There are other teams in the red. Last season, the Wings were one of them. They lost money because they had one of the league's highest payrolls -- an admirable attempt to win the Stanley Cup, but their choice.
What the writer fails to understand is every team in the league is paying for that choice because it drives up the player market.
There is nothing admirable about overspending to buy what he cannot build. Wings fans rely on Illich grabbing free agents so much now when it ends he is going to have an empty building that already is too old to produce revenue.
Seems like all the writers of teams that overspend want no part of a cap because they would have less star players to write about and have to work much harder to cover their teams. They know a luxury tax gives Mike Illich an opening to overspend and want to keep that option open.
Fans in Detroit are not going to pay these prices to see prospects and rebuilding or the Wings forced to operate as everyone else, one look at Comerica Park is proof of that.