be a cap. Not the $31 million Bettman shopped around earlier in the year (only six teams currently have a payroll under $31 million), but something around $40-$45 million. There should also be a bottom so teams don't torpedo salaries and fall below a set figure. Maybe that could be $31 million. Numbers can be worked out.

With $300 million in reserve to wait out the players, the owners will eventually get a cap. When that finally occurs - when Modano and Co. finally smarten up to the fact their game is dying and fewer people are caring about it - the players should fire Goodenow and the owners rid themselves of Bettman.

Only then will this lockout be viewed as a positive step toward the future.

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© 2004 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Edited September 15, 2004 by KingDL1