NHL Players Locked Out

Ice hockey will be played in North America this winter, but there's a fair chance it won't be played by NHL teams. A labor dispute endangers the entire hockey season. The team owners have already given league commissioner Gary Bettman the power to call everything off for 2004-05. Those in the know say this could be the first year since 1919 that there is no Stanley Cup final. The Spanish Flu that killed millions after World War I did in the 1919 Cup; a 21st century disease -- unbridled greed -- may destroy this one.

As in major league baseball, the owners of NHL franchises don't know what they are doing. According to NHL management, the 30 teams lost a combined $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season. However, the AP says that revenues in 1993-94 were $732 million and hit $1.996 billion last season. Revenues more than, double and they lose money -- incompetence. The culprit is rising wages, claims management. The average salary was $733,000 in 1993-94 and was $1,830,126 last season. As a share of revenues, player salaries account for 75% of income compared with 57% ten years ago. Management wants a salary cap to resolve the problem.

However, who paid those high salaries? Who agreed to contracts worth more than double those of 10 years ago? The owners, as usual in sports, want the players to sacrifice their income because ownership is unable to control its own spending. Is $1.8 million a year too much for a hockey player? Probably, but management agreed to it in an open market.

Perhaps part of the problem is the geography of the NHL. Only six of the teams currently in the league are in Canada, where ice hockey is a religion. Many teams now skate in places where ice doesn't naturally occur. Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Dallas just don't have the same hockey culture that would support a fan base (and therefore, even greater revenues) than places like Quebec City, Minneapolis, Hartford, and Winnipeg (which have all lost NHL teams). And of course, the weaker Canadian dollar creates challenges for teams north of the border.

The game of ice hockey will still fill small children's dreams this winter, and more than a few players' dreams will come true in Europe, in the revived World Hockey Association, and a new four-on-four Original Stars Hockey League. The business of hockey is being run (into the ground) by guys who don't control their costs and then complain that they lose money. Good thing PeeWee hockey is where the real action is.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


Home