NHL lockout :(

[viralz]

Once again the fans are the ones being ignored and stepped on. Third lockout in the Bettman era.....fucking pathetic!

If you're a hockey fan watch this video and please sign the petition!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQs3O_IDas&feature=related[/ame]

 

[C_F_H_13]

pretty much sucks yeah,but I'm holding out that by some miracle that they settle by the 15th like they have to.

 

[Perishh]

I'm a big Hockey fan but I'm not sure what's happening here? I was hoping the video would explain... there's a dispute?

 

[Plankis]

meh, don't care much I almost think it's a good thing. Because then we might lure some locked out players to our series instead. Last lock-out season was a lot of fun here. Few in Europe are able to see NHL-games without pulling all-nighters. Wonder how many more viewers NHL would get if they pulled back the games a few hours?

 

[Russtopher]

It sucks, and I'm beyond jaded about the NHL at this point.

How on earth can you go through 3 lockouts in 18 years and think you're a legit league? The NHL shafted itself with the last lockout, losing TV deals and countless merchandising opportunities, and now they think they can do this again and the fans/sheep will just come running right back.

The real kicker in this is the owners crying foul over the player contracts and claiming they're getting too much of the HRR (Hockey Related Revenue). The players caved last time and agreed to the salary rollbacks plus the hard cap in order to get the last CBA agreed to. The owners put in all sorts of new language to tie player salaries into revenue, and now here we are 8 years later, revenue has grown sharply, owners have been handing out giant contacts using loopholes THEY THEMSELVES wrote into the last CBA (see: Minnesota Wild, NJ Devils) and now they're turning around and claiming they're broke.

It's like me giving my kids allowance and saying "oh wait a minute, I just decided I want a new TV, give me back 25% of your allowance so I can buy it and by the way, you're getting less allowance from now on so I can buy new stuff".

Thankfully, I have the Providence Bruins half an hour away from me, and plenty of Hockey East games that I can get to if I want. But honestly - if there's a protracted lockout again, I really don't know if I'll want to go to any games, buy any licensed merchandise, etc. because the owners think the fans are a joke. Why should I support them any more?

/rant.

 

[updog]

can anyone explain to me what "NHL lockout" means?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Utterly bummed. Oh well, got NHL'13 for Xbox today, so...

 

[viralz]

can anyone explain to me what "NHL lockout" means?

NHL: National Hockey League

Lockout: The temporary closing of a business or the refusal by an employer to allow employees to come to work until they accept the employer's terms.

In short that means that the NHL season can't start until the owners and the players association sign the new CBA (Collective bargaining agreement).

 

[C_F_H_13]

meh, don't care much I almost think it's a good thing. Because then we might lure some locked out players to our series instead. Last lock-out season was a lot of fun here. Few in Europe are able to see NHL-games without pulling all-nighters. Wonder how many more viewers NHL would get if they pulled back the games a few hours?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7l_zpVqUUo

I'm sure the same could be said for football in europe too though. I think it's hard to understand how brutal this is if you're from canada (and to an extent the US).

 

[006]

Same shit, basically, as what happened to the NBA last season, NFL recently as well. According to the players, they don't make enough money. As if the boatloads of cash they get from playing isn't enough, neither is the boatloads they get from endorsements, etc. Athletes piss me off. They are getting paid sooooooo much money to play a sport, and they make a ton off of shoe/jersey/anything-with-their-name-on-it deals, and they continue to do shit like this in order to re-negotiate for more money. It's ridiculous.

 

[Russtopher]

Same shit, basically, as what happened to the NBA last season, NFL recently as well. According to the players, they don't make enough money. As if the boatloads of cash they get from playing isn't enough, neither is the boatloads they get from endorsements, etc. Athletes piss me off. They are getting paid sooooooo much money to play a sport, and they make a ton off of shoe/jersey/anything-with-their-name-on-it deals, and they continue to do shit like this in order to re-negotiate for more money. It's ridiculous.

No, that's not the case here.

8 years ago the players agreed to a 24% reduction in contracts across the board - they all took a paycut. They also allowed the league to restrict salaries to a certain percentage of league revenue, and institute a leaguewide team salary cap.

Now, the owners who have found loopholes around the current CBA to award mega contracts to players are claiming that the player salaries are too high. Again. Mind you, these owners crying poverty are the same exact ones offering players $90M+ contracts. Just today, the Coyotes (who are in receivership and owned by the NHL) signed Shane Doan to a $20M contract with a $2M signing bonus. The team OWNED BY THE LEAGUE who is crying poverty signed a guy on the downside of his career to a $20M contract.

So, no - it's not the players at the root of this. Not even close. They agreed to restrict their salaries and tie them to league revenue, the league revenue has been up for a number of years, now the owners are saying that the players are getting too much and the same exact percentage they agreed to just 8 years ago isn't fair. The NHLPA has offered to play this season under the old CBA terms in order to avoid a work stoppage - the owners said no.

BTW - players don't get paid in a lockout. But the commissioner still collects his $8M annual salary.

 

[J the TyranT]

Russ is on point. yet again the owners are trying to shaft their players in another league. This one isnt as bad as some others however, but it still completely sucks.

 

[006]

I wasn't saying it was the players at the root of the issue with the NHL. I was just bitching about how players get paid too much in professional sports, which they do. These fucking goons make more in one season than most scientists, doctors, researchers, etc. make in 10 years, or their entire career - for playing a game! Anyway, I should have clarified, when I said same shit *basically* as what happened to the NBA recently, I meant it's over bullshit money "problems."

 

[Line666]

I wasn't saying it was the players at the root of the issue with the NHL. I was just bitching about how players get paid too much in professional sports, which they do. These fucking goons make more in one season than most scientists, doctors, researchers, etc. make in 10 years, or their entire career - for playing a game! Anyway, I should have clarified, when I said same shit *basically* as what happened to the NBA recently, I meant it's over bullshit money "problems."

This sort of thing is basically market demand. 50,000 people don't queue up to see a doctor every weekend. Theres a massive number of people wanting to observe professional atheletes in action and the market reflects this. If players weren't getting paid what they were then it would just be even more money for the board of directors (ie people collecting a paycheque for work they don't even do). This is a fair reflection of capitalism in action and will never change because people like to have something or someone to aspire to. The world is hugely unfair in this regard but I'd rather the money went to talented atheletes than silver spoon opportunists.

 

[viralz]

Its gonna be a long ass winter if there is a lockout. That means: No taking a beer with buddies watching a game on TV, no going out to the bar eating chicken wings and no playoffs excitement during the spring! I don't want to watch fucking poker all winter!

 

[C_F_H_13]

GOD DAMMIT.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl...r-talks-deadline-sides-meet-bettman-fehr.html

 

[J the TyranT]

Bettman and his crew can go suck a dick too. Yeah its about money but the athletes are there for a reason.. they're the elite they're the pros...

Vai is the talent, not David Geffen or Richard Branson but there's no denying the music CEOs are making more than half the bands we give a shit about... its the same thing here... they athletes have trained their whole lives to get there, they put asses in seats, and to some degree their health and lives on the line to go out there and compete. Yeah its a ton of money but so what? Bands and actors and comedians... there's tons of people out there making shit loads more than me or a plumber or a doctor or etc etc etc... but they're not pulling SHIT compared to CEOs of banks and oil companies... and a lot of those pricks are the ones who own these teams who DONT wanna pay their players. It is what it is.

 

[C_F_H_13]

Does anyone know the actual date the whole season gets cancelled? Is it just Oct 8th or whenever the season was supposed to start, or is there a chance that the season will simply start later?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Does anyone know the actual date the whole season gets cancelled? Is it just Oct 8th or whenever the season was supposed to start, or is there a chance that the season will simply start later?

At least in the 94-95 season lockout, they actually did play a total of 48 games after the lockout was done with. I'm still hoping they pull their heads out of their asses before scheduled season start.

 

[Russtopher]

Yeah, the whole season won't be a wash until late Feb/early March. I hope it doesn't get that far.

The over/under seems to be on Jan 1, because the league doesn't want the revenue and visibility of the Winter Classic to be lost, so if things aren't moving by mid-November, I'd think they'd really start to pick up at that point.

One NHL GM went off the record and said the owners are watching all the players sign overseas instead of sticking around to support the NHLPA and are using that as a reason to push harder against the players. "See? They're running overseas for a check as soon as they're locked out, they only want as much money as possible, we're right, let's screw them even more!"

I feel for all the stadium employees, team employees, bars & restaurants around arenas, etc. who are going to feel this lockout hardest of all. And I truly hope that the fanbase DOESN'T go running back as soon as this lockout is over. After 2004 there was actually an increase in ticket sales, so the owners gloated. I saw some stats on Twitter, not sure how accurate/truthful they were, but one team has already lost over 3000 season ticket holders who outright cancelled their packages once it looked like the lockout was imminent. I hope that happens in larger numbers league-wide.