Something to think about

This article brings up a good point - how many of us can afford to take a year off from out jobs to prove a point? I don't know anyone that can and if we had to me might not ever recover financially. Most of us would have nothing left and would lose the houses we live in.

The Globe and Mail --- Neither side seems to feel a great imperative to reach a compromise. The league and the union appear to have been emboldened by the response to the last lockout; if fans returned in droves then, they surely would again.

Perhaps that assumption is correct. But the NHL risks eventually exhausting its fans’ seemingly limitless patience. To Canadians and Americans suffering through turbulent economic times, the sight of millionaire players and multimillionaire owners haggling over how to divide the hard-earned dollars of their considerably less affluent supporters is a decidedly unseemly one. And the fact that the league’s employees can afford to miss an entire year of work only serves as a reminder of their comfort. How many other unions, and how many other employers, would have such a luxury?

Owners shoot first shot over the bow

The National Hockey League has made an initial offer to the NHL Players' Association and I am going to be honest with you, this could be a very long off season, especially if the Owners don't budge from their current position. There owners have suggested some major changes to the current CBA. Here is a pretty good break down by Julie Robenhymer of Hockey Buzz.

Here are the main points of the reported proposal:
- reduce hockey related revenues to 46% from 57%
- 10 seasons in NHL before becoming UFA
- contracts limited to 5 year terms
- same salary in each season of contract
- no more salary arbitration
- ELCs are 5 years instead of 3
- no signing bonuses
- cap ceiling to be $4M above midpoint, floor $8M under.

After taking a look at this proposal by the owners, it definitely looks like a red herring to me. I can't see the players signing an agreement that looks like this. I also don't see how the NHLPA would accept that big of a roll back in players salaries.

Parise and Suter signings didn't go unnoticed

I don’t think that anyone one is going to feel sorry for the NHL owners during the upcoming CBA negotiations when they say we’re broke and we can’t afford to play these big exuberant salaries anymore… Seriously! No one is going to feel sorry for the owners – especially after the Minnesota Wild’s owner signed two players for a total of 196 million dollars. I just don’t see there being a lot of empathy – especially for the Wild owner Craig Leipold.

I would imagine that the players have been watching these players’ signings as well.

Michael Russo, Star Tribune --- Leipold responded Monday, saying, "Listen: We've been losing money and the way we were going, we were going to have another year of 'keep losing more money and more money and more money.' So if I'm going to make the kind of financial commitment to keep this team and move this forward, I'd rather do it growing it.

"Ultimately that was the decision. As a result of this move, it's not going to cause us to be financially stable. I believe it will be within a year or two. This is a move to get us out of the hole that we've been digging. And as I spoke with some other owners in the league as to why I did it, they totally get it. They understand it. At some point you have to make that kind of commitment in order to turn your franchise around. If we didn't, then we would just keep losing more going forward without any plan of changing it."

Ironically, the day after the spending spree, Leipold was one of the owners who sat in the bargaining session between the NHL and NHL Players' Association in New York. The league has moved to terminate the collective bargaining agreement and negotiate another. The current agreement expires Sept. 15, and the league is in danger of a lockout. In 2004-05, the season was wiped out because of a lockout.

The hockey world has been a buzz since the big signing in Minnesota and you can bet that executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association Donald Fehr took note of the signing as well.

The owners want to move to a 50/50 revenue split; currently the players are at 57-43 revenue split. If the players are to accept the 50/50 number would mean that means the players are going to have their salaries rolled back. This could end up being a long fight especially with the recent signing in the NHL during free agency.