The NHL has been a large part of a country’s culture for so many years. In a way its triumphs have are felt through out Canada. Also its darkest moments are also taken the brunt of the Canadian public. It’s our sport and our way of life. Take for example when Canada won the Olympics, you would think that every Canadian won a gold medal; I’m still waiting for mine in the mail. I guess that is why I write to you now: to save the sport that I love.
I understand the plights of both the players and owners in this situation. The players should get paid what the market justifies that they should get paid. The players at one point in the early days of the NHL were taken advantage of. Not only by the owners of the NHL but also the people that represented them. It’s easy to see why they would want to make the money where they can.
However, where I think the players are wrong is where they think that they are “more” deserving of that kind of money. There are a lot of players that are making crazy amounts of money do not live up to the contract that they are getting paid. Take Alexi Yashin, as an example he would make 10 million this year, he is basically been a third line center. He went from the pride of a franchise to a third line center. There is no current way to take a player that is not performing up to the standards of the contract signed to have it lowered after a bad year or several bad years.
When a normal person gets increase its no more then 5% due to inflation. When an NHLer can make a minimum of a 10% increase each year its no wonder that salaries sky rocket. This needs to change. The NHLPA was correct in rolling back salaries 24%, there was comment by one player that made the comment that if you roll back 24% then subtract what the government takes then they are losing even more. If you roll back 24% of salaries of the average Canadian at 32 000 (http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/lab
The NHL is a billion dollar business; it’s not a hobby. In order to compete with other sports, the NHL needs to be competitive financially with the other leagues. Now the NHL’s plight is not just by the players doing; the owners have their role in it also. The owners have basically shot each other’s feet. Owners signed players just to keep them from going somewhere else. Now this could be contributed to not have a decent farm system to mold an up incoming player to take over for those that have left. Take the New York Rangers, they traded away good draft picks to bring in high priced talent, and because they have traded those picks they have a week farm system so essentially creating a endless cycle by needing to spend on the free agent market each year.
Now any businessperson knows that you can spend more then you make or you lose money. Now I know that people are saying that the owners needed to pay up in order to keep their team competitive. Then how do you explain teams such as Tampa Bay? They have a moderate payroll and they won the Stanley Cup. They improved a team around one or two veterans with a good nucleus of supporting players. You don’t need a huge payroll to be competitive.
There are many factors to contribute to the current explosive situation of this NHL lockout. But there is a consensus that there needs to be changes on both the owners and the player’s sides. I know that being a fan I may not have all the answers, but I do have ideas that may or may not be of any help.
This is what I propose that NHL and NHLPA should do to solve this part of the current CBA problem:
Salaries
- Players will give back 24% that they offered the NHL
- Give each team starting budget, lets say $25 million
- Divide that $25 million up between all the players on the team. That money is guaranteed to the player for that year of the contract.
- Then each team between $25 million – $40 million depending on revenue estimate for that season to divide amongst all of its players in a performance based salary. The better the player does the more he makes. All most like a commission based system. You are grantee a certain amount, the other amount is performance based. This money will not be giving until the end of the that season
- You can also add bonuses for years of service with the team. Special awards, captaincy or assistant captains.
- Teams can spend more then $40 million but only on performance based salaries. But for every dollar that they spend over the $40 million will be charged 75-cent luxury tax on every dollar over the $40 million.
- That money will be divided amongst the teams that do not go over the $40 million dollar limit.
- Then place a limit at $55 million in salaries. No team can spend over this amount.
- There will still be a need for agents to negotiate performance-based salaries for their respective players.
- Arbitration could be possible but there would be a cap on the amount awarded to the player, if the player chooses to go to arbitration then there is a possibility that they could make less then the previous year if the Arbitrator so chooses. But said player will not lose any guaranteed money.
Rookie Salaries
- All rookies will have a starting salary of $700 thousand a year.
- Each year an increase of 5% will be added to their salary until they reach the same salary level as the other player’s based salary on the team.
- They will also have an opportunity to have the same performance based salary added at the end of the year.
- Rookies will not make more then 1.5 million for the season including base salary and bonuses
Revenue Sharing
- Any revenues that are above and beyond the league estimate. Will be given back to the teams. This money will be spent on the debts of the teams in debt, the teams that are not in debt that money will be spent to lower ticket prices or fan extras.
- This “extra” revenue will not be spent on the players.
Auditing
- Every two years there will be an audit of the NHL as a whole. An objective third party will perform this audit. When the audit is completed the findings will be shared between league representatives and player representatives.
- The books will be open to show the players the financial health of the NHL.
Of course a lot this points are just ideas, they can be changed or thrown out. However, I believe that both parties (NHL and NHLPA) need to realize that they need to be responsible for the financial health of the NHL as a whole.
If there is a disagreement on the financial standing of the league then have the representatives of the NHLPA sit down and look at the books. If the owners say that there is great financial burden taken on by the teams then they should have nothing to hide.
To make all the players have the same-based salary; they are guaranteed that money. They will be able to make a living off that money. The performance-based portion should make the players more competitive to earn that money. To get the protection the NHL is looking for the owners the $55 million should help. With the extra $15 million between 40 – 55 million should give the owners the leeway to spend when needed to.
Arbitration was setup to give a player the chance to have his salary looked at when he thought that owner wasn’t being fair. This should stay in effect to give the players that are truly being treated unfairly. But it should punish those that try to abuse the system.
Rookies should get paid less due to the lack of NHL experience. There should be a cap on what an 18 – 20 year old should make. This should make it more about learning how to be an NHL player instead of making it about the money.
Since the NHL is a business, the teams should share the money made by the NHL. This money should be used to better the product, for the consumption of its fans. Make it a product that can be invested in now and into the future.
In closing, players in the NHL today are getting paid more then some of the greatest players to play the game. The players of those eras leading up to the current CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) played for the love of the sport. The players have made their money, its time to give back to the sport that they love so much. So Gary and Bob just pick up the phone and call each other, lets get this settled. Lets get back to the basics; let the players’ play and give the fans something to watch.
"NHL FAN"
