Lock Out Year: What a Waste of Time

[chk hrd 164]

The owners now pocket more money than ever...."

Isn't that the point of owning something, to make money? The owners are the ones who assume all the financial responsibility and liabilities, not the players. When players salaries take a overly large protion of your finances it leave very little to keep the infrastructure going (ask the Isles about thier rink). The salary cap was needed to keep the NHL afloat. It's bad when a business looses less money by not operating, something that happened to a few teams. The owners new what was coming and tried to correct before the strike. When they didn't get any cooperation from the NHLPA they started building thier warchests, something the NHLPA should have done.

The owners originally offered the NHLPA a salary cap that was higher than what they settled for so the NHLPA cost the players money buy not settling earlier. The players got less money because the owners stood firm. I also thought it was strange that the NHLPA didn't let thier members vote on some of the owners proposals, it's thier futures and not the NHLPA's.

Yes the owners did help create the monster, and it was also thier realization that it needed to be tamed. Me personally, I do not regret loosing one year of hockey if it helps secure the future of the game.

[Chadd 916]

Chadd, I don't understand why you think both sides will regret the CBA. The majority of the teams can peg their salaries at X percent, which is the desire of virtually all other industries. If incomes grow, they'll give raises; if incomes sink, they'll retract. It seems the only ones who might feel a pinch are the smaller markets if they feel the cap has grown beyond their means. Although that is obviously a good sign for the league overall, it could cause them to lag by paying closer to the cap's floor. However, a gap between the Haves and Have Nots doesn't seem to be any different than the circumstances of two years ago.

I think the markets that aren;t able to generate more revenue are going to be back in the position of not being able to compete and will be urging the league to demand more concessions from the players. If that happens there could be a major clash between the various groups of owners.