NHL Stands for No Hockey League

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman did on Wednesday what most of the sports world already knew had happened. He formally canceled the entire National Hockey League 2004-2005 season. Well, since no one had played anyway since last spring, it didn’t come as a surprise. What did come as a surprise was the incredible lameness of the breakdown. The deal didn’t break over philosophical issues like salary caps, revenue sharing or the league’s business model. The deal crapped out over $6.5 million per team.

On the union side, Bob Goodenow swore blind back in autumn that his players would never accept a salary cap. He argued, in an airtight fashion, that if the owners couldn’t restrain themselves from offering insane salaries to mere hockey players, it wasn’t the hockey players’ responsibility to restrain themselves. And yet, there he was on Monday agreeing to a salary cap, which he offered at $49 million per team per year. So much for his principles. It really was about the money.

On the owners’ side, Mr. Bettman had wanted to link pay to revenues. And then, that demand suddenly vanished. When Mr. Bettman received Mr. Goodenow’s offer of a $49 million salary cap, he replied with a counter offer of $42.5 million per team. So, there the two sides were -- $6.5 per team apart. With 30 teams in the NHL, that works out to be $195 million out of revenues of $2.1 billion. And that presumes that every owner would offer salaries up to the cap – there is no guarantee they would, and none that they wouldn’t. But the two sides were arguing over 10% of revenue, and revenue had been growing until this year, when there was no product.

Rather than haggle it out, like proper negotiators, nothing happened. “Final offer” meant “final offer” despite logic pointing to a solution. So, NHL players have lost a year of their careers – the average duration for such a career is 5-6 years. Rather than getting a salary of some sort in an even abbreviated season, they get nothing and have lost 20% or so of their career time. And some of these careers will be even shorter now, because a year off the ice means a loss of training and skill maintenance.

And the owners have truly shot themselves in the foot. Until this season, a franchise in the NHL was worth around $200 million – the Atlanta Thrashers recently changed hands for around $250 million. No franchise retained its value through this. In addition, the all important TV money is not going to come back in the quantity offered prior to this year.

The last time there was no Stanley Cup, the Spanish Flu of 1919 was busy killing millions, and it made the season impossible. This time, it will be because billionaires couldn't work out a deal with millionaires on how to carve up a pie that was larger than ever. Somewhere, on a lake in Manitoba or in a street in Michigan, some kid is yelling “Game on.” That’s all the hockey North America gets this year.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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