Carl Spackler said:
Wow, the Oilers made 3.3 million in one year after continuous years of mad spending cuts and salary dumps...What an investment! Of course, the Oilers have been an economic powerhouse for years now...Everyone knows that running the team in Alberta is practically a licence to print money.
The teams should be able to expect a profit running their team every year. Why is it that the NHLPA thinks that the owners should be subsidizing their ridiculous salaries by running either at sustenance level or below? Name me many other industries where a good number of the employees make more salary in one year that the company does in profit. Would you be willing to risk losing money every year to ensure your employees make more than you do?
The league is not a charity and the owners are not there solely to provide a healthy income for the players. The problem is a system that continually jacks the values of players far above what they should be and then forces most of the teams to meet the continual raises or ice a non-competitive product. And bringing up the Flames miracle run last year just proves the point-it was the exception that proves the rule. How competitive were they for the decade before they rode a hot goalie and momentum to the final?
Couldn't agree more. The fact is that the Oilers and Flames will be hard pressed to survive if this CBA is not resolved with a cap. They made a profit because the owners are not willing to spend foolishly and they plain and simply can not afford to lose tons of cash.
And about the NHLPA dishing more propoganda about the Flames coming one game away from winning the stanley cup, that is one year of success, and they make it sound like a small market team has as good of a chance at being successful as high market teams. Sure every once in a while, a team can put together a somewhat fluky combination of players with minimum salaries and have them peek at the right time to stay small market, but its only to short after that, the players demand raises and are either traded away or let go. Simple fact is, that small market teams cannot remain competitive for very long and remain small market.
This ultimately is about, who's trying to provide a more stable system for the league to operate under to provide long term success and keep the league healthy. Thats exactly what the Gary Bettman is trying to do. What the NHLPA is providing will provide none of this, A luxury tax will only spread out the losses evenly among the league. A 5% rollback on all salaries sure will save a little money right away, but when contracts come up for negotiation again, we're right back to wear we started. I like the idea of the rookie contracts being reformed, thats heading in the right direction, but in no way shape or form is even close to the answer to the leagues problems.
Its about the health of the game, not about the owners trying to fill their pockets. Although I'm sure they wouldn't mind a little return on their investment rather than their pockets being emptied year after year.
