NationStates Jolt Archive

Will we ever have hockey back?
Should the players accept a salary cap?
How much more curling can you watch?

/cry

Life went on just fine without the NHL. :eek:
The North American economy didn't collapse.
No mass case of Hockey Withdrawal Rage™ was reported.

So why exactly do these guys need a raise? :confused:

I say give them a huge pay cut; that way the violent and delusional faction of hockey parents might put things in perspective and start acting remotely human again during their children's games. ;)

Sports parents are the only people on the face of this earth who act like spoiled rock stars BEFORE their children make it big -- and most of those kids never make it to the big leagues anyway. :)

Will we ever have hockey back?
Should the players accept a salary cap?
How much more curling can you watch?

it sucks i miss the good old game :D

Will we ever have hockey back?
Should the players accept a salary cap?
How much more curling can you watch?
what? whats happened to ice hockey?? im too ignorant to look anything up on google! :p
i love the sport (as much as I can, living in the UK where it gets no real TV coverage)... Made a point of seeing the NY Rangers when i went on holiday there (it was awesome!); plus I see the Cardiff Devils once in a while but they suck balls and its just depressing to watch em (sorry Devils, but its true)

Hockey will take a nose drive just like baseball did after the strike. However, hockey doesn't have the fan base baseball has so it will take long to bounce back.

Will we ever have hockey back?
Should the players accept a salary cap?
How much more curling can you watch?
Hopefully...
NO! I want the Leafs to stay good!
I don't watch any... But I am getting sick of football.

Hockey will take a nose drive just like baseball did after the strike. However, hockey doesn't have the fan base baseball has so it will take long to bounce back.
It has a huge fanbase in Canada! ^_^

The NHLPA is greeding and cares nothing about the game. They almost deny the fact salaries are getting out of hand. The lowest salary in the NHL in 2004, I believe, was $350 000 US. I mean, thats so much for a guy who likely sits on his ass and maybe plays 1 shift in the entire season. The NHLPA doesn't care that it is causing small market teams like Calgary and Edmonton to struggle because they won't accpet a damn salary cap. It works in the NFL, there is a new Superbowl winner each year (forget the last few that New England won), like it went St. Louis, Baltimore, New England, Tampa bay, New England. Wow, in 5 years, 1 team wins it twice. In the NHL, its been either Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey or Tampa Bay thats won the Stanley Cup in the last 9 or 10 years. Thats a sign of an unbalanced league if I ever saw one. And now people like Chris Chelios and Shane Doan whine about Gary Bettman not caring about the game. Shut up, you're the ones who don't give a damn about it. I miss the NHL but am so pissed at its ignorance and stupidity I may not be even that interested when it returns. Oh btw, there won't be a season this year, it's too late. There will be one next year though.

I do believe it has a huge fanbase in Michigan too. Which is semi-Canada. You want us to what? You want us to watch the Lions? That won't do.

NO! I want the Leafs to stay good!



stay good?


STAY good??!??!!!!

Hell man - this is the best they've been since the mid-60s! They're undefeated this year!

You start the season up and it will just be another year where the Cup only stays in town long enough for some display time at the Hall of Fame before the fans have to watch it get paraded around someone elses arena.

;)

Curling is better. I can turn on the TV and get some sleep.

Will we have hockey back? I don't know. Part of me hopes so, and part of me doesn't really give a damn. As much of a hockey fan as I am, I won't watch a single game of a lockout-shortened season. The Red Wings could go undefeated and give up two goals all season and I wouldn't look cross-eyed at them. It would be nice to have them back next season, though.

The NHL needs a salary cap and maybe a salary floor to appease the NHLPA. That might actually get them to accept a salary cap. They need an individual salary cap as well. And no outrageously high individual caps like the NBA. There's a reason I can hardly bear to follow the NBA, and part of it is that it's insanely expensive and has absolutely no excuse for it. The average player makes something like $5 million a year, which is about three times what the average NHL player makes. Ticket prices are through the roof. I am surprised they don't bill my creidt card every time I channel-surf through an NBA game on TV.

I think every kid who loves hockey should write a letter to Gary Bettman and Jeremy Roenick, pleading for the return of the Great Northern Game.

And hey, The Leafs would be in a good spot to get to the finals this season. Better than the Habs, anyway.

stay good?


STAY good??!??!!!!

Hell man - this is the best they've been since the mid-60s! They're undefeated this year!


LOL

I like the movies on CBC anyway...

Wow between basketball and the baseball off season & football & soccer, I completely forgot it was hockey season.

I guess it does not matter. Many people do not actually care. When an owner loses less money in a lockout, than if the team played, it shows you how messed up the system is. Blow it up and start from scratch.

Hockey will be back. Probably this year, but certainly by next October.

I don't like the cap idea. It's really there just to save the GM's from themselves, but it's clear that something needs to be done. I like the luxury tax system, but it needs real teeth. $35M payroll mandate. $0-5M over is a dollar for dollar tax. $5-10M over is two dollars tax for every dollar over (yes, that means that a team at $40,000,002 pays over $10M in tax while a team at $39,999,999 pays just shy of $5M in tax). Anything over $10M is five dollars tax for every dollar over. All revenue generated from this is distributed proportionally to each of the teams that are actually under the mandate.

This makes it possible to go over, but it's highly unlikely any team would blow the mandate away with a $70M budget or something.



I don't watch curling. Hockey is the only sport. Everything else...is just a game.

In the United States, hockey may pretty much be on life support when it finally emerges from the strike. The league expanded too much too soon. Really, can a sport that's pretty much only a niche sport in the U.S. support 30 teams? I would venture to say the league should scale back to no more than 16 teams, including the Canadian teams. Perhaps a couple of U.S. franchises could move to Canadian cities that don't have hockey and could support it (perhaps Hamilton or Winnipeg?) from cities in the U.S. that don't support their teams.

In Canada, this is probably akin to what happened to the NFL when it had its player strike in 1982. Eight games were lost and I believe only one was ever made up, so the league went to a nine game schedule. I didn't use 1987's player strike as an example because the league used replacement players and only lost one week's worth of games that weren't made up. The NBA's strike a few years ago might be another good example since the league still thrived after the strike and the resulting reduction in games.

I think the players and the owners need to face up to reality. If they continue to shut each other out of playing, they will severely damage the league in Canada and likely destroy it in the U.S.

I'd love to see hockey back...it's a great pro sport.

NO! I want the Leafs to stay good!

I don't really think the Toronto Maple Leafs were good to begin with...yeah they have a high payroll but they sure have a knack of wasting it come playoff time.

In the NHL, its been either Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey or Tampa Bay thats won the Stanley Cup in the last 9 or 10 years. Thats a sign of an unbalanced league if I ever saw one.

Actually, Tampa Bay won their first ever Stanley Cup last year, and the Dallas Stars won just once (over my Buffalo Sabres...), though I'll agree that the National Hockey League needs more parity. It did show signs of improving but I'm getting sick and tired of the whining that goes on with salaries.

Regardless, though, both Damien Cox and Al Strachan (of the Toronto Star and Sun respectively) put forward great cases for the NHL to NOT resume this year. Cox said that a prolonged lockout may force the NHL and the players to do what's right for the game, as they'd eventually get desperate to start working again or, at the very least, may cause some rebel clubs to breakaway and run things better than the NHL has. Strachan said that if the lockout kills the NHL, Europe would become the new NHL, with Canada becoming a "European" league (it'd be just like soccer). In Strachan's own words, "hockey would be where it is appreciated", closing with (a sentiment I agree with), "who said the NHL lockout was a bad thing?"

And hey, The Leafs would be in a good spot to get to the finals this season. Better than the Habs, anyway.

Hahaha, I needed a good laugh. Ed Belfour goes down early in the season with a hip replacement, Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts get transferred to the Geriatrics Ward and Ferguson trades away your next three first rounders for Chris Chelios to bolster your sorry D. The wheels are gonna start coming off the Leafs' wagon very soon, it's almost better off for you that you DON'T have another season to wear down your guys.

Hockey will be back. Probably this year, but certainly by next October.

I don't like the cap idea. It's really there just to save the GM's from themselves, but it's clear that something needs to be done. I like the luxury tax system, but it needs real teeth. $35M payroll mandate. $0-5M over is a dollar for dollar tax. $5-10M over is two dollars tax for every dollar over (yes, that means that a team at $40,000,002 pays over $10M in tax while a team at $39,999,999 pays just shy of $5M in tax). Anything over $10M is five dollars tax for every dollar over. All revenue generated from this is distributed proportionally to each of the teams that are actually under the mandate.

This makes it possible to go over, but it's highly unlikely any team would blow the mandate away with a $70M budget or something.



I don't watch curling. Hockey is the only sport. Everything else...is just a game.

Yeah, if I think they'll find any common ground to get things done, it will be with a luxury tax, but it'll have to be a very stiff one. Something close to what you proposed, but I think it would have to be even stiffer. I like that the NHLPA has made some concessions with their most recent proposal, and although they haven't given enough yet, it should get both sides talking again.

The reason you'll never see cost certainty or salaries linked to revenues accepted by the players is because, as Sarzonia and a few others pointed out, the game will really struggle in the states when it comes back. I think the NHL wants salaries to not exceed any more than 57% of revenues, and while right now it would come out to about 31 million per team, revenues will take a hit and that number will shrink drastically. Say revenues shrink by 1/3, then teams will have a payroll of just 20 million, which is considerably lower than most of the other professional sports. Just because these guys throw out 9 million dollar contracts to Holik and Guerin doesn't mean they're morons (Ok, it sorta does), but they know what they're doing with cost certainty. The game will struggle, especially in the American markets for a few years to come.