While that may all be true and heart warming ... the painful truth is ....
The NHL commissioned former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. to conduct
a study of the league's finances. Over the past nine years, he found, the NHL has
collectively lost $1.5 billion. In the 2002-2003 season,
NHL notched an operating loss of $273 million on about $2 billion in revenues.
When it comes to controlling costs, NHL owners are pathetic.
Over the nine-year period, revenues rose 173 percent, but labor costs rose 261 percent. Sure, the NHL doesn't have a salary cap. But neither does Goldman Sachs or the Gap, and they still manage to make money while competing for talent.
As this
Forbes article
points out, NHL player salaries rose because general managers and owners made economically stupid hiring decisions.
Any class of MBA students
could figure out what to do with the NHL post-LBO. First, the new owner—a single, investor-controlled entity rather than 30 bickering tycoons—would likely close 10 teams immediately.
According to the Levitt report, six teams lost more than $20 million a year, and 12 lost more than $10 million per year. Shutting some of them down would
stop a lot of the bleeding instantly.
You need to often leave your sentimentality at the door when doing business and often make some tough decisions in business ... 1 bad apple spoils the whole bunch and the NHL has a whole bunch of bad apples rotting away the NHL ..
This needs to be addressed and a New CBA alone will not fix that problem .. Even in you lower the prices the Apples will still be rotten .. IMO ..
Perhaps some of these markets are better suited for AHL hockey the NHL, because they just can't compete in an open Market .. If you are a Nashville Preds fan and your team is contracted .. The NHL could still relocted the former AHL team their and you can still watch the Scotty Upshall's, Dan Hamuis, and Jordin Tootoo's play hockey just now you can cheer them on to NHL success in another city ..