This is an idea that would run counter to Redwing77's contraction idea that he threw out there yesterday in
be the NHL Commissioner for a day. I kind of like the idea too - if your team goes over the salary cap, then that team would pay a
luxury tax like
Major League Baseball has. I don't know if you could get the more successful and more lucrative teams in the NHL to sign off on a deal like this.
Joe Haggerty, CSNNE.COM --- Instead the NHLPA is sitting, waiting and taking measure of which way the wind is blowing before releasing its own counter-proposal. One would expect that counter-move is coming sooner rather than later, and that it’s going to include creative ideas about revenue sharing.
After all, Fehr is the same union head that oversaw the change to a soft salary cap in Major League Baseball that essentially boils down to a luxury tax with heavy revenue sharing controls. The New York Yankees spend like drunken sailors and poverty-stricken teams like the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates end up the beneficiaries of the extra funds.
Fehr and the NHLPA have designs on something similar in the NHL where teams like the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs have seemingly endless reserves of cash they could call upon when needed. That would make things more manageable for teams like the New Jersey Devils and Phoenix Coyotes that are facing economic difficulties. That system could help the “struggling” small market franchises that are driving the owners to a “we are losing money” argument despite a record $3.3 billion in revenues last season.
But it would also be a large departure for teams like New York, Toronto, Chicago and Boston that don’t want to bankroll the rest of the league based on their own successful business models. It’s not the business that any owners signed up for when they joined the NHL, but it might just be the best solution to get everybody what they’re seeking.
One thing that proposal will do: get the small market and big market NHL owners fighting among each other given the very different situations they’re each facing.
What do you think? Also, do you think the NHL is going to have a prolonged work stoppage or are the two sides going to be able to work out their differences quickly. Some have said that the NHL has a lot to lose if they don't have their winter classic and wouldn't like to have a long drawn out work stoppage.
