NHL offers NHLPA 50/50 Split

[PierBridge]

Thank you Mulefarm for the great posts!

I guess I'm astounished you guys would be on the NHL/owners side of this in such force being it's 100 percent their fault we don't have hockey right now.

First off the players are LOCKED out by the owners, the players wanted to play and work out the differences but the owners/Bettman who have had 5 years to get it done ruined that and why in the heck would they take a huge paycut for the owners INCOMPETENCE and the NHL's business deficiencies?

No chance they settle for that 50-50 non-sense with all the other underlying issues that the NHL is trying to screw the players out of.... thats just plain nuts and a slap in the face!

[solbes]

Sure the owners locked out the players. Thats not a mystery. What is a mystery is why there seems to be little to no give by the players on this issue. I don't see how its sustainable for the players to receive 57% of the cut when many teams are in the red, and will be in the red for the forseeable future. As someone pointed out (Bear?), most other leauges are centered around 50% cut for players. You can't fix stupid, and I have no idea why they moved ~ 10 teams down south. But thats what the league has to work with now.

If this season is lost, there will be a sizeable chunk of players who will make less over their remaining few years than if they had taken this 50/50 deal. That says nothing of the fans who were left out in the cold. Some of whom will not return, or will return very slowly. I think Fehr and the players need to get their heads out of their A%@#s and put a real counter proposal on the table. The players might have had some people on their side, but after yesterday I think Mule and Pier are about the only ones left.

[archerystud]

The owners are partly to blame but I think the players are being much more greedy.

IMO, the owners have a lot more risk than the players. That and the fact that the more the players attempt to take, the more it will get stuck to the fans.

TGFCH (Thank God For College Hockey).

[OnAFly]

OK, here's an idea. Players continue to get 57%, but take on 57% risk too. If the team loses money, everyone's pay is reduced to cover it. I bet you'd see a lot of players arguing for lower salaries at that point.

Right now it's just gimme gimme gimme.

[mulefarm]

Interesting how everybody is so concerned about the 50/50 split which I believe the players know will happen. Last lockout the players took a 24% cut. Did the price of tickets get reduced by 24%, or did the owners reduce or increase ticket prices. To say the players are the problem is insane, they don't ok the siging of the contracts or decide if the organization can afford them. The players wanted to continue to negoitate and keep playing, the owners caused the shutdown, why is that so hard for people to understand? Everybody agrees that all professioal athletes are overpaid, but the leagues and owners continue to make money, continue to sign players to rediculous contracts and get cities to build them arenas and stadiums or they threaten to move. The money is definitly an issue, but escrow, length of contracts, free agency are important to the players and future players.

[Bear55]

The problem lies in the system they have. If the owners don't buy high priced free agents they lose and the fans get pizzed off. If they do get them they lose because they probably spent too much money to get them, its a lose/lose situation. You also have big market teams throwing big $$$ at players that the small market teams can't, however the small market teams have to overspend on secondary players just to stay competitive. Every season things spin slowly out of control until things start to unravle again. The big pay cut the players took before was just a sign of how crazy things were back then and here we are again with several teams in bad financial positions.

I get the owners are at fault and they are evil and blah blah blah stuff but as stated above they take all the risk and they write the checks. Leopold is suddenly is a bad guy because he had to spend insane money to improve his team but still talk out of the side of his mouth about how the teams expenses are too high and they need to cut spending. Sure he might look bad but he is right.

[mulefarm]

I thought that is why the owners wanted a salary cap, but they try and find loopholes to get around it(Glen Taylor). When Mn approved the Viking stadium how much did the value of the franchise increase. Will the state, taxpayers, players, small businesses recieve and of that when Ziggy sells? When the Twins got a new stadium they were suppose to have revenue to get better and more expensive players, still operate the same way before the new stadium but I'm sure the Pohlads bottom line has dramatically increased. Why do things slowly spin out of control? Nobody said Leoplod is a bad guy, I would hope he figured out the franchise could pay for those contracts and still show a profit. I'm not totally sure it is the system, I would put more of the blame on the people who don't follow the system. The owners do take a risk, but I find it hard to believe that thay put a lot of their money on the line.

[Bran32]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here guys but both sides are nothing but a bunch of greedy pri$ks!! And this is the exact reason it is getting harder and harder to watch all pro sports! On that note GO BEAVERS!!

[mulefarm]

Love the Beavers and hope they have a great season! I don't know any owners, but do know quite a few players and the ones I know are not greedy pricks. Very down to earth guys and are greatful for the talent they have and that they can play hockey for a living.

[PierBridge]

It's far from Mule and I on the players side ...

As a fan I get the, lets take the deal menatality so WE can get our Hockey back. It doesn't matter to us who gets screwed "again" right? we just want to watch our games.

How about instead of the players taking another hit, the NHL and the owners get there chit togehter. It wouldn't be that hard to turn our 3 billion sport into a 4 billion dollar sport if it were not for the incompetance of management. A couple things come to mind among many others.....

Lets start with the 2 legendary collasol mistakes like, the NHL TV deal and expanding NHL hockey into markets that don't deserve and can't support Pro Hockey.

[Bear55]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here guys but both sides are nothing but a bunch of greedy pri$ks!! And this is the exact reason it is getting harder and harder to watch all pro sports! On that note GO BEAVERS!!

Agree with all of that!

No doubt the owners/gms are part of the problem but they are competeing for the cup against all the other owners/gms. To do that you sometimes have to push it or take chances to win or you lose the fans and the $$$. The problem is all the teams are doing this and it just keep going and going unless we can setup some kind of structure to keep things sain. It can't be Detroit or other teams buying cups with a stacked lineup and it can't be 2/3rds of the teams losing money trying to compete with the big markets.

We all know the Parise/Suter contracts were ridiculous. What if Leopold turned them down knowing we had a chance to land them, we would have rioted! There was a good article after the signings, when things started coming together Chuck took Leopold aside for a talk. I don't know what was said but you can bet something about these could be the signings that put us over the top and that they had to do it. Now Leopold is in a position where he "might" have a winning team on his hands but even if they do win is the team profitable with those big contracts?

[Bran32]

Being down to earth doesn't mean you can't be greedy!! I do not know what else to call it when the likes of Nash, Ovechkin, Thornton, and many others who are all multi millionaires and they have to go overseas and take spots away from guys who will never get a chance in the NHL to make more money!!! As for the owners well that speaks for itself!! I just want my NHL back!!

[fishing tech]

I think they went overseas to play because they love the game and want to keep their skills and conditioning at peek preformance.

[PierBridge]

!! I just want my NHL back!!

I fully expect this to be settled by Nov 3 ..