Who's To Blame for The NHL's Demise?

[KingLouieLouie]

Who's to blame for the demise of the '04-'05 season....the owners, the players, or you do just direct all your rage to just Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow respectively for what it seemed throughout this entire process their very "laxed" and passive approach... or all 4 factions combined?

 

[Dback Jon]

I put more blame on the players - they were making something like 75% of the league's revenues.

 

[Town Drunk]

The owners.

No one put a gun to their heads and forced them to give out those big contracts to players. They're at fault for the economic mess the league is in

That said, both sides had to come halfway. In the end, they weren't close enough.

 

[Town Drunk]

By the way, the letter Bettman and Co. released last night was pretty unprofessional. It's been widely reported that they have been negotiating in bad faith. That kind of proves it even more.

What a shame. It's really too bad it had to come to this

 

[PDXChris]

I was not sure who to blame until I heard a interview with JR last week and he was using Ewings logic and also saying they are the best in the world and desrve to get paid it, I agree to a certain extent. If the market is not allowing the owners to pay the money and the players are still demanding it I understand a salery cap that help the owners keep the players in check. Also, if we used JR'a logic, then the WNBA and the MLS players sould be making the same money as them because they are the best at what they do, but as we all know RJ's salery would pay 8 entire teams saleries in either league. Hockey is great, but they need to realize that they are not as close to the top 3 leagues like they use to be and their saleries so represent that.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Players and Goodenow. They foolishly decided that it was better to get nothing at all than to take the owners proposal and be slightly less overpaid than before.

For some reason they dont realize is that by trying to bring the owners to their knees, they are only making the situation worse and the owners will not be able to offer them as good of a deal. The players just lost the best deal they could ever get from the owners. Dont bite the hand that feeds you.

 

[Town Drunk]

Foolishly decided?

They figured the owners would cave. And they did somewhat, by backing off of linkage.

The players acknowledge that there needed to be a cap. They offered a 24% roll back. And Bettman and Co. couldn’t meet them half way, by going to $45 million.

They’ve negotiated in bad faith all throughout this process.

Bettman and Goodenow need to be given their walking papers.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Foolishly decided?

They figured the owners would cave. And they did somewhat, by backing off of linkage.

The players acknowledge that there needed to be a cap. They offered a 24% roll back. And Bettman and Co. couldn’t meet them half way, by going to $45 million.

They’ve negotiated in bad faith all throughout this process.

Bettman and Goodenow need to be given their walking papers.

Didnt come half way? Giving up linkage plus a cap of $10M more than originally sought is huge, where as the players union said things like "we wouldnt accept a $70M cap because of the principle of it." The PA backed off this in the last week, but for the most part had been completely inflexible until then. But if theyd rather go play in Europe for a couple thousand a year, i really dont care.

 

[Town Drunk]

The players offered a 24% roll back. The players offered a $45 million cap.

The players agreed to a cap. What did the owners give?

Linkage? That’s a good start. What else?

The players agreed to a salary cap of $45 million. The owners couldn’t go the extra $3 million to make it happen.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The players offered a 24% roll back. The players offered a $45 million cap.

The players agreed to a cap. What did the owners give?

Linkage? That’s a good start. What else?

The players agreed to a salary cap of $45 million. The owners couldn’t go the extra $3 million to make it happen.

The players did NOT, repeat, NOT offer $45M ever. Linkage is a very good start, as is the increase of $10M from their original cap demands. All the players really offered was a sky high cap that could be broken at will, and still gave the players a larger percentage of the revenues than any of the other major sports. The owner's proposal put them right on target with the other sports with the percentage of revenues going to the players. And it is much, much more difficult for the owners to make concessions when they are bleeding money. They want to make the bleeding stop, and if having no season at all saves them more money then playing uner the player's proposals, then they should just let the players play in Europe. The players keep wanting to fix the thing with duct tape, and thats just not going to cut it.

 

[Town Drunk]

How do you know the players didn’t offer it at $45 million? Forgive me if I trust the “industry sources” more than you.

How is having a $42 million cap, instead of a $45 million cap going to make that big of a difference when the owners don’t have to go that high to begin with? The owners aren’t forced to pay $45 million.

If the owners are bleeding money, then why were they giving out those big contracts to begin with? Why didn’t they come up with some sort of owner to owner revenue sharing?

The players agreed to a cap. How is that a duct tape fix when the owners couldn’t step up?

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

How do you know the players didn’t offer it at $45 million? Forgive me if I trust the “industry sources” more than you.

How is having a $42 million cap, instead of a $45 million cap going to make that big of a difference when the owners don’t have to go that high to begin with? The owners aren’t forced to pay $45 million.

If the owners are bleeding money, then why were they giving out those big contracts to begin with? Why didn’t they come up with some sort of owner to owner revenue sharing?

The players agreed to a cap. How is that a duct tape fix when the owners couldn’t step up?

Show me a link that says the players offered $45M. Not somebody speculating that they would accept $45, one that says they did. The last offer the PA made that became public was $49M (plus the exceptions), and Goodenow concluded this by stating something to the effect of "you will not hear back from us." From all indications, this was the last official offer the PA made.

Now you are denying that the owners are losing massive ammounts of money? You have to be kidding me.

Just because the players agreed to a cap doesnt mean it a decent proposal. Their cap was almost meaningless.

 

[PDXChris]

The players offered a 24% roll back. The players offered a $45 million cap.

The players agreed to a cap. What did the owners give?

Linkage? That’s a good start. What else?

The players agreed to a salary cap of $45 million. The owners couldn’t go the extra $3 million to make it happen.

You do realize that is they did offer $45 million, which I never heard anywhere, that is still 3 milling times 30 teams, that is $90 million dollors, that is still a big gap, $3 million per team sounds small, but $90 million is still a gigantic number in a league where most teams are losing a tom of money.

 

[Town Drunk]

Again, do you honestly believe the PA are going to make all their intentions public?

You don’t think these “insiders” know a little bit more about the situation than your or I?

I never said the owners aren’t losing money. But to say that they’re losing massive amounts of it is a bit of a stretch. If that were really the case, then again, why didn’t they come up with some sort of owner to owner revenue sharing? Why were they giving out so much money to players?

They had an independent reviewer check their books. And from what I recall, it wasn’t a full audit.

 

[Town Drunk]

You do realize that is they did offer $45 million, which I never heard anywhere, that is still 3 milling times 30 teams, that is $90 million dollors, that is still a big gap, $3 million per team sounds small, but $90 million is still a gigantic number in a league where most teams are losing a tom of money.

And you do realize that the owners are not required to pay $45 million, thus lowering that $90 million dollar number? You think teams like the Wild and Pens were going to play at exactly $45 million?

Again, what's $90 million out of $2 billion?

 

[KingLouieLouie]

I'm not directing all my blame toward Bettman, however, I just dont believe he should be the commissioner of Hockey....

If I remember correctly..he held a high-ranking position in the NBA (pretty much was David Stern's "righthand man"), and he was appointed as the NHL commissioner to pretty much replicate the markteing/financial success the
NBA did.....

I just question whether or not he understands how steep of tradition the NHL is and the historical significance of the sport of hockey in general.....

I'd much rather have the NHL hire someone who is vested with that knowledge and who is also highly regarded in hockey lore.... Perhaps someone like Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, or perhaps even Wayne Gretzky?

I guess I question Bettman since when I was watching the announcement live... it just seemed he lacked emotion... just rather..... "non-chalant".... Perhaps he was "worn-out" by the events, but it just didnt seem to be the case....

 

[PDXChris]

I think a Ray Bourque would be perfect, he was aroung then and now and understands to old waysa nd the new says and is a hardcore guy, or even Mark Messier, that way he would have to retire, but I do ont see a player ever running the NHL becuase the owners would not allow it. They might let a Super Mario do, or Wayne, no on other former player. Here is another name that I just thought of, Barry "mullet" Melrose.

 

[WizardOfAz]

I'm not directing all my blame toward Bettman, however, I just dont believe he should be the commissioner of Hockey....

100% Bettman's fault. No question about it.

 

[PDXChris]

100% Bettman's fault. No question about it.

I think that some of his fault can go back to the way he handled the growth of the league, if the right person took over instead of him, we would not be in this economic disaster that we are in.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

I'm not directing all my blame toward Bettman, however, I just dont believe he should be the commissioner of Hockey....

If I remember correctly..he held a high-ranking position in the NBA (pretty much was David Stern's "righthand man"), and he was appointed as the NHL commissioner to pretty much replicate the markteing/financial success the
NBA did.....

I just question whether or not he understands how steep of tradition the NHL is and the historical significance of the sport of hockey in general.....

I'd much rather have the NHL hire someone who is vested with that knowledge and who is also highly regarded in hockey lore.... Perhaps someone like Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, or perhaps even Wayne Gretzky?

I guess I question Bettman since when I was watching the announcement live... it just seemed he lacked emotion... just rather..... "non-chalant".... Perhaps he was "worn-out" by the events, but it just didnt seem to be the case....

Its really questionable as to how much of the power belongs to Bettman and how much the Board of Governors have to say in all of this.

 

[PDXChris]

Big suprise, on ESPN they just said the Bettman tried to get the owners to take the $45 millions, but of the 10 owners 2 would not do it, one of them being Chicago's owner. That is why I am not a Blackhawks fan because of the way he thinks. He and the Boston owner stopped the season.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Big suprise, on ESPN they just said the Bettman tried to get the owners to take the $45 millions, but of the 10 owners would not do it, on eof them being Chicago's owner. That is why I am not a Blackhawks fan because of the way he thinks. He and the Boston owner stoped the season.

A handful of teams werent very happy with $42M either, interesting stuff. I guess it doesnt matter anymore though...

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I've been hearing Bettman's comments on the radio today for the first time. I'm surprised at how he says "we" like he was one of the owners.

Isn't a commissioner supposed to be independent?

 

[NickelBack]

Isn't a commissioner supposed to be independent?

He is the worst commissioner in professional sports - bar none!

 

[Kel Varnsen]

He is the worst commissioner in professional sports - bar none!

He even makes Bud Selig look good.