Bucky Gleason column on the NHL

[LabattBlue]

Here is Bucky Gleason's column from today's Buffalo News. Couldn't have been written any better in my eyes....

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050217/1067357.asp

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Here is Bucky Gleason's column from today's Buffalo News.  Couldn't have been written any better in my eyes....

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050217/1067357.asp

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Gleason does leave out an important part of the story with his recitation of events at the end of the article.

 

The key to the NFL story was not simply that Lawrence Taylor caved and the rest of the players followed suit and the owners won. It's that the players caved and got rid of Ed Gaevey and under the leadership of a fellow player, Gene Upshaw they got the good advice to surrender and the moveto decertify the NFLPA as a bargaining agent actually got the owners to also cave rather than have to live in a free-market world where teams actually had to compete with each other using money to buy the best players.

 

The Garvey proposal was for 52% of the gross. By threatening to remove the union as a partner in helping the owners restrain free trade with the player draft and other rules, the owners were willing to concede an amount which is now equal to roughly 70% of the designated gross and the players are making more money than they ever made under the pre-strike deal under the growing partnership between the NFL and NFLPA.

 

The stupidity of the result of the NHL lockout will produce a good result when both owners and the players realize they are not going to make the most money by beating up each other, but they will make the most money by cooperating with each other and collecting dollars from the fans and whatever network is interested in them.

 

Ultimately, the facts come down to we customers may be willing to pay money to see the best hockey players in the world. However, we certainly will not pay a nickel to see the owners do whatever they do.

 

I hope that the lockout produces an outcome like the HFL strike which to my mind might (simply might) be:

 

1. The players and the owners get a clue and like the NFL players who went beyonf Garvey the NHL players seem to need to get beyonf Goodnow and the NHK owners need to get beyond Bettman. There should be a cap but like the NFL cap it should be a negotiated deal like the NFL CBA which gives shared power to both sides, assures "honesty" or both parties by a virtual total release and sharing of information, and lets them get about the business of giving certainty that the produce will be there for the networks which allows them to spend what nickels they can on the league.

 

2. Failing the two sides getting along, i would be in the market for replacement owners because there is plenty of capital out there, but a more limited pool of the best hockey players in the world (now that Europans are part of the NHL mix). If I were the players i would be talking directly with NHL cities about these cities taking over ownership or control of the emoty arenas and I would solicit their interest in forming city teams to compete against each other. The owners themselves have a lot of money and thus can buy a lot of politicians so this idea may not fly, but the key to this is capital and its an optiion I'd play with.

 

3. In addition to a municipal option as a source of capital, I'd also look ino corporations potentially following a Mighty Ducks model or organizing them as an alternative source of capital to become replacement owners.

 

4. Another idea to pursue into checking into its viability is the a TV network. The amounts of money at play in TV land simply dwarfs the amount of money at play running a league. One clear failing of the NHL on ESPN was a lack of effective interest generation in the NHL. However, the number of eyeballs one needs to get is actually not a huge number for television purposes. One of the other failings of the NHL as a TV show was that you could see the lockout coming and no network really took or marketed this uncertain proudct like it could be marketed. If a network itself became the owner and it gets the bulk of the money from selling commercials and players get the bulk ofthe money from ticket sales, merchandising or whatever some arrangememt can be made,

 

In the end, I think the owners and players need to co-operate and failing the ability of Bettman and Goodenow to coioperate get some replacement owners.

[Alaska Darin]

"Count me among many who would rather watch Chris Taylor for $15 than Tim Taylor for $65."

 

I'm with ya, Bucky. Until there are wholesale, I say WHOLESALE changes made to the game both on and off the ice, the NHL can stay gone.

[Live&DieBillsFootball]

I hope that the lockout produces an outcome like the HFL strike which to my mind might (simply might) be:

 

1. The players and the owners get a clue and like the NFL players who went beyonf Garvey the NHL players seem to need to get beyonf Goodnow and the NHK owners need to get beyond Bettman.  There should be a cap but like the NFL cap it should be a negotiated deal like the NFL CBA which gives shared power to both sides, assures "honesty" or both parties by a virtual total release and sharing of information, and lets them get about the business of giving certainty that the produce will be there for the networks which allows them to spend what nickels they can on the league.

 

2. Failing the two sides getting along, i would be in the market for replacement owners because there is plenty of capital out there, but a more limited pool of the best hockey players in the world (now that Europans are part of the NHL mix). If I were the players i would be talking directly with NHL cities about these cities taking over ownership or control of the emoty arenas and I would solicit their interest in forming city teams to compete against each other.  The owners themselves have a lot of money and thus can buy a lot of politicians so this idea may not fly, but the key to this is capital and its an optiion I'd play with.

 

3. In addition to a municipal option as a source of capital, I'd also look ino corporations potentially following a Mighty Ducks model or organizing them as an alternative source of capital to become replacement owners.

 

4. Another idea to pursue into checking into its viability is the a TV network.  The amounts of money at play in TV land simply dwarfs the amount of money at play running a league.  One clear failing of the NHL on ESPN was a lack of effective interest generation in the NHL.  However, the number of eyeballs one needs to get is actually not a huge number for television purposes.  One of the other failings of the NHL as a TV show was that you could see the lockout coming and no network really took or marketed this uncertain proudct like it could be marketed.  If a  network itself became the owner and it gets the bulk of the money from selling commercials and players get the bulk ofthe money from ticket sales, merchandising or whatever some arrangememt can be made,

 

In the end, I think the owners and players need to co-operate and failing the ability of Bettman and Goodenow to coioperate get some replacement owners.

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You make some real good points. But do you think that minicipalities, corporations, media or other new owners would want to get into investing in a sport that is in dire shape due to the lost season, lack of tv contracts, etc. How do you even put together a business plan without knowing if the fans will come back, what they will be willing to pay, what the players will demand, etc?

 

The NHL owners and players have really dug themselves a big hole. While they each try to get more of the pie, the pie keeps shrinking. I think that the players are going to kick themselves when they realize that they gave up a portion of their careers and they will probably end up with less than if they had taken what was initially offered.

[sfladave]

I love this quote about Bettman and Goodenow!

-" These two egomaniacal small-timers were speaking entirely different languages and using totally different calculators. If they were any more incompetent, they would be in the Erie County Legislature."

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

You make some real good points.  But do you think that minicipalities, corporations, media or other new owners would want to get into investing in a sport that is in dire shape due to the lost season, lack of tv contracts, etc.  How do you even put together a business plan  without knowing if the fans will come back, what they will be willing to pay, what the players will demand, etc?

 

The NHL owners and players have really dug themselves a big hole.  While they each try to get more of the pie, the pie keeps shrinking.  I think that the players are going to kick themselves when they realize that they gave up a portion of their careers and they will probably end up with less than if they had taken what was initially offered.

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No I don't think that sources of capital will want to invest in Goodenow and Bettman's NHL. but if they did not have to invest in these idiots but could own the property outright that is a completely different thing.

 

What the networks sale is commercials. What a sports product can deliver is eyeballs in a male demographic which allows you to sell commercials to beer brewers and other folks.

 

By losing this season and potentially another, the NHL owners have created a vacuum where another source of capital can come in and buy some subset of the NHL players, and deliver a product which fills TV space and allows them to sell commercials.

 

The questions to ask are not about the NHL because in this formulation the entity is gone and the owners are left holding their investments. Ther question is can the sport of hockey be produced at a cost which allows for the selling of commercials at a rate to make a profit. TV folks are fairly desperately looking for sports vehicles to fill air time that they have created entities like the X-Fames, the XFL, Bounceball (or whatever the heck it is called on Spike, or USA and even tried to make a go of the WNBA to no avail.

 

The question is whether the vaccuum left by the NHL can be filled by another product that makes capitalization worthwhile.

 

I think it is possible, If you scraped the cream of the best players in the world, put them on 8-12 teams to fit a TV schedule you are talking about drawing eyeballs at a fairly minuscule level to make this have more viewers than many shows on TV today, If this new entity allows the athletes to essentially keep all the gates receipts, merchandising and cuts them in directly to some of the ad money you might have a going concern which dispenses with the middlemen of the NHL owners.