Son of Steinbrenner said:
I love the argument that the players won't get as good a deal next year at this time. Thats wishful thinking from people that blindly support the owners.(you know the owners the guys that put the league in this postion by signing these players to high contracts and not marketing the game right)
If the owners are bleeding money next year at this time they can either end the nhl(unlikely) or accept a players proposal(likely)
the owners are NOT losing money. they are losing money through their NHL investment, for sure, however, most of them have money coming in through other fiscal areas by the bucket full. that is where the PA has grossly misunderstood their leverage compared to previous CBA negotiations. the ownership groups are no longer private individuals who happen to own a team and take a big hit when hockey isn't being played... these guys have MASSIVE corporations -- or are massive corporations -- that absolute swallow up the expenditure involved in running an NHL franchise.
now you can argue that that isn't true for everyone, which is true. however, the landscape is still vastly different than it was compared to 10-15 years ago. the Flyers are owned by Comcast for christ sake... you really think Comcast could give a **** if they have hockey revenue for this year? to further cause problems for these idiotic players, most of the teams that were "small markets" and struggling are owned by billionaires that limit their expenditures -- Tampa Bay is owned by a guy who has more money than God.
the 300 million "war chest" that the owners built up is absolutely irrelevant to their ability to hold out. that just tides them over from taking losses. these guys have ZERO incentive financially to not wait the players out. meanwhile you have guys who would have been making 8/9/10 million dollars this year, next year, etc... who are making 500K to play in Sweden or wherever.
so think about this. come next August PA will have forfeited more money from this season than the owners -- do not forget that the players eat up the larger % -- and those that have been playing elsewhere have been playing for much smaller amounts. meanwhile, i'm paying my cable bill every month.
fiscally the players are falling down a bottomless hole if they want to take on the owners in seige warfare. this is a game of chicken and the PA is driving a mini, they just don't want to realize it. THAT is why the deal will be much worse come next august, Mrs. John Leclair is going to be saying WTF are you ****ing morons doing!?