ScottM

Not that I'd expect any thing different from college hockey's own tabloid. Mason, Sauer and Walshie? Over Gasparini and Blais? INCH is probably about -2 on the credibility scale IMO.

Here's an article on the potential for a lockout/strike and the purported financial position of the NHL and its teams. (Since this is a subscription, I figured I'd post the entire article.) The Wall Street Journal September 19, 2003 NHL Says Players' Salaries Put League in Financial Peril Facing $300 Million in Losses, Team Owners Call for Pay Caps; Union Disputes Dire Portrayal By STEFAN FATSIS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL When the National Hockey League opened training camps last week for the 2003-04 season, it was already standing on wobbly skates. TV ratings are minuscule, franchise values are plunging and two teams recently spent time in bankruptcy court. Now add record financial losses to the lineup. According to a report prepared by the league for its club owners, the NHL's 30 teams posted combined operating losses of nearly $300 million last season. That was an increase of more than 35% from $218 million a year earlier, according to the report, and a more than sevenfold increase from losses of $40 million in 1993-94, when the league had 26 franchises. The report, distributed to owners this summer and recently reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, depicts enormous revenue growth over the past decade that has been wiped out by even bigger jumps in player costs. Last season, the report says, the NHL spent 76% of $1.93 billion in revenue on player salaries and benefits -- a higher percentage than in the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. "This is a level at which no business can survive," says Bill Daly, the NHL's chief legal officer. "The league will lose teams and players will lose jobs if we can't fix this." The NHL's ice-is-melting portrayal comes as the league gears up for battle with its players union over a new collective-bargaining agreement. The current contract doesn't expire until September 2004, and talks on a new one haven't yet begun. But the league has amassed a $300 million war chest over the past four years to prepare for a possible work stoppage, and union officials have told players to expect a shutdown of 18 to 24 months. The NHL wants an economic system ensuring "cost certainty," such as the salary caps in the NFL and NBA that allocate a certain portion of league revenue for players. NHL executives privately suggest a desire to reduce salary costs by as much as 40%. The union wants to retain a predominantly free-market system in which the average player's salary has soared to $1.79 million last season from $558,000 in 1993-94. The NBA won the first salary cap in 1984 when it was in financial crisis. The NFL negotiated its cap when a flood of television revenue made labor peace desirable for both sides. By contrast, the NHL is trying to extract concessions from players who have grown rich thanks to team owners who willingly escalated their pay. "What you seem to have in hockey is some teams that are spending stupidly or spending unnecessarily," says Stephen Ross, a sports law professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign. The National Hockey League Players' Association says it won't accept a salary cap. "We believe in letting the market system operate and letting [owners] pay players what they're worth, not a penny more or a penny less,'' says Ted Saskin, senior director for business affairs for the union. Union officials say franchises that own arenas, concessions or local cable-TV networks siphon some hockey-related revenue from their teams. That would inflate both losses and the percentage of revenue being spent on salaries. "It's very hard to take those bar charts seriously without the whole picture," Mr. Saskin says. The NHL's Mr. Daly says the league's accounting is thorough. Distrust between the NHL and its players dates to the early 1990s, when the union staged a 10-day strike, the first since it was formed in 1967. A 103-day lockout by management cost the NHL much of the 1994-95 season. The two sides now argue over everything including the minimum distance between a player's chin and his chin strap. To be sure, the growth in NHL player salaries owes partly to the current labor contract. Player agents used loopholes to skirt pay limits for incoming players. Rules governing free-agency allowed high-revenue teams, such as the New York Rangers, to bid up the price of better players, raising the bar for everyone else. The temptation to spend was made possible by leaguewide revenue growth of 163% over the past decade under NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. The league added four teams, boosted sponsorship, licensing and TV revenue, and increased average ticket prices 81%, to more than $48, according to the league financial report. Now, there is little room to grow. With regular-season TV audiences in the U.S. smaller than those for bowling, the NHL is unlikely to match the $140 million a year it gets from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN. That contract, already far smaller than those of other major sports, expires after the coming season. Teams also have maxed out on ticket increases: More than half of NHL teams are lowering prices or leaving them unchanged this season. The league has other problems. Ownership difficulties forced the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators into bankruptcy court last season. Both teams found buyers, but at the sport's lowest prices in a decade: around $45 million for the Sabres and $60 million for the Senators, not including arenas or debt, sports finance executives say. Even more alarming: The four-year-old Atlanta Thrashers appear to be worth little or nothing. Industry executives say the sale of sports assets that AOL Time Warner Inc. announced Tuesday values the Thrashers and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks together at around $110 million. Given basketball's lucrative national-TV deal, "an NBA team on a stand-alone basis is worth at least $110 million," says franchise consultant Marc Ganis. He says the price indicates the Thrashers have "little value and perhaps even a negative value." Turner Broadcasting, now a unit of AOL, paid an $80 million expansion fee for the Thrashers in 1999. Declining franchise values hurt because they typically are the basis on which sports teams borrow to finance operating losses or acquisition debt. In the past two years, several NHL teams have been rejected for loans, executives say. More than two-thirds of NHL teams reported losses last season, people familiar with the league say. And the biggest losers were the winners: The New Jersey Devils claimed some $30 million in losses despite taking home the Stanley Cup. League executives hope the players are persuaded by the gloomy overall picture. "I'm not looking for a fight," Mr. Bettman, the NHL commissioner, told a sports conference in Canada last week. "I'm looking for a solution to the economic issues confronting our game."

Thanks for the updates, Melissa. As always, great photos.

Go to panicware.com and download the free edition of Pop-Up Stopper. There are also pay versions that erase cookies, etc. You might also look at free Ad-Aware from Lavasoft to knockout spyware that cookies and pop-ups often leave. Personally, I think it does a better job than SpyBot. Frankly, you can erase your cookies, history and cache on your own, if you're trying to keep your internet activities private from a spouse, SO, etc. However, as Scott McNeely of Sun noted, there is no privacy in cyberspace and a savvy person could still find out where you've been. If you want to conceal your surfing at work, monitoring software of various types that many places use probably can't be circumvented and you probably shouldn't do anything to endanger your job anyway.

I blame Gary Bettman for a good part of the NHL's current situation. He took a solid, albeit niche, sport and tried to turn it into a version of the NBA with overexpansion into non-traditional markets, marketing that would put Coke to shame, a non-realistic grasp of the NHL's real appeal and encouraging/demanding NHL cities to build oversized palaces that could not be supported by the teams' core fanbase in downtimes. We have teams in Florida, but fewer teams in Canada than when Bettman took over. We have a few financially sound franchises, and a number that are already in trouble, and a few probably on their way to the judge. We have overpriced/underproducing players making mid-seven figure salaries, and we have owners who don't understand that hockey has a very narrow base of support across the general population. /end rant

Fixed your post. You're welcome.

Variable pricing has been around for years in any number of sports. These clowns are whining about $11? Big deal, that's roughly the price for a post-game meal. If $11 gets their panties in a twist, wait until the *real* costs of running a D1 program come home to roost, and Chaps' revenue projections are finally stripped of the facade of credibility. Yeah, I'm sure UND was truly motivated by spite and caprice to raise ticket prices for this game to get back at the Stream Yellow rabble. (sarcasm fully intended) Whatever helps them sleep on those long bus rides to the middle nowhere in the dead of winter because no established schools will want to travel to an embryonic D1 program in January, especially on the cheap. Give 'em Hell, Roger!

Uh yeah. Would you like to put some money on that one, Sally?

I've advocated splitting Money and Parise into their own lines since last season. Not only would that help create two credible scoring lines, but IMO both guys play a different style of hockey. Parise tends to do better in fast-paced, up and down play, while Bochenski seems to be in his element grinding it around the net.

Anything McFeely writes about UND should be taken with a grain of salt, which is the rough equivalent of his grey matter. He favors UND changing its name, UND going D1 in the same head-long/half-assed manner as 'SU and really hasn't a clue of anything in general. Losing the UND-NDSU rivalry will hurt both schools intially. (I do expect UND to go D1, but more as result of a NC$$ squeeze than a bunch of over-inflated egos seeking to compensate for a rival getting more press than them.) But more likely 'SU will have more problems in scheduling and revenue as its D1AA brethern probably would be less likely to travel to Fargo unless there was some serious $$$ on the table. Then again, it may actually pull some sort of cobbled conference together so it can visit the fine areas of Utah, Cali, Idaho and wherever. Moreover, most D1AA programs' that 'SU will most likely play initially, with or without a conference, don't have many fans/alums located within a fair traveling distance of Fargo, so the FloodDome loses that revenue too. Contrast that with most NCC programs who are located within a few hours of each other, by and large.

I tend to agree with those who feel we need more guys stepping this season. Last season, as I've noted on other threads, too many guys were content to "phone it in" down the stretch and ride on the coat tails of Parise, Money and a few others. Some of the upperclassmen, e.g., need to show they've actually improved in terms of production and leadership. It's nice to have a talented frosh class and few younger guys who can do it, but the juniors and seniors need to act like they have 2-3 years of WCHA hockey under their belts.

Besides, there's no use clogging cyberspace and computers with the extra-large Jpegs that would drive the internet into reverse, let alone slow it down. I'm sure the 'SU cheerleading team might appeal to convicts, the Stridex set, the mentally challenged and certain fans of the Lynx, but that stuff probably won't fly here.

In my view Ziggy has more of an "attitude" and self-confidence that goalies need by effectively walking-on to a program where goaltending has been uneven, at best, the past couple of seasons. Not to take anything away from J-Parise, but I'll give Ziggy my edge at this point.

With SDSU's jump seeming a bit more uncertain and its travel partner status possibly gone, I wonder if Chaps will spend any sleepless nights standing along University Avenue shaking his fist towards the north while holding a bottle of paint thinner in the other hand as he rages against Fate, or perhaps just figuring out if his frequent flyer miles transfer over to Greyhound. BTW: If the Fool'em ever hosts an 'SU Cheerleading board, I don't want to see pictures. Ever.

Murray-obvious as he'll skate with Zach, and did well in a tough league. But I still see Money with his own line. Stafford-the kid's talented and strong, and has a good upside Porter-Good role player, a year in the USHL should help Fabian(?)-probably wearing a tie a good part of the season Smaby-watched him outskate and outshoot forwards. Expect him to contribute early Ziggy J.Parise (Not sure about the goalies, as their season numbers are close, but Ziggy seems to have an edge for now)

Line 1: Murray, Parise, Lundbohm Line 2: Fylling, Bochenski, McMahon Line 3: Prpich, Hale, Massen Line 4: Stafford, Connelly, Canady, Genoway, Porter

I would agree to a great extent with Dr. Yeagley's comments. However, I would submit that a good number of liberal, ostensibly straight, white males are also involved in this issue. Most trot out the usual reasons for changing Indian names, monikers, logos, etc., e.g., centuries of oppression, racisim, insensitivity, etc. While I certainly won't deny the horrible treatment often inflicted on Indians in the past and present in a number of ways, all of this "sensitivity" smacks of the same paternalism that these same groups often accuse white males of perpetuating. It's often typical of liberal academics, and pseudo-intellectuals, to hijack a variety of social "wrongs" and tie them to their own agendas, regardless of whether they have actually been impacted by these issues. The fact that they seem more interested in changing school names than addressing more day-to-day issues facing many Indians is either pure cynicism or myopic idealism at their worst.

My picks: Hale-C, experienced leadership is a quality that doesn't always show up on a stat sheet. Schneider-A, has really proven himself as a solid d-man who can also shoot the puck. McMahon-A, tough, feisty and a hard worker who usually shows up to play. Besides, I have to love a guy who busts an opponent's stick and tosses it on the ice. IMO I don't believe Parise has earned a leadership position yet, regardless of his production, even though he probably sets the pace for much of the team. Maybe this year, he will develop that quality, as well as 80 or so pts.

Any webcast highlights would probably require a license from UND, and possibly the NC$$ which doesn't do anything gratis. I like the idea, but there probably some commercial, technical and copyright issues that need to be addressed before it comes into being.

It doesn't. However, in the halcyon world of the 'SU D1 Rah-Rah Squad, revenues, expenses and reality aren't issues of import. One of the reasons Nebraska brings in a patsy like Troy State for $250,000 or so, is because they can still sell their place out, beat up on some hapless opponent, give there bench warmers a chance, and make a tidy profit. I doubt the FloodDome has ever been sold out except when UND comes to town, or there's a tractor pull.

It's pretty amusing that certain of the Blundering Turd faithful, here and in the F-M media such as it is, are blaming UND for the fact that 'SU is scrambling to fill the FloodDome and that dump of a bouncyball arena as UND remains non-committal about future games. If Chapman and the rest of the D1 boosters hadn't been smoking whatever they smoke, they might have realized that UND wasn't going to sit around and continue "the rivalry" while in D2 while the disparity in scholarships persisted in favor of 'SU. No reason to play at a disadvantage while helping 'SU meet those "conservative" revenue estimates in the Carr Report. The only pressure regarding D1 from any source is on 'SU, since it seems to have picked up its consultant's report and couldn't understand its conclusions, or any other part of it. I'm glad "the iron finger" is no longer in the velvet glove. It's easier to stick in 'SU's myopic eyes.

I was pretty surprised to not see Smaby on that list, as he's already a projected late 1st-early 2nd round pick. Then again, INCH has the same credibility as the National Enquirer on certain things.

I'd love to see a bunch of POI'ers sitting around counting on somebody's hand. Hours of entertainment.

I'd *guess* that the job is Brandt's to lose at this point, which may be a moot point if Blais benches him for an extended period for his "sticky fingers" episode. Ziggy seems to have a cocksure attitude that reminds me of Karl G by basically walking on, especially where goaltending hasn't been a strong point on this team for a while. I don't know much about JParise, except he had pretty solid numbers in the USHL. Whoever gets the starting spot on a reliable basis is going to have to earn it and want it. Moreover, I hope Blais doesn't start playing "musical goalies" right off the bat. Otherwise, we might be stuck with a bunch of minders with little confidence and less experience. That said, the rest of the team has to work hard in front of these guys and not sit on their asses leaving the goalie facing a 2-3 man rush or otherwise stuck on a limb.

Smells like a closeted Minnie fan ... maybe DE, Happy or Donnie. Anyway, troll, Blais has yet to deal with Brandt on this issue. To presume he'll get off easy is a sure demonstration of your ignorance of this program and its coach.