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In 1995 they started a 48 game season January 20. That gives both sides one more month and then it'll really be over.
I have felt all along that they will settle and thought they would do it by this month but I guess that they will wait one more. I think that they are close enough in negotiations not to lose the entire season. When it does end, there will be a tepid response in the U.S. while Canadian fans and media fall all over themselves to get back on the NHL bandwagon.
I don't care and don't miss it. I've been losing more and more interest in the watered down NHL for years. I can't relate to guys making huge coin for playing a sport. Next you'll see ads all over the uniforms so owners can make more money to make up for paying more out to players.
I think the owners should pay the players what they are asking for. However out of those wages should come all other expenses such as food and hotels and flights while traveling. The players should have to buy their own equipment including sticks, pay for limos and cabs as well. This might show them how much more the owners are out of pocket. Why should a person who owns a team and has all of the stress involved make less than the players. I'm pretty sure most company owners don't pay individual employees more than themselves.
The reality is that the owners have created this mess. Nobody forced them to pay some of the obscene salaries and contracts that they have been paying. Basically, the owners are asking the players to protect them from themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1argoholic
This is so true Ravi. The problem is that the rich owners of teams that actually make money can afford to pay these contracts. The owners of teams that don't are forced to pay these salaries in order to keep some sort of competitive balance. The biggest problem is that the league tried to put teams in markets that can't afford the ecomomics of the sport (seeing as how they don't even come close to competing with the other major sports as far as TV revenue goes). It was a bad plan to try an have 30 teams in a league that really should only have between 20-24.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArgoRavi
I agree with that as well. It is the major reason that I don't pay to see any of these sports (NHL,NFL,NBA,MLB) in person. If tickets come my way free, I will gladly accept, but I will not pay to see athletes that make a minimum of 10 times what I make annually (in the case of NBA and MLB up to 300 times what I make annually).Quote:
Originally Posted by 1argoholic
i agree....i have been going to quite a few ohl games here in mississauga the last few years...awesome hockey! these guys play their butts off for peanuts, and for 15 bucks a ticket, you cant go wrong...i think the ohl hockey is a million times better then the nhl...
I agree, Angelo, that the optimal number of teams is in that 20-24 range. Unfortunately, the horse has left the barn though and we will never see a contraction that the league so desperately needs for both its economics and for the good of the product on the ice.
I go to Florida every year and attend one sometimes two NHL games. The Canadiens always play the Panthers on or around New Years Eve and the building is practically all Habs fans. The Leafs play there around the same time and while it wasn't as pro-Leaf as the Canadians get the crowd was still pretty partisan against the home team. They've done better over the past few years (the Panthers) so maybe that gets a few people interested, but especially in December they bring in the Leafs, Rangers, Bruins, Canadiens and Red Wings all the places were snowbirds are coming from and they sell out the place with only with the crowd being partisan against them. It's a shame too because the arena in Florida is very nice.
There are a lot of retired Habs living in South Florida. I remember in the mid 90's going to a place called the Penalty Box Lounge, owned by former Vancouver Canuck (and brother of Wilf) Rosaire Paiment. There were at least 5 ex habs hanging out there including Phil Goyette and the pocket rocket Henri Richard.Quote:
Originally Posted by argofan87