so do my taxes
doubt that'll ever change
and thats not McDavid's fault and his salary has nothing to do with cap increases
I'm not blaming anything on McDavid or anyone person.
The NHL is a gate driven league.
The NFL's tv contract pays for everything and the tickets sales are gravy on top of that. If the NHL had a tv contract like that it would be less of a concern.
Why did Ottawa have empty seats at home games in the 3rd round of the playoffs? (besides the location of their arena)
Because the tickets cost too much.
If the top players salary jumps from 10.5 or 11 million to 12.5 million that has a ripple effect.
All following contracts fall in line.
It's an arms race the other teams will eventually be forced to pay comparable contracts to resign players.
The numbers go up.
If the salary cap never changed then this would become a situation of have and have nots. Guys making 10+ million per season and a bunch of other guys making around league minimum.
But the cap keeps going up and to facilitate this the teams raise ticket prices at a much larger rate then inflation.
The days of owners screwing over players is well past. (50's - 60's)
Many players got screwed on stupid things like bonuses (sit a player for the last 2 or 3 games of the year to prevent them from getting to what ever statistical measure triggered a bonus).
Anything more than $5 million a season is excessive and can't be justified in the context of the rest of the world.
If Crosby and McDavid etc made 5 million each and every one else fell somewhere else below that they would do just fine.
If players salaries (owners profits) means that the average family of five could never afford to go to a game then that isn't really a good thing. Without fans there is ZERO money for pro athletes. If McDavid could get a joe job for $60k a year or play pro hockey for $100k and those were his only choices... he'd be playing hockey for $100k.
Worst of all is after we get raked over the coals and exploited to pay the bills we will have the privilege of another lockout in 2020. While billionaires and millionaires fight over how to split up our money with little regard for the integrity of the game.
Players and agents are all getting ready.
How many contracts have included 2020 provisions in bonuses to reduce any loss the player would incur by not playing.
I wouldn't be surprised if we don't lose an entire season this time.
What other pro sport has had back to back to back lockouts at the end of CBA's? If their going to rip us off this bad then the least they could do is keep the frick'n league running all the time.