marcel snapshot said:
The fact that that doesn't seem fair doesn't matter one bit.
My point was, this is a business negotiation, and the side with the advantage will extract as much as they can, and the players need to realize it doesn't matter that it's not fair.
Having said that, I read this quote from Bobby Clarke -- and apparently fairness has a lot to do with it for the players:
"Where they are is back to where they started: Principle. And that’s what has Clarke frightened. Others -- others in his position, in fact -- may not have believed that hockey players could reject up to a collective $1.28 billion in salary and benefits. But Clarke was not surprised that the players allowed the season to die rather than to allow that to happen to their ideals.
"No -- not in any stretch of the imagination was I surprised," Clarke said. "I was raised in a small town. And so many of the Canadian players come from small towns. And losing money isn’t going to make them accept a deal. For them, they are going to have to feel that it is a fair deal. They will lose their salaries. They will fight you. They will give up their salaries and they will settle when they feel it is a fair deal for them. That’s the way those people are brought up. I don’t know if it is principle or what. But I know they are not going to change the people that they are over money.
"They will lose their salaries and they will fight you -- if it is a fair fight, and if they have something to fight for."