Bettman: Expectations for record revenue

Tinalera

Registered User
Feb 3, 2007
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The Known Universe
It just really stuns me that NHL can go multiple lockouts involving partial or totally lost seasons, yet it seems nary a blip on revenues. Which in turn convinces (IMO) owners/players that another lockout down the road will be fine, because the fans will come back.

I had honestly thought the lockout this year would be incredibly damaging to fan support-not really it seems.

Blows my mind.


BTW-related: STILL no word about Canadian television hockey contract talks? CBC has long lost their window, anyone know what's going on?
 

Nalens Oga

Registered User
Jan 5, 2010
16,780
1,053
Canada
It just really stuns me that NHL can go multiple lockouts involving partial or totally lost seasons, yet it seems nary a blip on revenues. Which in turn convinces (IMO) owners/players that another lockout down the road will be fine, because the fans will come back.

I had honestly thought the lockout this year would be incredibly damaging to fan support-not really it seems.

Blows my mind.


BTW-related: STILL no word about Canadian television hockey contract talks? CBC has long lost their window, anyone know what's going on?

People have no restraint.
 

KingsFan7824

Registered User
Dec 4, 2003
19,356
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Major League Baseball used to be the most labor contentious league out there. Then they had a massive, multi-year fan backlash that resulted in big declines in revenue and attendance that lasted until the home run chase, which scared both players and owners alike.

Now they've had 20 years of labor peace.

Fans do have a voice if they're willing to not be taken for granted, and so far NHL fans have shown a willingness to come running back like it never happened. MLB fears the consequences of a work stoppage, the NHL doesn't.

For fans it is ultimately just a game, and a few hours of entertainment. How long can you hold a grudge when you're not really directly involved in the fight? We're not even little kids in the middle of their parents divorcing. It's just business.

Baseball did have many work stoppages. Maybe the last straw there was that a strike near the end of the season came at the cost of the World Series. The players gave up the one thing that they say they really want, a championship. Had the NHLPA strike in 1992 lasted long enough to cancel the Stanley Cup Final, maybe there's a different feel to everything that followed.

Add to that, from what I've quickly read, baseball didn't end up with an actual CBA until years after the last strike ended. That's just something that lingered on and on.

The NHL lockout in 04-05 cost the entire season, which probably in theory should come in 2nd to none on the pissed off fan barometer. Why didn't it? I don't know. Why didn't the lockout last year, with the PA bringing in the biggest gun they could, and the owners fresh off an entire lost season because of a lockout they started, not do it? I don't know. Every situation is a little different.
 

Buck Aki Berg

Done with this place
Sep 17, 2008
17,325
8
Ottawa, ON
People have no restraint.

Or it could be that fans know that the league doesn't owe them a damn thing, and that the cost of a ticket entitles me to sixty(-five) minutes of hockey, and not a guarantee of labour peace, or franchises where I decide they should be, or any say in the operations of the league.
 

rojac

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Apr 5, 2007
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Waterloo, ON
So, where do we see the cap next year, back around 68M? 70M?

Most likely, but that's hardly news.

Or it could be that fans know that the league doesn't owe them a damn thing, and that the cost of a ticket entitles me to sixty(-five) minutes of hockey, and not a guarantee of labour peace, or franchises where I decide they should be, or any say in the operations of the league.

I agree. It could be. That's certainly the rational view point. But some sports fans seem to really like to think they're more important than they really are.
 

Jonas1235

Registered User
Jan 8, 2008
4,611
90
Calgary
I don't get why top players are signing 7 or 8 year deals when their salary in 4 years will be that of a second liner. Cap could be 80 million in 2016.
 

aqib

Registered User
Feb 13, 2012
5,133
1,147
"He said the League is playing to approximately 95 percent capacity in all arenas"



Is there any source, any data to back this claim up because when you see some teams(I will not name any) their arenas are half empty.

(ahem) We prefer to call it "half full" we are optimistic people here :snide:
 

MarkMM

Registered User
Jan 30, 2010
2,948
2,290
Delta, BC
I don't get why top players are signing 7 or 8 year deals when their salary in 4 years will be that of a second liner. Cap could be 80 million in 2016.

Just takes one concussion...better 42 million over six years guaranteed than 12 million guaranteed over two years and another 32 million four years after that on the condition you remain healthy.
 

Buck Aki Berg

Done with this place
Sep 17, 2008
17,325
8
Ottawa, ON
"He said the League is playing to approximately 95 percent capacity in all arenas"

Going by ESPN's numbers, the league is playing, on average, to 93.93%. So he's stretching the meaning of 'in all arenas' to mean 'averaging all arenas'. He's technically not lying, but he's going out of his way to stretch the truth without it looking like he's trying to stretch the truth.

And of course, that 93.93% figure is tickets distributed, not tickets sold or butts in seats. So if we want to get technical about it (duh, of course we do!), the number will be lower.
 

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