Lanny MacDonald*
Guest
Crosbyfan said:That said if the players would stick together while forming a competitive league and if the owners try replacements who would you put your money on? The players are the ones with the talent.
10 teams may be possible next year but it may be too ambitious. The main thrust of this should be to increase the bargaining power of the NHLPA. After all this is a very serious game of high stakes poker (or "chicken").
This should be started the minute the NHL cancels the season. Possibly 4 teams rather than 2 could be formed to challenge for the Stanley Cup this spring (may I suggest Quebec and Winnepeg added to my original two?) They don't need to worry (for now) about the legal details (Lord Stanleys intentions, the fact that the NHL has no players, never mind that they no longer are the elite of North American Hockey as required by the post 1940's trustee guidelines etc etc). All they need to do is start a 4 team challenge series stating that the top 2 will offer a challenge for the Cup. Don't tell me you wouldn't watch.
Yes, this will leave a lot of unemployed NHLPA players but if the season is cancelled that would be 4 more teams playing than not. The schedule would have to be minimal for this year to allow things to be run professionally but if it was the top players available playing on the 4 teams the hockey would be incredible.
If there was still no deal starting October '05 they could run a 6-8 team league. More teams would be problematic and the smaller group would build a following more quickly with fans. Something like a 40 game schedule for each team would be feasible.
Each NHLPA player would receive one "share" in the new league (with the provision that the league would collapse if a new CBA could be reached at the NHLPA discretion). Players could buy additional shares, up to 1 per year of NHLPA membership (money would be refunded when available if the league was collapsed by the NHLPA).
The teams would play with a salary cap in the range of one third offered by the present league, say 12 million. (this is not being hypocritical as they have potential to gain in other ways: sale of franchises if the league suceeds, temporary employment as the strike continues, and above all improved bargaining power in negotiations with the NHL owners that are hell bent on breaking their Union)
The remaining players could do what they would be doing otherwise, playing in Europe or the AHL etc but would be discouraged from becoming replacements for the NHL as they would lose any shares in the new league.
The main thing is opening up a second front. More bargaining power, more options, more hope. What other choices do they have. IF the new league succeeded they could write their own CBA and if they want to subsidize weak markets/teams they can do it on their own terms.
You NHLPA guys crack me up. Listen to yourselves for five minutes. You throw together a lot of stuff, all of it which conflicts with the base premise of the NHLPA's argument. They refuse to play under a salary cap! Yet what's the first thing you rocket scientists throw together as alternatives? Playing in the WHA, under a salary cap, or starting their own league, and playing under a salary cap. You don't see the irony in the whole thing?
Let me ask you a few things.
1) Where are these teams going to play? Would cities that have hopes of one day seeing a NHL team through movement or expansion want to make a mistake like wronging the league and allowing a product like this to go on?
2) Who is going to front the capital? These things cost money to run. Where does it come from?
3) How are the players going to be paid? They aren't going to work for free and will want guaranteed contracts.
4) Wh is going to insure this league? Nothing happens without insurance.
5) How are they going to challenge for the Stanley Cup when the trophy is entrusted to the NHL, until its disolution, by the Hockey Hall of Fame?
You're delusional if you think the NHLPA can over come the basic challenges of starting up a league. Its not as easy as finding some guys who want to play, renting some ice and throwing the sticks in the middle. You have no clue how complex this is. I have a feeling the NHLPA is in a similar position.