NHLPA President Trevor Linden's Column on the CBA

[Dolemite]

Little known fact: The Pens have one of the best TV contracts in the game. They get huge ratings.

Yet they can't fill the seats. Go figure.

 

[sabresfan65]

How about we try this. Renew the current agreement with the following exceptions:

1) No more automatic 10% raise if you are below the average salary, we will negotiate your contract when it is up.

2) No more arbitration, we will negotiate your contract when it is up, no more of this comparables crap.

3) No more guarenteed salaries, you don't perform, out on your ear.

The above are what make the current agreement bad for the small market teams when the idiot owners who overspend on a player drive up the market for every other player in the league.

This is probably going way to far but we haven't heard about any of these issues and they are probably some of the biggest ones the NHL faces. Some of the owners CANNOT control the salaries they pay their players because the rich owners drive those prices. Hey, Holik is worth 9 and I'm almost as good so I deserve 8. He's almost as good as Holik and he got 8 and I'm almost as good as him so I deserve 7.5, etc.

 

[The Tang]

Yet they can't fill the seats. Go figure.

thats because you're asking blue collar workers to spend a few hundred dollars they cant afford to take their family out to dinner and a hockey game. they cant afford it pure and simple. and rebuilding isnt exactly helping the cause either.

 

[Dolemite]

thats because you're asking blue collar workers to spend a few hundred dollars they cant afford to take their family out to dinner and a hockey game. they cant afford it pure and simple. and rebuilding isnt exactly helping the cause either.

Perhaps a salary cap would help with this.

 

[Malefic74]

Isn't revenue sharing and a luxury tax pretty much a decision amongst the owners? The rich ones agree to help the poor ones out in the name of unity (and the day Bill Wirtz cares about the finances of any other team would be the same day it snowed in hell). Exactly how do the players give anything up there? It's the rich owners who have to pay out to the poor ones; not the players. I realize that it comes up because it has to be negotiated into the CBA, but the PA makes it sound like this is a huge concession on their part when it's nothing of the sort. It doesn't affect their salaries at all, Exhibit A: Major League Baseball. So it basically keeps the status quo vis-a-vis salaries so the PA wins because that's all they want.

Owners can't collude, but agents representing the players can talk to each other all they want for the purpose of comparable salaries. Seems like a slanted playing field to me there.

I don't believe for a second all the smoke the NHL is blowing about all these teams losing money. There are just too many ways to hide revenue. Nor do I believe the players are all innocent farmboys who just take what is offered to them. If that were the case there would never be a single hold-out and no one would file for arbitration or turn down $5 million dollars a year because they want 6. There is more than enough greed and blame to go around on this one.

The only reason that I side with the owners on this one is that they have at least shown some kind of desire to fix things. They recognize that the problem was of their own making and are attempting to rectify the situation. The PA seems to believe, contrary to all evidence that everything was fine and that the gravy train would roll on forever. Time to wake up.

 

[Hasbro]

Owners can't collude, but agents representing the players can talk to each other all they want for the purpose of comparable salaries. Seems like a slanted playing field to me there.

Baseball tried collusion once and had to pay out to the players effected. If the current situation of players signing for below market value and not chasing money existed without an impending labor stop I'm sure the NHLPA would be making the same calims.

The only reason that I side with the owners on this one is that they have at least shown some kind of desire to fix things. They recognize that the problem was of their own making and are attempting to rectify the situation. The PA seems to believe, contrary to all evidence that everything was fine and that the gravy train would roll on forever. Time to wake up.

Agreed. I have no trust in Bettman and co, but I still side with them on this issue. My fondest dream is Bettman puts his resignation on the negotiating table.

 

[sabresfan65]

Agreed. I have no trust in Bettman and co, but I still side with them on this issue. My fondest dream is Bettman puts his resignation on the negotiating table.

I second that idea.

 

[me2]

Owners can't collude, but agents representing the players can talk to each other all they want for the purpose of comparable salaries. Seems like a slanted playing field to me there.

The owners can't collude on price fixing but I can't see why they wouldn't be allowed to agree to try and keep team salaries under $40m (whatever). So long as they aren't discussing players and are not trying to collude on individual contracts it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Dolemite]

Agreed. I have no trust in Bettman and co, but I still side with them on this issue. My fondest dream is Bettman puts his resignation on the negotiating table.

IMO, it's LONG overdue.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Ok I can appreciate where you're coming from. Again devils advocate here.... What about Parity? Wouldn't you agree a cap would bring more competition and parity to a league who's talent pool isn't as deep or as talented as the NBA or the NFL?

12 different teams have made the Conference Finals in the last three years. There *is* parity.

 

[Dolemite]

12 different teams have made the Conference Finals in the last three years. There *is* parity.

When was the last time you saw the following teams go deep in the playoffs?

Phoenix
Chicago
Penguins
Habs
Oilers

 

[Seachd]

That's exactly the way I feel. Is it the players fault that the owners shove money in their face?

Yep. I mean it's pretty obvious every owner since the mid-90s has been tripping over himself to hand over millions to players that don't deserve it.

I find it amazing that people say stuff like this and think that the players have had no part in it. So players haven't been demanding higher salaries? They're getting them only because the owners are just that stupid? If salaries hadn't gone up in the last 10 years, all the players would be happy?

Right.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

When was the last time you saw the following teams go deep in the playoffs?

Phoenix
Chicago
Penguins
Habs
Oilers

There are perpetual bottom-dwellers in every league. You just named a few of them.

 

[pld459666]

Not to mention

There are perpetual bottom-dwellers in every league. You just named a few of them.

that he named the Habs in that statment.

I'm not sorry to see that team that has 20+ stanley Cups experience some suffering. And Chi-town has had some seriously bad decision makers running that team.

The Oilers and Penguins I feel for, but Phoenix is one of the top 10 largest cities in the US. I mean they were attractive enough to lure the Winnipeg Jets, one of the reasons was due to the market size.

Don't confuse bad decisions with bad markets.

Edm
Pit
TB
FLA
Cgy

had he listed those teams, things would have been better with the exception that 2 of them were in the Finals in 2004.

It still doesn't relieve the fact that the markets are not sound.

 

[thinkwild]

Edm, Pit, TBay, and Cal all claimed to have made money this year. The markets are sound, and when they grow a winner, will be sounder

 

[Go Flames Go*]

Who is Trevor Linden a decent player, and here is talking all this ****. SHUT YOUR MOUTH, its our hard earned money that pays for your fancy cars, while we live in carboard boxes.