XM - Mt 1822

January 6th, 2013 at 7:54 AM ^

and it's not getting plugged back in until next football season, as per usual.   hockey is a fine game, played it for many years, but it has lost its pull.  i'll be curious to see any studies of what type of dip attendance/revenue is experienced.   anyway, go wings, but i'll read about it from you guys instead of watching. 

coldnjl

January 6th, 2013 at 8:22 AM ^

 

- The players' share of hockey-related revenue will drop from 57 percent to a 50-50 split for all 10 years.  

- The league coming off their demand for a $60 million cap in Year 2, meeting the NHLPA's request to have it at $64.3 million - which was the upper limit from last year's cap. The salary floor in Year 2 will be $44 million.

- The upper limit on the salary cap in the first year is $60 million, but teams can spend up to $70.2 million. The cap floor will be $44 million.

- The 10-year deal also has an opt-out clause that kicks in after eight years.

- The salary variance on contracts from year to year cannot vary more than 35 per cent and the final year cannot vary more than 50 per cent of the highest year.

- A player contract term limit for free agents will be seven years and eight years for a team signing its own player.

- The draft lottery selection process will change with all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick. The weighting system for each team may remain, but four-spot move restriction will be eliminated.

- Supplemental discipline for players in on-ice incidents will go through NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan first, followed by an appeal process that would go through Bettman. For suspensions of six or more games, a neutral third party will decide if necessary.

- Revenue sharing among teams will spread to $200 million. Additionally, an NHLPA-initiated growth fund of $60 million is included.

- The NHL had hoped to change opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it remains July 1 in the new agreement. But with a later ending to the season, free agency for this summer will start at a later date.

Also, a decision on NHL participation at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be made outside of the new CBA. While it is likely that the league will participate, the IIHF and IOC will have discussions with the NHL and Players' Association.

goblue20111

January 6th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ^

So for those fo us that didn't keep up with the negotations, who won? I grew up in the mid-90s.  Hockey was my first sport.  it was the only sport I really followed until I got into baseball when I was like 14 and the only sport I played growing up.  I'll probably go back but reluctantly.  Games? More than likely not but if a vendor offers me free tickets at work, I'm not turning them down.

I'm so frustrated.  Part of me wants this season's attendance to be atrocious just so these people FINALLY get the hint that you cannot treat your fans like this and expect to grow your business. 

kdhoffma

January 7th, 2013 at 3:35 AM ^

Short answer, nobody won... with the fans losing the most.

Long answer: the NHL wanted a 50-50 split all along.. that's why they first proposed a drop from 57% players share to 43%. In an effort to save the full season (including the classic and all star game) the owners put a 50-50 offer out there in mid-Oct... everyone was excited until the players responded with 3 offers. Instead of using the 50-50 split as the base and building a counterproposal from there, the players offered some "50-50" splits that were based on mythical projected growth. The NHL promptly dismissed all 3 proposals in a matter of minutes... without offering a counter 50-50 proposal with some concession on some of the players other sticking points. So what's really frustrating is this deal could of been hammered out in October if both sides werent being little bitches. A lot of the blame certainly should fall on Bettman and Fehr who are awful people that don't give a shit about the sport. The owners got their 50-50 split, a buyout provision, a long CBA length... players got longer max contract length, more flexibility with salary variance, higher year 2 cap. So they really found middle ground, with no clear winner and lots of losers.

mgoblue99

January 6th, 2013 at 8:32 AM ^

Reportedly will play each division opponent 7 times and each other conference opponent twice. Wings will be glad to get 7 easy ones against the Blue Jackets but will have a very tough schedule otherwise. Long overdue but great news!

lhglrkwg

January 6th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^

I wonder if any of them realize the lasting damage they've all done to hockey between this lockout and the last one. I imagine Bettman holding a press conference and declaring "THE SEASON IS BACK ON!" and then the camera pans to the crowd and it's like 10 people half-heartedly clapping

NFG

January 6th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^

Thus is great for people who work at businesses that rely on NHL games like Cobo Joes. However, I've noticed already this morning ESPN couldn't care less about it.

Red_Lee

January 6th, 2013 at 8:47 PM ^

Is a bunch of dudes wishing for their high school days back and won't let anybody they don't like into their exclusive douchebag club.

Their online NHL section is pretty good, but everything else is utter shit.

 

What's Tebow up to? Is Kobe better than Lebron? Did Rex Ryan say something? Tim Tebow? SEC SPEED! Tim Tebow? LINSANITY IS OVAH. Tim Tebow?

MGoVoldemort

January 6th, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^

But I just don't care? I love hockey, I spent 13 years of my life playing it, and had some very early mornings just to get ice time with my travel leagues. I'm just over the NHL right now, and all involved.

m83econ

January 6th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^

This must have been the outccome the players wanted when they hired Donald Fehr (Steroids?  What steroids?).  Nice to see he managed to get a job for a family member (Steven Fehr). 

Seth

January 6th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^

I love hockey but I'd already made a deal with myself to write off this season and now I find I'm fine sticking with that. After two of these it's pretty clear these guys have more contempt for their fans than any other major league. I'm with the fan strike here.

mGrowOld

January 6th, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^

It will be interesting to say the least how fans in general react to its return.  The casual fan (and i'll put myself in that category) watches infrequently during the regular season but starts to pay attention during the playoffs.  I have to say i really didnt miss hockey while it was gone (football is still being played and basketball is in full swing) but probably would've started to miss it a little in Februray once the Super Bowl was played.

But as I sit here right now I have to honestly say the prospect of hockey coming back soon really doesn't do anything for me one way or the other.  I'm not going to watch (other than to see how full the arenas are) and I kinda hope fans do stay away if for no other reason than to show Bettman and the owners you simply cannot keep doing this to your fan base.  

Unfortunately the only "vote" fans get is their attendance & viewership and if arenas are full and ratings are high the only lesson the owners/players will learn is that lockouts work.

Clarence Beeks

January 6th, 2013 at 11:27 AM ^

"I kinda hope fans do stay away if for no other reason than to show Bettman and the owners you simply cannot keep doing this to your fan base."



In every bit of polling, and anecdotal evidence, I have heard/seen on this, there has been pretty equal blame on the players. Thus, it will also show the PLAYERS that they can't keep doing this to their fan base.

Monocle Smile

January 6th, 2013 at 1:51 PM ^

The owners locked out with the intention of breaking the current contract before it expired, reconfiguring the money distribution with an 11 percent swing in their direction, and give the players nothing in return. Bettman's rule allows 8 out of 30 teams to control the rest.

I have a hard time blaming the players for anything purely because of how the lockout started.

User -not THAT user

January 6th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^

"...there has been pretty equal blame on the players."

That is, in my opinion, the fault of Fehr and the P.A. for being ineffective with their own narrative.  The players were, if not perfectly, at least reasonably happy to continue playing under the last set of conditions they agreed to in ending the 2004-05 lockout.  And EVERYONE acknowledges that the P.A. got royally screwed back then, that the CBA put into play basically gave the owners everything they wanted then.

Fast foward not even ten years later and the owners are once again claiming that they are unable to go on UNDER THE CONDITIONS THEY ALL BUT IMPOSED ON THE NHLPA THE LAST TIME.

I am a recovering Atlanta Thrashers (who?) fan...and I believe that the NHL actually is losing the amount of money that it claims, because if the people who own teams in other markets are as incompetent as the team of idiots that ran the Thrashers off to Winnipeg, it's a miracle that ANYONE outside the Original Six and maybe one or two of the Canadian markets make any money at all.  But you can't pass the responsibility of your own incompetence off the employees.  ESPECIALLY after those employees took, in good faith or otherwise, the type of reaming they got in 2005 to try and help their league out then.  You sign your name on the line which is dotted...and you own up to the terms of doing so.

LSAClassOf2000

January 6th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^

John Shannon over at SportsNet was reporting as well that the shortened schedule would include only in-conference games for each team, so regardless of whether we see the 48-game or 50-game proposed schedule, there is that constant. In a few ways, most notably travel time, I think this shorts the Red Wings significantly potentially. 

As for the draft lottery proposal, I wonder if this revision, making all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick in the draft, basically will mimic the NBA Draft Lottery. It might lead to some intriguing results - as the NBA Draft does - if that's where they are headed with it. 

Don

January 6th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^

and I'll take the NHL seriously again as well. It's a crime against hockey that the Wings play Toronto and Montreal once a year, in favor of playing a bucket of games against teams nobody gives a damn about, like Nashville or Columbus. Killing the Detroit-Toronto rivalry is like ending the Tigers-Yankees series or ending the Lions-Bears or Lions-Packers rivalries.