Rageinthecage
Registered User
Bettman does need a system to protect the owners from each other. It's too bad he insults our intelligence by not admitting that the owners created their problems. However, the owners are not exactly "idiots" when running their respective franchises. The rich owners driving up salary expenses may be more or less negligent and disrespectful to the more unprofitable owners, but still running their own affairs reasonably. The fact is, if you had a seemingly unlimited budget as an owner (i.e. Rangers, Philly, Toronto, Detroit, etc), and faced internal pressure from your employees, shareholders, and especially fanbase, you will do whatever it takes to sustain a winning organization.
The rich teams can afford these ridiculous payrolls and in most examples (Rangers are a recent exception, Sather and his owner are idiots) still make excellent profits. Despite the PA's recent offer, the rich teams will offer the Palffy's and Demitra's of the league inflationary contracts that will once again force the other well-off teams to follow, and leave the small market teams unable to compete.
Goodenow is counting on the inflation and therefore won't "guarantee" the offer via linkage. As another poster mentions in this thread, any attempt by the owners to get together and attempt to manage this league in a more efficient manner is called collusion. Goodenow would be the first one lining up to file a complaint. He's not expecting the owners to take the PA proposal and fix their past mistakes. Quite the contrary, Goodenow is banking on the NHL to repeat the past and maintain the status quo.
I personally don't know enough about the ramifications of revenue sharing to know why the owners refuse to accept it (obvious reason of rich teams unwilling to share profits with poor teams notwithstanding). So the bottom line is like or not, the NHL are clearly in the driver's seat. The owners have deeper pockets and obviously have instructed Bettman to stand his ground indefinitely. The sooner that Goodenow realizes that he's finally lost to his counterpart for the first time ever, the sooner we can all watch NHL hockey again. The damage done in the interim may be devastating in some markets, but no more than the damage done to small market franchises eventually if the league accepts the recent PA offer.
The rich teams can afford these ridiculous payrolls and in most examples (Rangers are a recent exception, Sather and his owner are idiots) still make excellent profits. Despite the PA's recent offer, the rich teams will offer the Palffy's and Demitra's of the league inflationary contracts that will once again force the other well-off teams to follow, and leave the small market teams unable to compete.
Goodenow is counting on the inflation and therefore won't "guarantee" the offer via linkage. As another poster mentions in this thread, any attempt by the owners to get together and attempt to manage this league in a more efficient manner is called collusion. Goodenow would be the first one lining up to file a complaint. He's not expecting the owners to take the PA proposal and fix their past mistakes. Quite the contrary, Goodenow is banking on the NHL to repeat the past and maintain the status quo.
I personally don't know enough about the ramifications of revenue sharing to know why the owners refuse to accept it (obvious reason of rich teams unwilling to share profits with poor teams notwithstanding). So the bottom line is like or not, the NHL are clearly in the driver's seat. The owners have deeper pockets and obviously have instructed Bettman to stand his ground indefinitely. The sooner that Goodenow realizes that he's finally lost to his counterpart for the first time ever, the sooner we can all watch NHL hockey again. The damage done in the interim may be devastating in some markets, but no more than the damage done to small market franchises eventually if the league accepts the recent PA offer.