The NHL Lockout Situation

It was officially announced that the NHL Season was canceled today by their head honcho, Gary Bettman. Now, usually I don’t wish to get involved with major matters in sports as I prefer to look at things that aren’t covered by major sports outlets but since this isn’t a score or a highlight than I think it’s appropriate to give my 2 cents on this matter. The fact of the matter is that both parties are to blame. The NHL Owners and Players have both done their share of mistakes and unfortunately this year’s season is canceled. The owners made the mistake of paying players way too much money and then realizing that their overspending was hurting their bank books. The players took advantage of this by accepting all of this money and then in the case of the majority of those players: they decided to play poorly and not be worth their value on the ice.

How was this situation solved? The owners decided to scale back by demanding that the free market system be stopped and be replaced by a more limited payroll. The players responded by saying that the owners were simply trying to fix their own mistake by limiting what the players can earn from a franchise. Here’s some points to look at. Alex Rodriguez got paid a record salary by the Texas Rangers to help his team win a championship. This deal was eventually squashed once the Texas Rangers started to suck and A. Rod wanted out of Texas.

Ricky Williams received another record salary by the Miami Dolphins only to bail out on his team and retire from the NFL with a good chunk of his salary. Shaquille O’neal was another player that received a huge salary only to demand a trade due to on-court disputes with former teammate Kobe Bryant. Terrell Owens was given a huge contract by the Philadelphia Eagles only to injure himself one game before the playoffs and not be able to help his team out. I can’t blame the players for trying to take the money when it’s offered to them but the facts show that any recent big time salary in major league sports has been a disaster for the owners.

The owners have decided to scale back in their spending yet they decided on a number that was far too low to negotiate off of and their owners are also unwilling to revenue share between themselves because they’re too greedy. If any recent championship team has shown, it’s that the year of the superstar in sports is over. The New England Patriots won as a team with different key players filling in important key roles to help them become a dynasty.The Detroit Pistons won as well by focusing on defense and finding the right players to help fill in the pieces and have someone other than the Lakers win for a change. A salary cap also helps focus more on draft picks and long term strategies because it limits spending and teams are forced more times than often to strategically pick who they want to keep and who they must let go. If you simply increase the spending, you get a joke of a league like major league baseball where the Yankees can spend as much as they want to win a championship while teams like the Montreal Expos are left with no good players and are eventually sold off to a bigger market.

The owners made the mistake in this situation by making it seem as though the players were the bad guys when they were simply trying to fix the problem that they started in the first place. Instead of trying to show good faith to the players, the league and the owners acted very arrogantly and refused to show the precise revenues to the players which would truly show what the heck was going on with all of the money in the NHL. When the people who run the money in the league act like a bunch of crooks, it’s pretty hard for anyone to believe them afterwards. The players finally realized that a salary cap could work but the league has given them a payroll that is laughable at best.

If you’re going to have a salary cap, at least make it a reasonable number between both sides instead of showing your arrogance and insulting the negotiating party that just gave in partly to your demands. Seeing as this situation isn’t solved yet as the season is obviously now over and done with, I will wait till a later date to add to this discussion once the two sides finally agree on something.

League logo courtesy of nhl.com
Second image courtesy of tsn.ca

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading …

TV shows just added on iTunes