By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: August 21, 2012
If you’re like me, you’ve spent the summer jamming your fingers in your ears and screaming whenever someone has brought up the potential NHL lockout. Those of you that have followed it closely, feel free to keep reading so you can fact check my article.
For the rest of you, here’s a quick run-down. Basically, the lockout in the 2004-2005 season—the first time the Stanley Cup wasn’t awarded since 1919, by the way—ended when the Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified. That Agreement is expiring on September 15. If new terms are not agreed upon by that time, the NHL will once again be in a lockout.
Can we just take a second here to hate on Gary Bettman? Seriously. As NHL Commissioner, which sounds like a much cooler job than being Commissioner Gordon, he is largely responsible for the only cancelled season that modern professional sport has ever seen. As originally reported by Tripp Mickle for Sporting News, he’s also had a multi-million dollar pay-raise since those dark days in 2004: he made $3.77 million prior to the lockout, and last year took home $7.23 million. He spurred the loss of two Canadian hockey teams (the Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets). This will be his third lockout, and he’s only been commissioner for nine years. Also, he’s a lawyer. What more do you need to know? If you’d like to continue the Bettman-hating, find a movie called Bon Cop, Bad Cop; it’s a Canadian crime spoof movie with a not-so-thinly-veiled portrayal of the NHL and Gary “Buttman” at its helm. Hah. Butt.
One of the largest issues that could lead to this lockout is the dispute over NHL revenues. Currently, the players are guaranteed just below 57 per cent of the revenues the NHL makes, leaving the owners 43 per cent. To achieve this, part of each player’s salary (12.5 per cent in 2010-2011) is withheld until the end of the season and then distributed according to the pre-ordained percentages. In the new Agreement proposal, the NHL is asking that the player’s share be reduced to 46 per cent. To counter, the NHLPA (Player’s Association) proposes that their share be reduced by two per cent each year, and at the end of the four-year agreement their shares return to 57 per cent. NHLPA president Donald Fehr stated to the media that, given increased revenue each season, this would actually save owners approximately $465 million. The problem is that there isn’t much precedent for such a large chunk of revenue being allocated to the players: recent bargaining in the NFL has left players with between 46 and 48 per cent, and NBA athletes net a 50/50 share.
The problem is that neither side seems to be budging on this issue, and that this issue is what dictates each of the other bargaining points. The amount of salary held in escrow, the concept of guaranteed contracts (this would enable owners to cut long-time contracts with a smaller financial penalty), and the continuance of revenue sharing (where wealthier teams subsidize weaker markets) are all dependant on how much cash is going into everyone’s pockets.
Now that we’re all feeling hopeless and thoroughly depressed, let’s think about what this could mean for the next 10 months of our lives. Last time there was a lockout, we saw the emergence of poker. Seriously? That was the best that sports networks could do? It couldn’t be because Gary Bettman’s brother-in-law is the president of the World Poker Championships or anything.
This lockout, let’s band together and support something much more exciting. Female UFC? A professional Beer Pong League, hosted by pubs across the nation? A television show where hated players across the NHL dress up in their team’s mascot suits and have fans pummel them with hockey sticks? Yes please.
