DW3 said:
You're mostly right here Newsguy. Yes, Det. fans have been treated to some very good hockey for about the last 10 years or so. Yes, the team does market themselves well,
BUT when you play in one of the largest markets in the NHL and have ABC/ESPN show almost every darn one of your games, I think my 10 year old could market the team well. A good product? Maybe during the regular season, but what about the post? A first round loss to the Ducks 2 seasons ago, a rough time by the Preds before getting KO'ed by the Flames last season doesn't exactly scream good product. But, yes, the fans definitly do pay big bucks to support them.
The Wings, along with NYR, Avs., Stars, Leafs, etc. are what's wrong with the NHL right now and show why a cap is needed. C'mon, who here really thinks Bobby Holik is worth $9 mil./season? Every off-season it was the usual teams driving up the price of the "big time" UFA, which made the price of every player go up. If player
X is worth this much then player
Y, who is just as good, is worth that much also, so the team that wants him gets stuck paying to much for him.
A cap levels the playing field. I'll use the Wings (and USA Today's salary database) as my example. The Wings paid almost $16 mil. on goaltending alone last season (Cujo- $8 mil., Hasek- $6 mil., and Legace- $1.1 mil.). Throw in Lidstrom for $10 mil., Shanny for $6.5, Chelios and Stevie Y for little less the $6, you've already spent close to $40 mil., just on 7 players. FYI- Total payroll for last season was $77 mil (7 players = over half total payroll). How does a smaller market team compete with this? They can't. Under a $45-50 mil. cap (totally reasonable IMO) the Wings can still sign who they want, for however much they want, as long as they don't go over cap. Does this mean Lidstrom won't get his $10 mil? Nope. If the Wings are approaching the cap limit, but the Pens., Preds., Flames., etc. still have room, they could sign Lidstrom for $10, $11, $12 mil, heck, for however much they want. It works for the NFL and NBA, so why won't it work for us?
USA Today Salaries
And if you ask me, Chelios/SHanahan were/are vastly overpaid and should have been let go at that price. Even Lidstrom isn't worth $10M. Not in yesterday's market, and not in tomorrow's market.
The Wings, as a franchise, however, are loyal to long-time players. To a fault.
But I see your point. Columbus can't compete. But why should they?
It took Detroit 75 YEARS to develop their hockey market. Columbus SHOULD NOT EVEN DREAM OF COMPETING. Why should they? Their owners haven't lived through tough times. Their fans haven't supported the team through years and years and years of misery.
My feeling is that if the owner is willing to pay, and the fans are willing to pay for tickets/jerseys and if they watch the games on local tv (increasing television/radio revenues), then the team should have a competitive advantage.
I point to Chicago and Boston and New York, the three other American Original Six teams.
Chicago's owner is a first class *****. He doesn't even air his home games on local tv. By design. Because it takes away from gate receipts.
Well, that's about as stupid a way to build a fan base as I can imagine. He's playing a losers game.
A winner would spend some chow on his team. At least enough to make it competitive. Fans would come out. Prices would go up. And more fans would watch on tv. creating more deamnd. Bringing more fans to the rink. Raising prices even more.
(High prices, as much as they disgust me, are what owners need. All people who think cap=lowticketprices are living in fantasy world).
Are you telling me that Chicago doesn't have the market?? Of course they do. They just don't have an owner with the balls to exploit it. That's risk. That's business.
Boston is another city that loves hockey (compared to most American cities). Yet years of skinflint ownership have spoiled it.
I need to point to just one thing: Hello Marty Lapointe. Here's 5 Million a year. Goodbye Bill Guerin.
Stupid. A notoriously cheap franchise spends three times the market value for Lapointe (setting a new benchmark in the market for 20 goal scorers) and then they let Guerin walk. Are you kidding?
And the Rangers, who have the support of Madison avenue and are therefore excluded from anything near the market realities which face their peers in the NHL.
Look. If the owners are so set on reducing player costs that they are willing to wipe the game off the face of the planet for a year or two, then why aren't they willing 1) to live within a budget or 2) make decent franchise decisions.
It takes discipline to to the former and smarts/luck to do the latter.
Discipline and smarts and luck are cornerstones of business success.
NHL owners are crying for a system that prevents themselves from exposing their lack of discipline/smarts,
I can't support that.
I can't really support the players either. $10M a year is ludicrous.
But these guys are the very best players in a specialized entertainment industry.
I know why they get paid, just like I know why Matt Damon gets paid.
As for the owners. Mike Illitch may lose money every other season. But consider the following.
He bough the tigers for just a few million, i believe, in like 1980. Some say his team is worth $300Million, and that's without owning the arena.
And it's not only about the bottom line with owners.
Owning a pro-sports team is instant publicity and credibility in other business circles.
Without his success as Wings owner, I'm not sure Illitch would have been able to by the Tigers.
Owning the Tigers helped him get a big stadium built downtown, from which he stands to make millions. He owns a huge chunk of downtown Detroit. He's considered a hero in the efforts to resurrect downtown Detroit, with his Fox Theater, Comerica Park, the Wings, the Tigers, HockeyTown Cafe, the casino owned in part by his wife.
Who knows how many millions he'll make.
Most of it is due to his Pizza chain. But make no mistake, his success as an entertainment entrepreneur is due, in no small part, to his success with the Wings franchise.
And that isn't going to show up in the bottom line.