Around the League 22: But how will it work next season?

[hblueridgegal]

Good read..goes into the challenges facing the NHL and AHL re: next season.

Click to read more...

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Good read..goes into the challenges facing the NHL and AHL re: next season.

Going to be a nightmare financially for the Canes. Also a reason to avoid trading for guys with 1 year on their deals.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Going to be a nightmare financially for the Canes. Also a reason to avoid trading for guys with 1 year on their deals.

At what point does a CBA become null? There’s never a scenario where they considered zero gate, parking, or concession revenue. Is it at all possible to “force” player salaries down, ever?
I’d be fascinated to know the discussions taking place right now.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

At what point does a CBA become null? There’s never a scenario where they considered zero gate, parking, or concession revenue. Is it at all possible to “force” player salaries down, ever?
I’d be fascinated to know the discussions taking place right now.

@Lempo always knows more about this stuff, but my understanding of the CBA is that players get 50% of revenue, all the time. The salary cap is agreed upon each year based on estimated revenue, but then actual player salaries (talking about payroll, not cap hit obviously) slide up and down using escrow until the overall league salary is 50% of actual revenue.

In a way, players aren’t really even negotiating dollar amount for their contracts, they’re negotiating “portions of their team’s cap.” Aho’s $8m is based on the league hitting their revenue estimations exactly. If the league makes half the revenue they expected, the overall pie is cut in half, which means the players’ half is also cut in half, which means Aho makes $4m. Part of that is tied up in escrow, but I think the players have to pay it back if even escrow doesn’t cover it.

Interestingly (and this has nothing to do with COVID), if you’re following me to this point you understand why players hitting free agency are likely very interested in voting for the cap to go up that offseason (more cap room to be signed to a big deal), while players locked in to long term deals don’t want the cap to go up at all (assuming revenues go up the same way, they want to maintain as big a slice of their team’s cap as possible). If they “beat” their estimated revenues by 50%, Aho’s really gonna end up making $12m.

I could also be talking out my ass but that’s my understanding of it all. Significant revenue hit = significant hit to the players, even within the current CBA. Contracts are just “good estimations” based on a salary cap that is set right around near 50% of estimated revenue for the coming year. The higher the cap compared to estimated revenue, the higher the escrow percentage, in case revenue doesn’t meet expectations in order to prevent players from having to pay anything back. The cap is really just a mathematical abstraction on top of this whole thing, and the whole thing gets multiplied and divided at the end based on actual revenue.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

I follow. Thanks. I had typed something about escrow but your explanation far exceeded my initial attempt to understand.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

At what point does a CBA become null? There’s never a scenario where they considered zero gate, parking, or concession revenue. Is it at all possible to “force” player salaries down, ever?
I’d be fascinated to know the discussions taking place right now.

Play the game in the arena. Set up the parking lot as a drive-in theater. $50/car/game. Put up truly gargantuan screens. Hire carhops on rollerblades selling concessions from car to car. Have a lottery that allows 1000 people into the arena every game. After every goal or big play, the crowd blows their car horns.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tough to build a new business model in three months.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Play the game in the arena. Set up the parking lot as a drive-in theater. $50/car/game. Put up truly gargantuan screens. Hire carhops on rollerblades selling concessions from car to car. Have a lottery that allows 1000 people into the arena every game. After every goal or big play, the crowd blows their car horns.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tough to build a new business model in three months.

I think that would be the coolest thing in the world.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I think that would be the coolest thing in the world.

Yeah. I'd totally do that with Mrs. Hank; we spend most of our out-of-the-house time driving around anyway, and we've considered the drive-in movie thing, but the place up in Henderson is way too far. Whip up a quick app that brings concessions to your parking space; pay on the app and the food shows up magically, so no lines.

Also, so much of being a fan is getting some kind of communal experience. Pipe the parking lot noise into the arena, so that when the car horns go off, the players hear it.

The biggest challenge might be bathrooms, because public toilets are a potential COVID vector. Porta-potties may actually be an improvement there over traditional bathrooms because the aerosolized poop COVID flush would be contained within the single booth, but porta-potties suck in general and would be a nightmare if not properly attended. Gameday staff cleaning each toilet after each use might be a possibility, although that's definitely not what anyone signed up for.

Who knows. Got to get creative, that's all I know.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Yeah. I'd totally do that with Mrs. Hank; we spend most of our out-of-the-house time driving around anyway, and we've considered the drive-in movie thing, but the place up in Henderson is way too far. Whip up a quick app that brings concessions to your parking space; pay on the app and the food shows up magically, so no lines.

Also, so much of being a fan is getting some kind of communal experience. Pipe the parking lot noise into the arena, so that when the car horns go off, the players hear it.

The biggest challenge might be bathrooms, because public toilets are a potential COVID vector. Porta-potties may actually be an improvement there over traditional bathrooms because the aerosolized poop COVID flush would be contained within the single booth, but porta-potties suck in general and would be a nightmare if not properly attended. Gameday staff cleaning each toilet after each use might be a possibility, although that's definitely not what anyone signed up for.

Who knows. Got to get creative, that's all I know.

I know this was in reference to the business plan, but it’s much funnier in reference to an individual’s approach to the bathroom issue so that’s how I’m reading it.

Plus you could pipe in Mike and Tripp to the car radio, the whole thing would be excellent.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Plus you could pipe in Mike and Tripp to the car radio, the whole thing would be excellent.

And also to the porta-potty.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

And also to the porta-potty.

And the porta-potty sounds could be piped back to Tripp and Mike.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

And the porta-potty sounds could be piped back to Tripp and Mike.

Coals to Newcastle, that.

 

[Chrispy]

And the porta-potty sounds could be piped back to Tripp and Mike.

So you want more Taco Bell commentary from Tripp?

 

[Lempo]

At what point does a CBA become null? There’s never a scenario where they considered zero gate, parking, or concession revenue. Is it at all possible to “force” player salaries down, ever?
I’d be fascinated to know the discussions taking place right now.

Well. For starters CBA 3.2 states that it is a binding agreement, with no stipulation for force majeures that I know of.

Then there's the strict no renegotiation policy:

11.10 No Renegotiation. In no event shall a Club and a Player negotiate a change in any terms of a Player's SPC for the then-current season or for any remaining season of an SPC (except as provided for in Section 11.8(b)). This provision shall not prohibit a Player and Club from negotiating an extension to an existing SPC in accordance with the terms of Section 50.5(f) hereof, or from negotiating a new or reformed SPC or Offer Sheet in the limited context and time-frame expressly set forth in Section 11.6(a)(vi) above.

(11.8(b) mentioned is about Trade Clauses coming in effect immediately upon extending an UFA eligible player who still has previous contract ongoing)

Only in the Exhibit 1 of the CBA, the Standard Player's Contract, they got this:

17. If because of any condition arising from a state of war or other cause beyond the control of the League or of the Club, it shall be deemed advisable by the League or the Club to suspend or cease or reduce operations, then:

(a) in the event of suspension of operations, the Player shall be entitled only to the proportion of Paragraph 1 Salary due at the date of suspension,

(b) in the event of cessation of operations, the Paragraph 1 Salary shall be automatically canceled on the date of cessation, and

(c) in the event of reduction of operations, the Paragraph 1 Salary shall be replaced by that mutually agreed upon between the Club and the Player, or, in the absence of mutual agreement, by that determined by neutral arbitration.

I would argue we are talking about a reduction of operations, if the arenas are empty.

 

[HisIceness]

Bill Zito sounds like a good name for a mob boss.

 

[MinJaBen]

Florida doesn’t want to hire Peter Chiaelli? Shocked I’m not.

 

[HisIceness]

No disrespect to Chiarrelli, but the Panthers need to help themselves and not improve other teams rosters.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I've heard people tout Zito for a while now. He's got an interesting background. It'll be fun to watch it play out.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Cool to see a guy transition from starting pitcher for the A's to NHL GM!

 

[vorbis]

good for Mike V

 

[Joe McGrath]

Cool to see a guy transition from starting pitcher for the A's to NHL GM!

And he made it pretty derp in the Masked Singer this year. Is there anything he can’t do?

 

[HisIceness]

good for Mike V

I still think he (V) will end up getting the Red Wings job once Yzerman dismisses Blashill, whenever that is.

 

[w e l o s t b o y s]

 

[A Star is Burns]

Habs gonna be spending $15 million on goalies. Wowzer.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Also, I know some are high on him, but I'm glad we didn't bother with Allen.