salary cap say boston bruins owner
Aug 22, 2003 20:12:20 GMT -5
Post by marcel on Aug 22, 2003 20:12:20 GMT -5
Bruins' owner vows salary cap
Associated Press
8/22/2003
BOSTON (AP) - Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, breaking years of silence for the sake of a charity fund-raiser, vowed Friday that the NHL will have a salary cap in its next collective bargaining agreement.
``The commissioner is dedicated to cost-certainty when it comes to the labour agreement,'' Jacobs said at a ``Breakfast with the Bosses'' featuring Boston's four professional sports owners. ``There will be cost-certainty.''
Owners sought a salary cap in the last negotiations before an agreement was reached without one, ending the lockout that wiped out almost half of the 1994-95 regular season. Since then, three teams have moved and three others have declared bankruptcy, though in at least two cases the financial problems went far beyond salary costs.
The labour contract expires after next season, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said he wants a salary cap in the next one. Officials from the NHL Players Association could not be reached for comment, but the union has always maintained that the market should set salaries.
A resident of Buffalo, N.Y., Jacobs is so rarely seen or heard from publicly in Boston that his appearance at the breakfast was itself news. Although he is said to attend many Bruins games, he sits in a luxury box and rarely, if ever, mingles among the fans; his last media interview is believed to have been more than three years ago.
Friday's event was broadcast on television and radio as part of the WEEI-AM radiothon to raise money for the Jimmy Fund, which serves children with cancer. The event raised more than $550,000 US by the evening.
Jacobs was quickly asked about the perception that he cares more about milking money from the team than winning.
``Boston makes money, and it will continue to make money. When I say it makes money, it doesn't lose a lot, is a better way to put it,'' Jacobs said during a panel discussion with Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, Red Sox owner John Henry and Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
``We've got teams that are losing 20 or 30 million dollars a year. These guys are close to going out of business. If we don't have a healthy league, we don't have a healthy team. So it's up to guys like us, in Boston, who have it good, to be able to help bootstrap up this entire league.''
But he denied he is apathetic about the team, saying that he gets so involved in watching the Bruins play that his ankles hurt after the game, as if he skated a regular shift.
``I've been there, I've seen it,'' Grousbeck said. ``He's a major fan.''
Jacobs also denied that he has ordered Bruins management to run the team on the cheap.
``All you have to do is live in the city of Buffalo,'' which was in danger of losing the Sabres after they went bankrupt, Jacobs said. ``You just have to be there with the financial uncertainty that existed about a franchise, and had a great following. And I said, `This can't happen here.'''
Despite being in one of the NHL's healthy markets, the Bruins have routinely let their best players leave for free agency, or traded them away, rather than sign them for what they consider to be inflated market rates.
The Bruins traded future hall of famer Ray Bourque to Colorado so he could have a chance to win a Stanley Cup before he retired.
``Giving him the opportunity to raise that Cup was meaningful to us. That he did it in Colorado was hurtful,'' Jacobs said. ``I have to say I'm very sad to see it. I wish we could have done it in Boston.''
Fans wish the Bruins would have built a champion around Bourque in his two decades with the team. But Jacobs said he hasn't hesitated to spend money.
``Our payroll and New Jersey's are almost exactly the same. We just didn't spend it the same,'' he said. ``So it's not a payroll-driven issue, it's a management issue. It will be very interesting when there is a cap and we all have to worry about the way we manage our teams. We'll see how good my management is.''
Associated Press
8/22/2003
BOSTON (AP) - Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, breaking years of silence for the sake of a charity fund-raiser, vowed Friday that the NHL will have a salary cap in its next collective bargaining agreement.
``The commissioner is dedicated to cost-certainty when it comes to the labour agreement,'' Jacobs said at a ``Breakfast with the Bosses'' featuring Boston's four professional sports owners. ``There will be cost-certainty.''
Owners sought a salary cap in the last negotiations before an agreement was reached without one, ending the lockout that wiped out almost half of the 1994-95 regular season. Since then, three teams have moved and three others have declared bankruptcy, though in at least two cases the financial problems went far beyond salary costs.
The labour contract expires after next season, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said he wants a salary cap in the next one. Officials from the NHL Players Association could not be reached for comment, but the union has always maintained that the market should set salaries.
A resident of Buffalo, N.Y., Jacobs is so rarely seen or heard from publicly in Boston that his appearance at the breakfast was itself news. Although he is said to attend many Bruins games, he sits in a luxury box and rarely, if ever, mingles among the fans; his last media interview is believed to have been more than three years ago.
Friday's event was broadcast on television and radio as part of the WEEI-AM radiothon to raise money for the Jimmy Fund, which serves children with cancer. The event raised more than $550,000 US by the evening.
Jacobs was quickly asked about the perception that he cares more about milking money from the team than winning.
``Boston makes money, and it will continue to make money. When I say it makes money, it doesn't lose a lot, is a better way to put it,'' Jacobs said during a panel discussion with Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, Red Sox owner John Henry and Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
``We've got teams that are losing 20 or 30 million dollars a year. These guys are close to going out of business. If we don't have a healthy league, we don't have a healthy team. So it's up to guys like us, in Boston, who have it good, to be able to help bootstrap up this entire league.''
But he denied he is apathetic about the team, saying that he gets so involved in watching the Bruins play that his ankles hurt after the game, as if he skated a regular shift.
``I've been there, I've seen it,'' Grousbeck said. ``He's a major fan.''
Jacobs also denied that he has ordered Bruins management to run the team on the cheap.
``All you have to do is live in the city of Buffalo,'' which was in danger of losing the Sabres after they went bankrupt, Jacobs said. ``You just have to be there with the financial uncertainty that existed about a franchise, and had a great following. And I said, `This can't happen here.'''
Despite being in one of the NHL's healthy markets, the Bruins have routinely let their best players leave for free agency, or traded them away, rather than sign them for what they consider to be inflated market rates.
The Bruins traded future hall of famer Ray Bourque to Colorado so he could have a chance to win a Stanley Cup before he retired.
``Giving him the opportunity to raise that Cup was meaningful to us. That he did it in Colorado was hurtful,'' Jacobs said. ``I have to say I'm very sad to see it. I wish we could have done it in Boston.''
Fans wish the Bruins would have built a champion around Bourque in his two decades with the team. But Jacobs said he hasn't hesitated to spend money.
``Our payroll and New Jersey's are almost exactly the same. We just didn't spend it the same,'' he said. ``So it's not a payroll-driven issue, it's a management issue. It will be very interesting when there is a cap and we all have to worry about the way we manage our teams. We'll see how good my management is.''