NHL Essay I did for English

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Heres an essay I did for English class. It is supposed to be a persuasive essay and I'm trying to persuade the people that a salary cap is needed, but I also have a middle ground type of stance. Anyways, the english teacher gave me an A and said it was fun to read, so maybe you guys will enjoy it. One good thing was my teacher didnt notice any of the screwed up things I had in there, but I'm sure some of you will. Anyways, post comments about it if you want, or discuss the cap again. Thanks!

How much is too much? This is a question being thrown around the National Hockey League on a daily basis. With the team owners and their players facing off in a head to head battle royal to decide a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, neither side can agree on how much is “just right.†The “how much†in question considers the amount of money each team should be able to spend on its players salaries as a whole. The team owners, wanting to save money and increase profits, wish to install a rather low salary cap and the players, wanting to increase the amount of money in there savings account, want the cap to be quite a bit higher. This head butting between owners and players has already caused the NHL to cancel one full season. In my opinion the league should find an agreement that implements a rather low salary cap, but there are others who argue that no cap at all should be implemented. Those who believe that no cap should be installed believe that the owners should pay players as much as they can afford, which is a ludicrous idea. There are too many problems in the NHL without a salary cap, such as the troubles of the small market teams, the league wide loss of money, and the outrageous salaries of some of the leagues best players.

One glaring problem in the NHL is the inability for small market teams to be competitive. Teams that generate more income can afford more of the leagues select talents then teams with less income can afford. This leads to a few select teams grabbing up all the superstar players, leaving every other team in the dismal hole of trying to fight fire with a watering hose. Last fall, Forbes Magazine valued six franchises - the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes - at barely one-tenth as much as the NFL's Washington Redskins, which are worth an estimated $1.1 billion (TSN.ca). The Mighty Ducks and the Hurricanes have made it deep into the playoffs in recent years, but those years seemed to be “Cinderella†seasons for the Ducks and ‘Canes, as they would each fail to make the playoffs the following season. The Thrashers have never made the playoffs, the Oilers made it in 2003 after an eternity of dismal seasons and it has been years since the Sabres or Penguins made it past the 82 games of the regular season. In the past 5 NHL seasons 27 of the leagues 30 teams have seen post season action. However, 6 of those teams only made it once in the 5 years, while 7 of those teams made it all 5 seasons. When you do the math, taking 7 slots from the available 16 playoff births, leaving 11 slots open each year for the 23 remaining teams in the league. Factor in that 3 teams only missed 1 of those 5 years, and that leaves very few slots for the rest of the leagues teams to get in. What results is those 10 “superpower†teams make huge profits from the playoffs, which ultimately feeds there ability to acquire superstar players year after year, further widening the competition gap between them and the small market teams. If a salary cap were in place, these select few teams would be limited on how many superstar players they can sign. Thus, the small market teams now have several more high profile players available for them to sign, which gives them a greater chance of being competitive.

Last season, the National Hockey League had revenues in the area of $2.1 billion. However great that amount of money is, the league claims 20 of 30 franchises lost money, and that it lost a total of $225 million. The leagues players are enjoying the biggest cut of the revenue, with player salaries at an alarming 75% of all income (Business Week Online). Comparatively, the National Football League and National Basketball Association, each with a salary cap, only have player salaries costing 64% and 57% respectively (Forbes.com). This huge chunk of revenue loss forces team owners to jack up the prices in other areas to make up for the amount of money spent on salaries. This is where the common hockey fan feels it the most, in their wallet, with the price of tickets, merchandise, and food all being raised through the roof. Since 1999, three NHL teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators have declared bankruptcy and had to be acquired by new owners to keep the teams in operation. Pittsburgh and Ottawa have each only made it to the conference finals once since 1999, and none of the three teams has made it to the Stanley Cup finals since 1999. What many people forget that not only is hockey a sport, hockey is a business. Everyone in the business is in it to make money from the owners to the players and coaches, to the team equipment managers and even the owners of the buildings that every team play in. When the salaries of the players alone eat up 75% of revenue, only 25% of revenue is left for the rest of the organizations employees, and little, if any, money for the team owner. A salary cap would drastically reduce the percent of revenue going to the players, thus leaving the owners more money to pay the rest of the staff, and a little bit of money left for the owners themselves.

Finally, the salaries of some of the leagues superstar players are outrageous! For instance, Jaromir Jagr of the Washington Capitals, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the reasons for their bankruptcy, has a contract worth $11 million per year for 7 years. However, the president of the United States of America makes only $400,000 per year. Something is wrong when a man gets more money to play a sport than the man who is in charge of an entire nation and its people. And we’re not talking just a slight difference. If a president served the maximum 8 years possible, they STILL wouldn’t have made as much money as Jaromir Jagr and many of the other superstar players do in one year. A salary cap is desperately needed. Perhaps they should limit the cap for each player to 3.2 million per year, that way they’re only making what a president would in 2 full terms by playing one season.

Some would argue that with all these cutbacks on player salaries and other expenses the NHL team owners would make entirely too much money. This is not so. If you lower player salaries, the biggest expense by far, the owners can slowly start to lower the price for everything else, which would feel good on the wallet of the common working hockey fan. Lower prices on tickets, merchandise, and food at the arena means the “average Joe†can now afford to go to a hockey game, instead of being required to take out a small loan or take mortgage out on the house for a night of live hockey action. By making everything more affordable, not only can more families afford to go to games, more families can afford to go more often, which will make huge increases in attendance. These increases in attendance will help attract good television deals for the teams, as well as make more money for the respective cities of each team. In addition, the more people that can go to games and see them on television, the more people will be interested in the game of hockey. This will greatly help the promotion and the growth of hockey.

Others will argue that the players earn every penny of their salaries. The sacrifice of time spent to play, travel, and train for the sport is immense. However, every player in the NHL grew up spending hours upon hours at the rink and it continues to be no different, except now they’re getting paid millions for their time. They do spend over half of the year away from their families and loved ones, but that is a sacrifice their spouse will surly have known of before committing to the athlete. No one if forcing the players to play, travel, and be away from home, it is a choice they make and they are compensated for their time just like any other employed person, except they are grossly overcompensated in the present day. The time each player spends away from his family in turn provides his family with a very comfortable lifestyle. One also has to remember that these men are playing a game. Athletes in the NHL make more money playing a game than police officers do putting their life on the line to fight crime. Athletes in the NHL make more money than firefighters that rush into burning buildings to save human lives. Athletes in the NHL make more money than the President of the United States of America. These athletes make too much, plain and simple.

So how much is too much? We may never have an exact answer to how much pro athletes in general should make, but in my opinion the National Hockey League needs to implement a salary cap. The players in the NHL are raping 75% of the league wide revenue, and that is too much. Too much is killing the small market NHL teams, too much is causing the league to lose $225 million in one season, and too much is the reason pro athletes make more money than the citizens that keep America safe. The National Hockey League needs to have a salary cap if it ever wants to see Mario Lemieux in a Penguins jersey again or if it wants the buildings to rumble with the cheers from thousands of fans. The league needs a salary cap if it ever wants to have another NHL season. A season, that’s something everyone can agree on.

Works Cited

Badenhausen, Kurt. “NHL Face-off: Players Vs. Owners.†Forbes.com. 9/16/2004. 2/14/2005. www.forbes.com/2004/09/16/cz_kb_0916nhl.html

Business Week Online. “Gary Bettman: National Hockey League.†BusinessWeek online. 1/10/2005. 2/09/2005. www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_02/b3915648.htm

Sports Network, The. “Economist: NHL, NHLPA playing with fire.†TSN.ca. 2/12/2005. 2/15/2005. www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=114691

:D

[hockechamp14 0]

you need to switch up your hook a little bit. You ask "how much is too much?" but in the next sentence you need to provide an answer or say "Well I'm about to tell you..." if you know what I mean. I like it though. You do make good use of the question in the last paragraph too, so I think you need to have a more straight away thesis though.

[hockeypunk3 0]

Well done i think that, that is an excellent piece of writing and discusses a point all of us on modsquad can relate to. thanks for sharing.

[whbd18 0]

Ha ..You just did my english homework for me thats due 2morrow ,way to go.......J/K

[7joe1 0]

Yeah hockey champ has the right idea; however, in a persuasive essay you should re-phrase that first sentence. Start off "the salary cap is highly debated..." and then open your question.

Also you introduction is too long, whoever is grading it will lose interest fast. State the subject, explain a little about your topic and then state your opinion clearly and directly. If you feel that you do not want to chop out too much you can also make your introduction two paragraphs. Use the first paragraph to open the topic with a hook (a question or idea), briefly exlpain the situation and then open the next paragraph with your opinion.

I would fix the introduction, but apart from that you are set. You have reliable support for your arguments and your grammer is fine.

One more suggestion though. It may seem unnecessary, especially when your teacher does not ask, but you should include a memo along with your works cited stating why you chose your sources and why they are credible. This may not be necessary for this assignment, but you should get in the habit for the rest of high school and college. It also shows the person who is grading that your paper that you are devoted to acheiving a high standard of work. Even if you're not!

[Chadd 916]

Well researched. I think many of your basic premises are incorrect but you have information to support your positions.

[2-Keys 1]

well written if you didnt really follow hockey you would never know if some of teh facts were alittle off. it was very good tho. i wish icould write like that haha that must have been a ton of research :o ;)

[hitz14 0]

All i can say is good report, good topic.