I miss hockey. :\

[Shawn Lutz]

I side with the players in this one. Yes they make a lot of money but the owners could say no and not sign players to long term 100+ million dollar contracts. The owners are essentially asking the league to protect them from themselves when they have the first right of refusal in contract negotiations...when an agent approaches with sky high deal just say "no, we're not paying star money fore mediocre talent" instead of overspending to keep the competition form making a dumb deal

The cap has went up every single season since the last lockout, if the league wasn't doing well they wouldn't have raised the cap. The owners just want higher profit margins and want to take it from the players. All of the savings the owners took affter the last lockout, how many teams passed those savings on to the fans by lowering ticket prices?

The people who are getting screwed are the fans, the employees and vendors at the arenas and the non-star players.

This season is lost and I honestly don't see any resolve in the near future. As much as I love the game, I don't want an abbreviated season with an * by a team that would win the cup after a 50 game season

[Jayster]

I side with the players in this one.

+1

It seems to me that the players, are having to kow-tow to the owners just to play... it's not a fair exchange, and unfortunately I don't know if the NHL can survive this kind of continued baloney........ again!!!

[javert]

I side with the players in this one. Yes they make a lot of money but the owners could say no and not sign players to long term 100+ million dollar contracts. The owners are essentially asking the league to protect them from themselves when they have the first right of refusal in contract negotiations...when an agent approaches with sky high deal just say "no, we're not paying star money fore mediocre talent" instead of overspending to keep the competition form making a dumb deal

That's pretty much my take on it too. I also can't help but wonder how the money the various sides may be losing on whatever they're discussing compares (revenue sharing, profit sharing, cap, etc.) to the kind of money they lose by cancelling an entire season, something that has now happened twice in the past decade.

[Hellbat]

Yeah only two things have caused season cancellation in the NHL. Gary Bettman lockouts and WW2.

I generally back the players. I think the league is being shifty about hockey related revenues so they can use Hollywood accounting to further keep money from the players.

Does anyone think the owners should get all the profits from hotdog and beer sales? How many are being sold in Pittsburg with Sidney Crosby sitting at home locked out?

[dvscool]

Yeah only two things have caused season cancellation in the NHL. Gary Bettman lockouts and WW2.

I generally back the players. I think the league is being shifty about hockey related revenues so they can use Hollywood accounting to further keep money from the players.

Does anyone think the owners should get all the profits from hotdog and beer sales? How many are being sold in Pittsburg with Sidney Crosby sitting at home locked out?

The players make ALOT of fukin money too. Its hard to feel sorry for them. Do't get me wrong I'm not taking the owners side at all. Like I said....there ALOT of fukin money to go around....WORK THAT SHIT OUT !!

[javert]

It's interesting how many sports clubs are really, really bad businesses. From my perspective, it appears that most of the major league teams are fairly well-run in North America, but if you look at many of the big sports clubs in Europe, they're in big, big trouble financially. In Denmark, we've seen it with the major soccer, hockey, and handball clubs. Every now and then they seem to think they're going to win it all and go all in, only to fall short and have to be saved from bankruptcy. And they never seem to put anything aside for a rainy day. The major pro clubs here in Denmark pretty much all started out as old, big amateur clubs being run by volunteers with many teams for anything from kids playing for fun to pros. Then at some point, they realized they had to separate the pro part from the amateur part to avoid the collapse of these clubs if the pro part got into financial trouble, which it would occasionally.

[Sephiroth]

I don't think the players are being unreasonable for a phase-in to a 50/50 split while all current contracts are honored. I don't get why the owners have a problem with it, but hey judging by the # of lockouts the league has had, the owners really seem to have a problem with honoring contracts.