The importance of saving the NHL season, for a sport which is beginning to die.
The NHL Lockout continues, much to the anger of avid hockey fans, like Matthew Fabian. Artwork by Tori Wallace, Photo by Henna Dannek
Like the great Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like Déjà vu all over again.”
The NHL was under a labor strike back in 2004-2005, and seemed to be gaining popularity among the key demographics before that lockout. After a new collective bargaining agreement was reached, the sport was dead before gaining headway again after the 2010 Olympics and team USA made it to the Gold medal game on both the men’s and women’s side of the ledger. Now, only two years after beginning to grow the sport again, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has locked out the players and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to this lockout.
The NHL has announced cancellation through December 15th. After the All-Star game was also cancelled, this truly ended any hope for hockey fans to see the NHL hit the ice this season. But why lockout the NHL when its popularity was beginning to gain traction again? It all comes down to money.
The owners, led by Commissioner Bettman, want to reduce the players’ share of the Hockey Related Revenue from 57 percent to 46 percent. This is the same proposal from the 2004-2005 lockout. The players are arguing that this cut is far too much and want to keep the majority of the money. Many of the Players’ Union representatives-like goaltender Martin Bordeur-call it an atrocity, and say that the owners are beginning to find themselves greedy. The players feel entitled to the revenue seeing as it is them who keep the fans entertained.
The owners also want to set uniform salaries, and eliminate signing bonuses. This shows that the owners are sick of front-loading contracts, and players losing incentive to play for a team. When a player has a front-loaded contract, he makes a great majority, over 65 percent in most cases, of his money in the first half of the contract. This gives players incentive to play well the first part of the contract, but fall away in the second part because they have already made their money. This infuriates owners, seeing that they work hard to obtain players only to see them slouch off in the last part of their contract. The elimination of signing bonuses proves that owners do not want to pay any extra money outside of what is specified in the contract. Players should only play for what they are offered, nothing more.
There needs to be a better way to negotiate this Collective Bargaining Agreement and save the NHL as we know it. Bettman has three lockouts during his watch, and none of them have been settled in a quick manner. This means all signs point to getting rid of Bettman. He is consistently berated by the fans for not keeping the peace in the NHL, and has done a terrible job while trying to make the sport a world-wide power house. Bettman seems to be the source of the NHL’s destruction, and needs to be uprooted.
Contracts do need to be tweaked, seeing that the players make so much of the Revenue. Much of the population isn’t aware, but outside of soccer and baseball, hockey has the biggest player contracts of any professional sport. Coming into the league, players seemed to be guaranteed at least 23 million dollars. This is absolutely absurd considering the players are not even experienced or proven as professionals. Even recently New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk was given the contract of 15 years and 100 million dollars. He is signed through 2026 and will make nine figures over that time period. This is RIDICULOUS for a hockey contract. Men shouldn’t make 100 million dollars to play hockey. The saddest part, Kovalchuk hasn’t even come close to performing at the level which he is paid. I expect a 45 goals/ 40 assists year from him each year. Kovalchuk has performed at a mediocre level averaging 23 goals/ 17 assists a year. I also find that front-loaded contracts are the bane of each General Manager’s existence. The only reason they agree to them is that players gain all of the leverage throughout the bargaining process. When players make most of their money, they begin to complain and demand contract extensions. This is when holdouts begin and players feel obligated to a new contract.
With the new collective bargaining agreement coming through soon, front-loaded contracts need to be banned for the betterment of the players and executives, and a two-tiered cap should be put in place in order to avoid contracts like that of Kovalchuk’s. A two-tiered cap would put a cap on short-term contracts (less than five years) and another restriction on long-term contracts (more than five years).
As one of the big fans left in hockey, I am disgusted by the actions of the league. Gary Bettman cannot afford for another season to be cancelled, but that is the exactly road he is headed down. The players are not helping either, because they remain greedy with the Hockey Related Revenue and will not give up anything of what they already have. I do not see a single reason why the hockey season should be cancelled. Both players and owners should agree on the two-tier cap system, but it’s the numbers on each cap upon which they disagree on. Contracts are where both sides are the farthest apart, and the need of a mediator comes into the mix.
Hockey could be iced for longer than just this season. It may run into the beginning of the next season. If this happens, hockey may totally fall off the map.
