04/25/24
September 15, 2012
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
"We made at the time what we thought was a fair deal it actually turned out to be more fair than perhaps it should have."
More fair?
What the fuck does that mean, Bettman?
posted by grum@work at 01:57 AM on September 16, 2012
The owners can't live with a deal they agreed to seven years ago? How is Bettman still employed?
posted by rcade at 08:19 AM on September 16, 2012
Their revenues are up huge since then; if the owners cannot make money (and nobody has shown that they haven't been) then they need to curb their own spending. The salary cap going up 0.57:1 on every dollar coming in the door; if you don't spend the 0.57, you still make the revenue. Kovalchuk and Luongo's deals were ones that EVERYONE knew would be crippling, yet they still did it. Why should the players pay for bad management?
I mean, while this rhetoric was going on about the pending lockout, owners were still signing players to lucrative 4 and 5 year deals. It's sick to watch. Either the ownership is a hugely fractured group or the NHL is trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and just get a bigger slice of pie for the sake of it.
posted by dfleming at 10:04 AM on September 16, 2012
Why should the players pay for bad management?
Amen to that.
It's Bettman and the owners that still haven't got their shit together after another decade. The NHL continues to try to operate in markets where the game isn't viable without any business rationale ... Bettman's ego is the trump card here. Nothing will change with the situations in Phoenix, Nashville, Columbus, etc. and this won't be fixed until Bettman is out of the picture.
The owners walk out of a media session complaining of how badly they are suffering financially mere hours before they pay well over market value grabbing free agents and raising the bar for the rest of the league.
Each new contract the league and owners expect the players to pick up the tab for their ignorance.
Professional Hockey would be much better if the players ran the franchises.
posted by cixelsyd at 10:32 AM on September 16, 2012
Nothing will change with the situations in Phoenix, Nashville, Columbus, etc. and this won't be fixed until Bettman is out of the picture.
Phoenix and Columbus (among others) may have low attendance, but Nashville was at 97.5% capacity last season, and relocation talk has pretty well died down there.
Not to take away from your actual point.
posted by bender at 12:09 PM on September 16, 2012
What the #!%*?: Explaining the NHL lockout