Granted this is an outside sources solution, but this will not help.
Why is it everyone in media seems to talk about hockey in trouble on all fronts but will not acknowledge the game needs restrictions so tough they should be on par with Arena Football and the WNBA.
Meanwhile the NHLPA talks about baseball as a comparision, they are not paid to help owners manage their businesses they are paid to make every possible dollar for the players. I guess that is Mr Goodenow's reality.
Hockey is what it's ratings are. There is almost no interest in New York, it's a baseball-football market. Islanders-Rangers? No journalist cares about a
work-stoppage or even follows hockey, the cult fans are all that's left.
Tsn's solution is just let the owners who are willing to lose the most just pay a luxury tax for the best players and this seems like it's all about the Leafs keeping an advantage. Status quo, very disappointing.
Just like Larry Brooks wants his team to keep an advantage in free agency and goes overboard for the NHLPA, regardless of how much revenue the Rangers lose. Where would he be without trade rumors without all-stars becoming Rangers?
Overall Tsn seemed just as uninformed as Bill Watters question to Arthur Levitt that the Rangers pack them in for games. When was the last time Watters saw a Ranger game? It's not Montreal, Philadelphia or Colorado. It's a exactly like the Meadowlands or the Nassaum Coliseum on weeknights, has been for several years.
Just like Boston plays to lots of open seats and Chicago. That's hockey today.
Tickets are too high, the product is boring, the media is not interested and they play to one fan demographic in this market. And that's with Ranger team of name players they have been icing for years.
Tsn's soultion is a lot like the NHLPA's solution which is more of the status-quo plays owners off one another for big names (with a six million dollar ceiling) and solves nothing because teams that spend will create larger bouns money to off-set a six million dollar total or stagger payments. Marquee players will continue to play only in select places and fans who take no time to learn about smaller markets will complain to contract them.
There is very little revenue to share. Teams that spend, mostly lose revenue but have billion dollar companies and simply will just lose a little more.
I want a hard cap even if that is not even the NHL's worded answer. Tsn's solution does not come close to where hockey really is these days with the public in most markets in the United States. The owners need a big drop in payroll and the fans need a big drop in ticket prices, it will take a miracle for hockey to get any attention in the New York Market during a regular season because even in winter it's a baseball town.