The owners are happy BUT what about the fans?

[Cranky]

Ten months ago, we were told that there had to be a new CBA that "saves" hockey. Save? From who? Godless communists? Aliens? WalMart shoppers?

If NHL hockey was a financial mess it was only the doing of the teams themselves. Teams like the Leafs and Rangers had no spending limits because they have a huge and blindingly loyal fan base to chew from. Teams like Detroit made money every year because they always went deep into the playoffs and reaped the financial rewards.

So who was attacking the poor little NHL and thier innocent owners? Ahh yes, those dastardly players, aka mercenaries. By the very name, mercenaries have always known to plunder open bank accounts guarded by asleeping general managers. After all, why would they be mercenaries if not for the money? As somewhat civilized mercenaries, they did not attack the owners with those new fangled carbon shafted sticks but rather shafted them through a FAR more sinister method. The evil mercenaries used AGENTS. How evil is that? Heck, you can even find passages in the Bible denouncing agents as Devil worshipers with not so cute pictures them. Yes, all those red colored naked little man holding tridents in the Bible are PLAYER AGENTS. I thought you should know that. But I digress.......

They tell us this is CBA is good for hockey. Bullpucks! This CBA is NOTHING MORE then allowing the owners to make as much money as possible and protecting that share from the players. It has no redeeming value for the fans. IN FACT, with the lowering of the free agency age, fans will have a much tougher time identifying with the players. The players become a faceless commodity that one throws on the ice. The most productive years for players is in their late 20's and that is the precise age they can leave the team for the highest bidder. Sure, the owners will blame leaving the team on players greed but the reality is that THEY made it happen. The OWNERS signed a CBA to line their pockets without regard to the consequences for team loyalty. Somewhere in the owners illustrious model of how to create a team, there is a chapter written by businees managers on how to sell the brand, rather then the content.

Then there is the myth of helping the smaller market teams.How? Their best players will run off to the highest bidder the minute they have the ability to do so. If a team has a payroll of 25 million how can they pay one player a quarter of the 7.8 million maximum? So by definition, the less a team is able to pay their players, the less they will be able to keep their top star. Invariably, the star will go to the team with the highest cap.

The other myth is that this new CBA will flood the market with more free agents and make it more competitive. That is another load of bullpucks! Every time a player becomes a free agent, he vacates his "slot" for another free agent. I think Einstein said it best when he said that free agent positions can not be created or destroyed, they can only be filled by other more expensive free agents. Sure, some of the juniors may fill the vacated spots but there will be just as many players retiring or not fulfilling their abilities as there will be juniors coming up.

So what exactly is the positive thing that this CBA does for fans? NOTHING. When they were negotiating how to split up the meat, the fans never entered their thoughts other then how much meat was on our bones. Now, you hear sweet words of how important we are and what they are going to do for us but in reality, the only reason the are doing this is to lure us back to supply their burger meat.

So what can the burger meat do? We can refrain from buying NHL and NHLPA endorsed products and going to a few less games. It will deliver a message far more powerful then you can imagine. It will deliver a message that we are not just some stupid fans who can be manipulated and used. We can deliver a message that the NHL and NHLPA are not the game and WE are the true lovers and masters of hockey.

It's high time we deliver that message.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

The lockout should have lasted two years, then we would have seen some real positive change—too bad the players forced Goodenow to become conciliatory.

But what's the use raging over spilt pucks? The NHL is a business and fans are nothing more than unit sources of revenue.

You're a cranky businessman Cranky, you can appreciate understand that. The hockey arena is just another factory.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

habsaddict said:

Ten months ago, we were told that there had to be a new CBA that protected "save" hockey. Save? From who? Godless communists? Aliens? WalMart shoppers?

From the owners, who were apparently clogging the Player Signing Moderation phone lines with piteous cries of, "I'm doomed! Stop me before I spend again!'

Let's see how they abuse the new system to get their fix and start those phones lines ringing all over again.

If NHL hockey was a mess it was only the doing of the teams themselves. Teams like the Leafs and Rangers had no spending limits because they have a huge and blindingly loyal fan base to chew from. Teams like Detroit made money every year because they always went deep into the playoffs and reaped the financial rewards.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

So who was attacking the poor little NHL and thier innocent owners? Ahh yes, those dastardly players, aka mercenaries. By the very name, mercenaries have always known to plunder open bank accounts. After all, why would they be mercenaries if not for the money? As somewhat civilized mercenaries, they did not attack the owners with those new fangled carbon shafted sticks but rather shafted them through a far more sinister method. The evil mercenaries used AGENTS. How evil is that? Heck, you can even find passages in the Bible denouncing agents as Devil worshipers with not so cute pictures them. Yes, all those red colored naked little man holding tridents in the Bible are AGENTS. I thought you should know that. But I digrese.......

Yep. "I'm a God fearing man, and it was those demon players and agents made me draw my chequebook from my pocket and sign outrageous amounts away. Wicked, wicked people!"

They tell us this is CBA is good for hockey. Bullpucks! This CBA is NOTHING MORE then allowing the owners to make as much money as possible and protecting that share from the players. It has no redeeming value for the fans. IN FACT, with the lowering of the free agency age, fans will have a much tougher time identifying with the players. The players become a faceless commodity that one throws on the ice for the good of the team. The most productive years for players is in their late 20's and that is the precise age they can leave the team for the highest bidder. Sure, the owners will blame this on player greed but the reality is that THEY made it happen. The OWNERS signed a CBA to line their pockets without regard to the consequences for team loyalty. Somewhere in the owners illustrious model of how to create a team, there is a chapter written by businees managers on how to sell the name, rather then the content.

Cranky you're a cranky businessman. You can appreciate understand this: Fans are unit sources of revenue and the hockey arena is a factory wherein you squeeze the most honey you can from the revenue bees.

Then there is the myth of helping the smaller market teams.How? Their best players will run off to the highest bidder the minute they have the ability to do so. If a team has a payroll of 25 million and can only pay the maximum of 20% of their payroll, the most they can pay their star player is 5 million. If a team has a cap of 39 million, the most they can pay is 6.8 million. Where do you think a player rather play? So by definition, the less a team is able to pay their players, the less they will be able to keep their top star. Invariably, the star will go to the team with the highest cap.

See my thread on "small markets are in big trouble."

$7.8M is the max under the cap.

The other myth is that this new CBA will flood the market with more free agents and make it more competitive. That is another load of bullpucks! Every time a player becomes a free agent, he vacates his "slot" for another free agent. I think Einstein said it best when he said that free agent positions can not be created or destroyed, they can only be filled by other more expensive free agents. Sure, some of the juniors may fill the vacated spots but there will be just as many players retiring or not fulfilling their abilities as there will be juniors coming up.

Yeah, we dealt with that in the "Demand Counts Too" thread.

So what exactly is the positive thing that this CBA does for fans? NOTHING. When they were negotiating how to split up the meat, the fans never entered their thoughts other then how much meat was on our bones. Now, you hear sweet words of how important we are and what they are going to do for us but in reality, the only reason the are doing this is to lure us back to supply their burger meat.

Yes, but they are determined to do a better job of it this time around.

So what can the burger meat do? We can refrain from buying hockey sweaters and going to a few less games. It will deliver a message far more powerful then you can imagine. It will deliver a message that we are not just some stupid fans who can be manipulated and used. We can deliver a message that the NHL and NHLPA are not the game and WE are the true lovers and masters of hockey.

It's high time we deliver that message.

You are not a fan, you are a number.

And you were against Goodenow holding back until Armageddon hit the league. Shame on you!

[Cranky]

mrbozo said:

$7.8M is the max under the cap.

!

IO stand corrected. So the cap is 7.8 million for any given "superstar". Regardless, how does a team afford that kind of player if it's a quarter of their entire teams salary?

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

habsaddict said:

mrbozo said:

$7.8M is the max under the cap.

!

IO stand corrected. So the cap is 7.8 million for any given "superstar". Regardless, how does a team afford that kind of player if it's a quarter of their entire teams salary?

It will be a case of Snow White leading the 22 dwarfs. (Think Pittsburg.)

[TheCaper]

Yeah. They act like they actually care about us. They make apologies and the like, but it’s pretty clear that all they care about is our money.

I really can’t believe that they didn’t ‘t make the “agreement in principal” public. They seem afraid of something; they haven’t yet found the guts to actually present their “year long” work to us. I guess they feel that we lack the brainpower to understand their masterpiece. It’s just one more example of incompetence, just one more example of how little they respect the fans who actually cared enough about the game to waste precious time in following the debacle.

So they keep us in the dark, they treat us with a rumor from this reporter who has a source, or that reporter who has a source, and deny us the ability to read the result of their “year long” work with our own eyes. The “mess” is sickening, but luckily I’m a fan of the game itself, and even though they’ll twist and twist it, I remain confident that I’ll continue to at least recognize it.

[franko]

habsaddict said:

mrbozo said:

$7.8M is the max under the cap.

!

IO stand corrected. So the cap is 7.8 million for any given "superstar". Regardless, how does a team afford that kind of player if it's a quarter of their entire teams salary?

Very carefully.

The good thing: no team will be able to load up on overpriced 7M$ players.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Experts: NHL needs to market stars

Canadian Press

7/14/2005 3:39:58 PM

Marc Ganis could name almost every New York Islander during the team's dynasty days.

Growing up in New York through the 1980s, he knew the team well. Potvin. Bossy. Trottier. Gillies. Nystrom. They were quotable, recognizable and successful on the ice.

Ask him to name more than a handful of Blackhawks in his current hometown of Chicago, and he'll stumble.

Entering a post-lockout era in which the NHL badly needs fans to associate with on-ice heroes, the lack of recognizable stars and their anonymity in the communities where they play represents a challenge to growing the game, especially in the United States.

"Here in Chicago, they make jokes about who the new half-dozen Russians are on the team," says Ganis, who runs Sportscorp, an adviser to pro sports teams.

"You didn't know who they were. Their game was basically interchangeable and because of the language barrier, few of them would speak to the media."

The language barrier, he says, is understandable. But even North American players need to vastly improve their relationships with fans.

- full article