League Competition: WHA vs. NHL

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Dr Love

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Mar 22, 2002
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Jobu said:
Who cares? Would you watch AHLers play in the summer while the NHL season was going on? Of course not.
Huh? In the summer while the NHL plays doesn't compute.


Jobu said:
How do you know?
Common sense. Considering the WHA was going to have a ~$10M cap and have one player per team make $5M, and eight or ten teams, you're looking at 8 or 10 players. What kind of players do you think would jump ship to the WHA for $5M? Guys making $4 or $5 million already? Perhaps, but why would they? Guys making $1 or $2 million? Almost certainly. And the rest would be AHL vets, because the other 19 guys on a WHA team would get paid below NHL minimum. Until the NHL came back, yeah, you'd get guys, because they could keep in game shape and still be (relatively) close to home. But once the NHL comes back, there isn't much incentive for a guy making a lot of money in the NHL to stay in the WHA.
 

Jobu

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Nov 17, 2003
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Dr Love said:
Huh? In the summer while the NHL plays doesn't compute.

I have assumed that the WHA would be playing without competition from the NHL and with NHL-calibre players. Apples and oranges.

Common sense. Considering the WHA was going to have a ~$10M cap and have one player per team make $5M, and eight or ten teams, you're looking at 8 or 10 players. What kind of players do you think would jump ship to the WHA for $5M? Guys making $4 or $5 million already? Perhaps, but why would they? Guys making $1 or $2 million? Almost certainly. And the rest would be AHL vets, because the other 19 guys on a WHA team would get paid below NHL minimum. Until the NHL came back, yeah, you'd get guys, because they could keep in game shape and still be (relatively) close to home. But once the NHL comes back, there isn't much incentive for a guy making a lot of money in the NHL to stay in the WHA.

Guys are making $0 now. So they would go now. If successful, unquestionably the WHA would be in a position, and be forced to in order to stay competitive, raise the cap significantly or introduce other franchise player exceptions. Then the NHL would have to respond (not to mention Euro leagues). And round and round we go.

It is no coincidence that salaries increased fourfold when the WHA first came into existence, and people like you were giving the same arguments then -- except that the NHL wasn't locked out.
 

Sanderson

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Sep 10, 2002
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Euro leagues wouldn't respond to whatever the WHA does, they don't have any money to do so. Either the players accept the money teams are prepared to give them or they will look for someone else.

Crosby can't leave the QMJHL right now, he is under contract for another two years without an out clause. Well, at least not for any league not named NHL.
 

no13matssundin

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May 16, 2004
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Heres the ultimate longshot, but I often dream this could happen:

The WHA's rights are bought from the current owners by 18 multi-billionaire hockey fanatics. They proceed to recreate the WHA a-new for the THIRD time, only this time they BUILD 18 new 17,000 seat arenas in the following new WHA cities seperated by country: In the American Conference there'd be Hartford, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay and Minnesota. And in the Canadian Conference you'd have Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City. Each WHA game would be an experience: Fireworks, laser light shows, free giveaways, dancers, and free money prizes. The drinks would all be CHEAP and the food too. It would be a blue-collar league with white-collar entertainment. They'd ice a roster of 20 players (17 active) and pay them under a 12 Million Dollar hard cap with profit bonuses for the WHAPA, theyd have bi-monthly audits of their books a-la NFL-style, and in a 72 game season theyd only charge 50$ for the most expensive ticket in any arena in the WHA, with a good number 10$ seats in every arena a-la NBA-style. EA Sports' "WHA LIVE 2008" would feature the best game play that their money could buy, allowing up to 10 players at one time with expansion pack, and have the old teams as well as the new ones. Finally, in a perfect dream world, after the NHL has been lockedout for 2 or 3 years, the WHA uses the legal writ from the Freestanley.com folks and wrest control of the Stanley Cup from the league and watch as the Cup trustees now award Lord Stanley's Cup to the winners of the WHA post-season.

How's that for forward thinking? :D :handclap:
 

FrozenPond

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Feb 7, 2005
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mooseOAK said:
The Russian league can't support those kinds of salaries on a league wide basis. They play a 60 game schedule in smaller arenas with an average ticket price of $10. A few rich owners can pay some starts but there aren't going to be a ton of jobs like that over there.
I agree. The RSL can’t pay high-end salaries league wide. The RSL will not be offering Brian McCabe $4 million, but the RSL doesn’t want McCabe. The RSL wants the Russian super-stars.

Many people believe that the NHL will be “fixed†when the Leafs are paying McCabe $2 million while Ovechkin and Kovalchuk battle for the RSL scoring championship. I’m just a fan, but that’s not my definition of “fixedâ€.
 

FrozenPond

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Feb 7, 2005
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Sanderson said:
Crosby can't leave the QMJHL right now, he is under contract for another two years without an out clause. Well, at least not for any league not named NHL.
I’m no lawyer, and I have no idea how bound Crosby is to the Q. But if the NHL doors are locked this summer/fall, there could be a lawsuit in the works.
 

SENSible1*

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Keep dreaming Jobu. Maybe if you close your eyes real tight, hold your breath and count to 1 M, it will actually come true.
 
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