alecfromtherock
Registered User
- Feb 2, 2004
- 507
- 0
The NHLPA needs a big kick in the ass
Audacity: Bold or insolent heedlessness of restraints, as of those imposed by prudence, propriety, or convention.
Bob Goodenow fits the above definition to a tee with regard to Mr. Arthur Levitt’s report on the finances of the NHL. Mr. Levitt is the former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, not your local bean counter at the bank
Mr. Levitt’s report stated that the NHL as a whole lost $273 million when he went through the books of the 30 NHL teams. Mr. Levitt even offered to go through his findings with the NHLPA, but they did not want that.
Facts and figures:
The disparity between the highest and lowest team salaries is astounding.
$77,856,100 is the highest team salary for the Detroit Red Wings. The lowest team salary belongs to the Nashville Predators at $21,932,500. The difference in the extremities is $55,923,600, 23 of the NHL teams do not even have a team salary over the difference in high-low.
High team salaries do not necessarily translate into a Stanley Cup, rather contention to be in the playoffs. Last years Stanley Cup teams were the Tampa Bay Lightning $34,065450 (21st overall) and the Calgary Flames $36,402,600 (18th overall)
Players salaries totalled $1,332,014,890 last season, averaging $44,400,496 per team. 18/30 teams were under the average team salaries last season.
The NHL preposed team cap is $35 million in which based on the 2003-2004 season team salaries translates to 11 teams under the cap, 8 teams relatively close to the cap and 11 teams way over the cap. Under the salary cap the team salaries would equal $991,925,200, saving the league $340,089,690
Gary Bettman did not say that $35 million was the only acceptable salary cap, it is his initial offer, the NHLPA have given their initial salary cap offer of $0. In order to negotiate both sides counter offer until an acceptable amount is achieved. A salary cap should not exceed last years team average rounded up to $45 million dollars.
Where does all of the money go?
The top 25(3.4% of NHL players) individual salaries combined for $219,740,700 or 16.4% of the total NHL salaries. The other 705 players (96.6%) take in only 83.6% of the total salary.
With a $35-$45 million cap could a team afford to pay Peter Frosberg $11 million a year? That’s 25%-31% of the entire teams player budget. Throw in a Pavel Bure and Robert Holik for $29.5 million and you have a 3 member team.
While the salary cap is a simple formula to calculate: Team can not exceed X dollars, a individual salary cap is far more complex.
A $5 million dollar maximum individual salary cap would be reasonable in my estimation. Players making under $1,000,000 would bareley be effected by the cap, $1 -- $2.5 million modestly effected and players $7 million plus greatly effected.
Ticket cost also needs to be addressed to the NHL and the NHLPA because the average ticket is $41.56(middle to nose bleed section) For comparison sake an average MLB ticket is $13.60, the best game of baseball, the Yankees is only $20.51 on the average.
A Toronto Maple leafs ticket averages $75, this cost is inflated due to the fact that 17,000/19,000 seats are season ticket holders mostly owned by companies and not individuals. The average Joe can not compete with corporate firms that have deep pockets.
76% of all the revenue in hockey goes towards players salaries. The other 24%, $420,636,281 goes to all other things in the league.
The Montreal Canadians had the highest total fans 842,767 and the highest average attendance 20,555 in the NHL last season. Lowering the cost will allow more teams to enjoy a full house like the HABS and the other top fan draws in the NHL. The total fans for hockey last season was 20,336,163, times the average ticket cost and we get $845,170,934.28 (63% of player revenue, 48% of the total revenue)
With 800 million dollars the fans should have far more weight then the players and owners in the NHL labour dispute.
Fans of hockey have been ignored by the NHL and the NHLPA is this labour dispute.
Christmas is coming soon, mortgage payments and bills have to be paid, gifts for the kids and the turkey have to be bought. As soon as the middle ground is reached the NHL players should have a general vote on it.
Owners are losing money, players are getting far too much money and ticket prices are astronomically high.
But hey for all of that we get to see a great game of hockey where players have no respect for each other and willingly use cheep and dirty hits to injure other players. Hockey has cheapened over the past few years and unless it changes from principal up, its not going to be missed that much.
Alec Campbell
Audacity: Bold or insolent heedlessness of restraints, as of those imposed by prudence, propriety, or convention.
Bob Goodenow fits the above definition to a tee with regard to Mr. Arthur Levitt’s report on the finances of the NHL. Mr. Levitt is the former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, not your local bean counter at the bank
Mr. Levitt’s report stated that the NHL as a whole lost $273 million when he went through the books of the 30 NHL teams. Mr. Levitt even offered to go through his findings with the NHLPA, but they did not want that.
Facts and figures:
The disparity between the highest and lowest team salaries is astounding.
$77,856,100 is the highest team salary for the Detroit Red Wings. The lowest team salary belongs to the Nashville Predators at $21,932,500. The difference in the extremities is $55,923,600, 23 of the NHL teams do not even have a team salary over the difference in high-low.
High team salaries do not necessarily translate into a Stanley Cup, rather contention to be in the playoffs. Last years Stanley Cup teams were the Tampa Bay Lightning $34,065450 (21st overall) and the Calgary Flames $36,402,600 (18th overall)
Players salaries totalled $1,332,014,890 last season, averaging $44,400,496 per team. 18/30 teams were under the average team salaries last season.
The NHL preposed team cap is $35 million in which based on the 2003-2004 season team salaries translates to 11 teams under the cap, 8 teams relatively close to the cap and 11 teams way over the cap. Under the salary cap the team salaries would equal $991,925,200, saving the league $340,089,690
Gary Bettman did not say that $35 million was the only acceptable salary cap, it is his initial offer, the NHLPA have given their initial salary cap offer of $0. In order to negotiate both sides counter offer until an acceptable amount is achieved. A salary cap should not exceed last years team average rounded up to $45 million dollars.
Where does all of the money go?
The top 25(3.4% of NHL players) individual salaries combined for $219,740,700 or 16.4% of the total NHL salaries. The other 705 players (96.6%) take in only 83.6% of the total salary.
With a $35-$45 million cap could a team afford to pay Peter Frosberg $11 million a year? That’s 25%-31% of the entire teams player budget. Throw in a Pavel Bure and Robert Holik for $29.5 million and you have a 3 member team.
While the salary cap is a simple formula to calculate: Team can not exceed X dollars, a individual salary cap is far more complex.
A $5 million dollar maximum individual salary cap would be reasonable in my estimation. Players making under $1,000,000 would bareley be effected by the cap, $1 -- $2.5 million modestly effected and players $7 million plus greatly effected.
Ticket cost also needs to be addressed to the NHL and the NHLPA because the average ticket is $41.56(middle to nose bleed section) For comparison sake an average MLB ticket is $13.60, the best game of baseball, the Yankees is only $20.51 on the average.
A Toronto Maple leafs ticket averages $75, this cost is inflated due to the fact that 17,000/19,000 seats are season ticket holders mostly owned by companies and not individuals. The average Joe can not compete with corporate firms that have deep pockets.
76% of all the revenue in hockey goes towards players salaries. The other 24%, $420,636,281 goes to all other things in the league.
The Montreal Canadians had the highest total fans 842,767 and the highest average attendance 20,555 in the NHL last season. Lowering the cost will allow more teams to enjoy a full house like the HABS and the other top fan draws in the NHL. The total fans for hockey last season was 20,336,163, times the average ticket cost and we get $845,170,934.28 (63% of player revenue, 48% of the total revenue)
With 800 million dollars the fans should have far more weight then the players and owners in the NHL labour dispute.
Fans of hockey have been ignored by the NHL and the NHLPA is this labour dispute.
Christmas is coming soon, mortgage payments and bills have to be paid, gifts for the kids and the turkey have to be bought. As soon as the middle ground is reached the NHL players should have a general vote on it.
Owners are losing money, players are getting far too much money and ticket prices are astronomically high.
But hey for all of that we get to see a great game of hockey where players have no respect for each other and willingly use cheep and dirty hits to injure other players. Hockey has cheapened over the past few years and unless it changes from principal up, its not going to be missed that much.
Alec Campbell