Super Dud!
I was bored for this Super Bowl. I admit it. I didn't care which team won and I didn't care to sit and watch 4 hours of commercials. My TIVO cut off after 4 hours and the game and commercials continued. It took until 4:38 for the opening kickoff according to my TIVO.
The wifee and I talked more about hockey and the on-going strike than we did about the SB game. We compared the SB to the Stanley Cup finals. No comparisons. Hockey teams play 80 regular season games. Generally those are 2 or 3 days apart. Occassionally, the games are back to back. They meet their Division opponents 6 times during the regular season (builds awesome rivalries). There are no players sitting out for a week at a time like football. The game is filled with speed, constant movement, unparralled punishment of the body, and infrequent ghastly bouts of violence (bench clearing brawls). What a game!!
We both feel the players union needs to be broken for the game to be healthy. Players have gotten so greedy and a handful of owners so out of control on their spending that the smaller market teams were forced into this impasse. I'd like every player to make $10 million, but the game and the market and the fans cannot support those high payrolls without the game collapsing for financial woes. It's not possible. The TV contracts are tiny in comparison to Baseball or Football or Basketball. Hockey players believe they are a major sport, but financially they are not even close to a major sport. The fan base is tiny in comparison to the 3 major sports. The union needs breaking for the game to be healthy.
A salary cap must be instituted. The owners proposedd something like 58% of revenue for the leaque is the salary cap for the players. Low by the standards of salary's today, it is nonetheless a bargaining starting point. The players reject this outright. But the owners also stated they were willing to have a third-party audit their books to determine the revenue numbers annually so the players were not getting shafted. This is interesting! The players have been rejecting the leaque reports that indicate the owners were indeed losing money but at the same time are rejecting the opportunity to select an accounting firm to examine the books of the owners annually to make sure they are not getting ripped off. In other words, they must know what the accounting firm will find and are misleading the public on their view of owners losing money. They must know it to be true inspite of what the union is saying publically.
Here is the players opportunity to capitalize on the game itself. If the game is successful, their take increases with the profits. If the game sinks in popularity and fan base, the owners and players suffer equally. Both profit or suffer from the success or failure of the game. Both share the risks equally. For too long, the players have left the yoke of the success or failure of the individual teams and league on the owners alone. The owners (stupidly) should have insisted on something similar in 94 during the last lockout. I think with all the expansion teams and certainty in the game, it would have been in a much better place today had that occurred.
Players have become greedy. A player may only have a few years in the sport at their prime, but that does not guarantee them the right to reach into my pocket and take an $85 dollar seat price from me. Ridiculous. The same price at a baseball game puts me behind home plate. The same price at a football game puts me inside the 40 yard line. The same price at a basketball game keeps me in the lower tier. Ridiculous.
I believe not just the owners have taken all the risks. As a fan, I've taken a risk. Ticket prices alone justify my anger over this impasse. I've invested my interest in this sport to the detriment of basketball and football. I don't watch any other sport now. I care for the game. It is an emotional attachment. I want a better game. A game where I know my kids can grow to enjoy the speed and style of a well executed powerplay or the thrill of odd man rushes up and down the ice. I want the players to fold and accept the risk for their future as we must accept the risk of our future every day.
The wifee and I talked more about hockey and the on-going strike than we did about the SB game. We compared the SB to the Stanley Cup finals. No comparisons. Hockey teams play 80 regular season games. Generally those are 2 or 3 days apart. Occassionally, the games are back to back. They meet their Division opponents 6 times during the regular season (builds awesome rivalries). There are no players sitting out for a week at a time like football. The game is filled with speed, constant movement, unparralled punishment of the body, and infrequent ghastly bouts of violence (bench clearing brawls). What a game!!
We both feel the players union needs to be broken for the game to be healthy. Players have gotten so greedy and a handful of owners so out of control on their spending that the smaller market teams were forced into this impasse. I'd like every player to make $10 million, but the game and the market and the fans cannot support those high payrolls without the game collapsing for financial woes. It's not possible. The TV contracts are tiny in comparison to Baseball or Football or Basketball. Hockey players believe they are a major sport, but financially they are not even close to a major sport. The fan base is tiny in comparison to the 3 major sports. The union needs breaking for the game to be healthy.
A salary cap must be instituted. The owners proposedd something like 58% of revenue for the leaque is the salary cap for the players. Low by the standards of salary's today, it is nonetheless a bargaining starting point. The players reject this outright. But the owners also stated they were willing to have a third-party audit their books to determine the revenue numbers annually so the players were not getting shafted. This is interesting! The players have been rejecting the leaque reports that indicate the owners were indeed losing money but at the same time are rejecting the opportunity to select an accounting firm to examine the books of the owners annually to make sure they are not getting ripped off. In other words, they must know what the accounting firm will find and are misleading the public on their view of owners losing money. They must know it to be true inspite of what the union is saying publically.
Here is the players opportunity to capitalize on the game itself. If the game is successful, their take increases with the profits. If the game sinks in popularity and fan base, the owners and players suffer equally. Both profit or suffer from the success or failure of the game. Both share the risks equally. For too long, the players have left the yoke of the success or failure of the individual teams and league on the owners alone. The owners (stupidly) should have insisted on something similar in 94 during the last lockout. I think with all the expansion teams and certainty in the game, it would have been in a much better place today had that occurred.
Players have become greedy. A player may only have a few years in the sport at their prime, but that does not guarantee them the right to reach into my pocket and take an $85 dollar seat price from me. Ridiculous. The same price at a baseball game puts me behind home plate. The same price at a football game puts me inside the 40 yard line. The same price at a basketball game keeps me in the lower tier. Ridiculous.
I believe not just the owners have taken all the risks. As a fan, I've taken a risk. Ticket prices alone justify my anger over this impasse. I've invested my interest in this sport to the detriment of basketball and football. I don't watch any other sport now. I care for the game. It is an emotional attachment. I want a better game. A game where I know my kids can grow to enjoy the speed and style of a well executed powerplay or the thrill of odd man rushes up and down the ice. I want the players to fold and accept the risk for their future as we must accept the risk of our future every day.
posted by Utah Chris at 7:10 AM
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