Spungo said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Montrealer
So you ignore sound, logical arguments regarding "more rested players" to advance your own weaker arguments?
Ask the players yourself. Throw all your "sound, logical arguments" at actual NHL players who know a lot more than you would about if they think 82 games is too damn long, and they will be happy to tell you what I am.
Sure, the players are the best place I would go to get business information on the NHL - they've shown such a fine grasp of league finances through this whole lockout.
Hell of course the players would love to play a shorter schedule (and get the same pay of course). I'd love to get my same pay and work only 30 hrs/wk. Both are about as likely.
Give one solid piece of evidence to back up your claim that revenues would not decrease, but would instead magically increase because of "more rested players".
Unless you can show that teams can generate at least 10% more revenue per game, the shorter season makes no sense. Where is this new revenue going to magically come from?
Tickets? Well unless you can sell an across the board 10% ticket hike, which after a lockout is unlikely. And what makes you think your "better well rested product" will command higher ticket prices? A very large block of tickets sell to corporate accounts who really don't care about the quality of the game - they just want to entertain clients, etc. If teams could get away with a 10% hike in tickets, they would have done so already.
TV? We'll ignore the NBC deal since it's meaningless in terms of revenue. There is no ESPN deal, and if there is a national cable deal (TNT, USA, wherever) it will be negotiated now, when it's a buyers market and will not suddenly generate huge revenues because of the improved ratings of your well rested league. The bulk of the league TV revenues comes from the Canadian Network and US Local Cable deals. Will the CBC suddenly decide to renegotiate and increase its rights fee, no. Will Fox Sports <insert your favorite geography here> increase its payments - No. The league will have to fight hard just to prevent them from negotiating downward. And remember the Fox Sports and the Comcasts of the world get most of their revenue from subscriber fees, not advertising, so any mythical increased ratings of your "well rested" league may not mean squat.
I see you ignored my points about lost revenues from concessions, parking, and other ancilliary per game revenues. Are you going to increase the price of a beer 10% too to break even.