It's Official

[jloos]

Good job NHL, you only knew about this for a couple of years. Great job destroying pro hockey in this country.

NEW YORK - The National Hockey League will lock out its players Thursday, starting a work stoppage that threatens to keep the sport off the ice for the entire 2004-05 season.

The long-expected decision was confirmed by NHL owners Wednesday following a meeting in New York. Management is demanding cost certainty, which players say would be tantamount to salary cap.

Even before the announcement, teams already had given commissioner Gary Bettman authority to cancel the season.

The sides have not met since a bargaining session last Thursday ended with the parties far apart, and there appears to be almost no chance the season will start as scheduled on Oct. 13.

"The present system doesn't work for us," said Jim Rutherford, the president and general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. "We need a new system. We're all frustrated by it."

Owners have contributed $300 million to a league work-stoppage fund to help get them through a lockout, and the union has retained licensing money to help its members.

Players vow to resist a salary cap and, with the positions entrenched, a long stoppage is likely, one that could wipe out the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1919, when the series between Montreal and Seattle was stopped after five games due a Spanish influenza epidemic.

The 30 teams _ 24 in the United States and six in Canada _ had been set to start opening training camps on Thursday, the day after the expiration of the current labor contract, first agreed to in 1995 and extended two years later through Sept. 15, 2004.

Some players are expected to sign with European leagues, and others could join a six-team, four-on-four circuit called the Original Stars Hockey League, which is set to start play Friday in Barrie, Ontario. Others could go to a revived World Hockey Association, which plans to open Oct. 29 with eight teams playing 76 games apiece.

The work stoppage is the first for a North American major league since the 1997-98 NBA lockout canceled 464 games, cutting each club's regular-season schedule from 82 games to 50.

It is the third stoppage for the NHL following a 10-day strike in 1992 that caused the postponement of 30 games and a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 that eliminated 468 games, cutting each team's regular-season schedule from 84 games to 48. That lockout ended on Jan. 11, five days before the deadline set by Bettman to scuttle the season.

Baseball has had eight work stoppages, the last running for 7 1/2 months in 1994-95. It caused the cancellation of 921 regular-season games over two years and wiped out the World Series for the first time since 1904. While the NFL has had four strikes, including two during the regular season, the sport has enjoyed labor peace since 1987.

NHL management claims it needs changes in the labor contract because teams are losing money, $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season, according to the league.

The NHL's average salary has risen from $733,000 at the time of the last lockout to $1,830,126 last season, according to the NHL players' association. While NHL revenue rose from $732 million in 1993-94 to $1.996 billion in 2002-3, the league says that player costs have increased from 57 percent of revenue to 75 percent over that period, figures the union disputes.

Unlike the other major sports, the NHL's revenue from broadcasting is relatively small, $449 million from national and local contracts and new media in 2002-03, according to the league. The five games of the Stanley Cup finals on ABC averaged just a 2.6 rating last spring and the two on ESPN a 1.2 cable rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. This year's Super Bowl had a 41.3 rating on CBS, while last year's World Series averaged a 12.8 on Fox and this year's NBA finals an 11.5 on ABC.

[A.B.T.G.]

Who really cares about these overpaid NHL pukes!

Enjoy college hockey and watch players play for the love of the game...not $$$.

I have contested for quite some time that Pro Sports (NHL, NBA, NFL etc.) needs a real kick in the a** to get their heads on straight and quit paying so much to these

"Role Models". Hey here is a concept, all the money that sports generates lets put it back into our cities infastructure and schools. Who really needs $6 million a year to live on??

GET REAL!

Long live College Hockey!

[Godsmack]

Here's a typical experience of attending a Colorado Avalanche game: A nosebleed seat is $35. An average seat in the lower bowl of the Pepsi Center is $75-$100. Parking is $10-$15, depending on how close you want to park. A draft beer is $6.50. Hotdog is $4.50.

I usually have two beers and a dog and a bag of popcorn. So now I've spent 75 on the ticket, 10 for parking and 20-25 bucks on food/drinks. Keep in mind this is for 1 person. A family who attends just one Avalanche game could easily spend two-three hundred bucks....about the cost of a season ticket for the CC Tigers.

It is VERY hard to have any sympathy for the owners OR the players. They're all greedy and it all falls on the shoulders of the fan. Heck, most of the "fans" at Av's games don't even know the game or care about it. It's the "beautiful people" who go just to be seen. They typically talk all game long, except when there's a goal or a fight. The best cheer they have is, "Ref, you suck!" or, "Red Wings suck!" Very original........NOT!

The players AND the league for that matter have no one to blame but themselves.

[Sioux Traveler]

Who really cares about these overpaid NHL pukes!

Enjoy college hockey and watch players play for the love of the game...not $$$.

I have contested for quite some time that Pro Sports (NHL, NBA, NFL etc.) needs a real kick in the a** to get their heads on straight and quit paying so much to these

"Role Models". Hey here is a concept, all the money that sports generates lets put it back into our cities infastructure and schools. Who really needs $6 million a year to live on??

GET REAL!

Long live College Hockey!

Are you voting for Kerry?

Oh by the way, I would like to try out the six figure income!!!

WHA Try outs

http://www.cityofeagan.com/live/page.asp?menu=1946

Sat. Nights 10:15pm

only $5 bucks

[jloos]

Wild games were pretty reasonable when I lived in the cities. $10 got you a nosebleed seat, but they aren't that bad of seats. Parking can be a problem, but if you know St. Paul you can get by for less than $10. The majority of the fans know hockey and are very into the Wild. The fans were always very into the game, which is odd considering how boring the Wild are.

[Godsmack]

If the Wild win a Stanley Cup, just watch what will happen to ticket prices....I know because the Av's won the cup their first year in Denver and after that, prices went up considerably.

[Tommiejo]

Thank you NHL for giving the fans the shaft. Well at least there's UND "FIGHTIN SIOUX HOCKEY" it's better than no hockey at all. I also want everyone to know that i'm alright & from the past three hurricans that have gone either through or by pass me I wanted you all to know that. In other words i'm still alive & well.

SIOUX FAN SINCE 1973.

[Shawn-O]

Interesting article with former SEC Chairman Levitt about the NHL's financial state. Some pretty damning evidence here against the players union. Guess we'll see what happens, but it looks like the players will have to cave. They have no leverage. Most owners are economically better off with their teams not operating. I have to believe that contraction is a possibility, too.

http://www.nhlcbanews.com/transcripts/levi...ript100104.html

[DamStrait]

Don't believe everything you read. This "independent" review was paid for by the owners. Bob Sansevere had a column about it in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press today that was pretty damning of the players too. I think with so many newspapers across the country struggling that sportswriters ought to agree to have their salaries reduced.

Nobody is putting a gun to the owners' heads forcing them to offer these ridiculous contracts. If things for the owners are so dire, why don't they let the players look at the books? The owners want the public to build them state-of-the-art arenas, and when they mismanage their teams into bankruptcy, they want the players to bail them out. Do anything but take responsibility for your own actions and face the consequences of your own poor decisions.

[OETKB]

Don't believe everything you read.  This "independent" review was paid for by the owners.

The former chair of the SEC is about as credible as you can get. He wasn't going to do the audit for free.

Having said that, it is true that owners bid against eachother and overpaid players on their own. The players league has been tough, though. I don't think owners had much choice in the absence of a cap agreement. If you want top talent, you are forced to pay the going rate.

Does anybody really NEED to be paid more than a few million to play sports? If they really feel that way, perhaps it is time to move on and let some hungry kid in the door.

In case you can't tell, I don't have much sympathy for the players. They seem to be willing to let the league disappear in the name of greed.

[CoteauRinkRat]

Going along those same lines, do some of these owners need to make millions every year off the team? I find it funny how when the players strike, they are crybabies and are making too much money and when the owners lock them out, the players are once again babies and making too much money. No one ever seems to point the finger at some of these owners who make tons of money, but "cook" the books and make it look on paper that they are actually losing money. I'm not taking the player's side on this issue because I think some of the salaries are way out of control, but the owner's tend to have the media on the their side all the time.

[OETKB]

I'm not saying that the owners don't skim some benefits off the business, but when an auditor as reputable as Levitt says the revenues are right, I believe it.

And when he verifies that 70-75% of the costs are for salaries, it kind of kills the notion that somewhere, in the remaining 25%, is the secret savings for the NHL. Not many businesses, no matter how well run, can survive on 25% of revenues for all costs beyond salaries.

For instance, in my company, Personnel expense is less than 20% of sales. Net Income is around 7% of sales. Imagine if salaries were 75% of sales...Net Loss would be huge.