LabattBlue Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 To the few remaining hockey fans after this past week....If the owners want to take a stand and improve league finances, why not insist on getting rid of guaranteed salaries. The only thing this promotes is complacency. Where is the desire to play hard when you know you've got guaranteed money coming in for 3 or 4 years no matter who you play. I'm not sure why this isn't an issue right up there with instituting a salary cap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 The NFL has the ONLY model that works. I can't say it enough times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obie_wan Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 To the few remaining hockey fans after this past week....If the owners want to take a stand and improve league finances, why not insist on getting rid of guaranteed salaries. The only thing this promotes is complacency. Where is the desire to play hard when you know you've got guaranteed money coming in for 3 or 4 years no matter who you play. I'm not sure why this isn't an issue right up there with instituting a salary cap? 246557[/snapback] there is nothing in the CBA that requires guaranteed contracts. However, a hard salary cap is not really possible with guaranteed contracts, because teams would have no flexibility to deal with non-performing contracts. Consequently, teams will be forced to grant guaranteed contracts only in limited circumstances - probably much like the NFL where only portions of contracts are guaranteed. The players were stupid not to get a deal done now, because they will never see the big money that is currently guaranteed under existing contracts. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 It is what the free market has demanded to get deals with players. The NFL has demnstrated to me that the totally free market (or even the sorta free market that predominates in western business) is simply unworkable when running a sports league. Restraint of trade and collective (communistic?) activity are essentially necessary if you want to have a level playing field in finances of the sport to maintain a level playing field in the actual sport. The NHL is dickering right now over what type of non-free market system they will have and what types of deals are necessary to get the players to join the owners in this partnership. The NFL has shown them the way I think with a model which gurantees bonus money so better players are rewarded but pro-rates these bonuses over future years so the business can operate. It has used non-guranteed base salaries and limited restraints like the franchise and transition tags to also protect investments while giving the players some bucks. Why does it work? Because the NFL owners and players have seen they need each other to restrain and control trade and to see that both parties can make a lot more money by co-operating in a partnership than fighting with each other over what is chump change compared to real dollar which can be generated by having a stable product based on cooperating rather than fighting each other. Ideology and beliefs are neat, but they do not pay the bills. Its all about the Benjamins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabattBlue Posted February 20, 2005 Author Share Posted February 20, 2005 there is nothing in the CBA that requires guaranteed contracts. However, a hard salary cap is not really possible with guaranteed contracts, because teams would have no flexibility to deal with non-performing contracts. 246573[/snapback] I wasn't aware of that? I just assumed in was something built into the CBA, because I've never heard of a player not getting a guaranteed contract. Just the 2 way contracts for the borderline NHL caliber players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obie_wan Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I wasn't aware of that? I just assumed in was something built into the CBA, because I've never heard of a player not getting a guaranteed contract. Just the 2 way contracts for the borderline NHL caliber players. 246586[/snapback] Exactly- it's one of those "It's always been done this way". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 To the few remaining hockey fans after this past week....If the owners want to take a stand and improve league finances, why not insist on getting rid of guaranteed salaries. The only thing this promotes is complacency. Where is the desire to play hard when you know you've got guaranteed money coming in for 3 or 4 years no matter who you play. I'm not sure why this isn't an issue right up there with instituting a salary cap? 246557[/snapback] The best example of complaceny is Jagr. After he signed that mega Caps contract, he has done diddly. You really have wonder what was going thru that owner's head when he signed that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like A Mofo Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 The NFL has the ONLY model that works. I can't say it enough times. 246571[/snapback] Because of one thing: T V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavin in Va Beach Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 Because of one thing:T V 247343[/snapback] The TV revenues are only there because of the parity the NFL system has created. Go back to the days of only 3-4 super teams while everyone else sucks and you'll see TV revenues start to plummet again (in fact, recent negotiations are showing that TV revenues might have peaked a few years back and haven't been growing at all lately, hence the real possibility that ESPN might acquire Monday Night Football because ABC doesn't want to shell out the cabbage for it anymore, the ratings don't justify what they spend on it). Personally, I believe all sports should have a base-rate salary and then reward players for accomplishment. Nothing sucks more than paying some schmuck a ton of money on a new contract only to see him do jack-schit to earn it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTW_BillsFan Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 Because of one thing:T V 247343[/snapback] I never understand this arugment for NFL vs NHL. Yes, the NFL has a sweet deal with TV because it is America's sport, but that doesn't mean the way the NFL structures their salary cap wouldn't work for the NHL. Also, the NFL only plays 8 home games a yr, while the NHL gets around 40 home games a year. That's a big difference, plus the NHL tickets are very high priced ~50-100+ per game. So where the NFL gets the money one way, the NHL gets it another. So, I don't see how the NFL's model wouldn't work for the NHL. Plus, an added bonus for the NHL, most rookies do not go straight into the league, so the big money that the top NFL rookies get would/should not transfer over to the NHL. And that would leave you more money to pay the veterans. Also, guaranteed contracts are awful. Look how they work in the MLB and NBA. Players only care about their 'contract year'. Look at Beltre last year, finally hit over 25 HRs in a season and inked a sweet deal. Guaranteed contracts breed mediocraty except in contract years. Just think how many millions of dollars have been 'wasted' by teams for mediocre basketball players (don't keep up w/ bb anymore) and baseball players (Kevin Brown, HoChan Park, Albert Belle....). NHL: Salary cap linked to 55% of gross revenues. No guaranteed contracts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 I think the issue here is one of partnership versus conflict. The reasin why the TV nets are willing to pay huge sums to the NFL is that through the growing partnership between the NFL and NFLPA, the NFL can guaranttee that they will provide a national product to a targetted demographic of beer drinkers, car buyers, nacho eaters which is stable and will be there. The NHL will never equal the NFL in eyeballs, but it should be able to outpace. Streetball, the Arena League, and certainly the WNBA which have secured deals with the networks which produce an amout of money from selling commercials that can outpace hefty salaries. The NHL needs to get a clue that financial nirvana for them is to found not from outpacing the NFL (which it will never do) but from beatin reruns pf Law and Order. They can't even do that when Goodenow and Bettman are fighting with each other. The NFL finally GOT IT, when the owners beat the players so badly with the replacement players of the mid '80s and sound defeat of the NFLPA demand for 52% of the gross receipts that the union fired Ed Garvey and moved to disband and the owners faced with the reality of actually competing in a good ol American free-market formed a growing partnership with the union. Today the NFL and te NFLPA work together to restrain trade by beating up the Maurice Claretts of the world and operating under a CPA whose foundation is a salary cap where players get roughly 70% of the designated gross receipts and even with cash streams like luxury boxes being off the designated receipts the players are making tons more money than they ever have. I had hoped that Godenow and Bettman would get a clue but they have not. As a fan I hope the result of this failed season is not simply replacement players but actually replacement owners since sources of capital are quite findable in our culture. Fire Goodenow, fire Bettmann and work toward a new deal which removes the middleman (the owners as sources of capital) from between the game and the fans. Some may want to simply trash those idiots the NHLPA, but being one step closer to watching Tom Golisano and Gary Bettman shuffle papers over the body of John Rigas is not a desirable outcome in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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