2025-2026 NHL Offseason

its good strategy and organization. Just another leg the owners have up on the players, and another reason why it has been so foolish for the players to pursue their strategy of making a lot of noise and waiting out the owners.

Also remember the owners have Bettman in place via a unanimous vote.

The NHLPA on the other hand have been a complete mess since the last lockout. They havent even been able to settle on a leader. Fehr happened to be in place when the roulette wheel stopped. Kelly would have gotten them a better deal sooner IMO.

I also believe if nearly half or more of the owners wanted Bettman to move toward a resolution, he would probably do so. He is employed by them and can easily be removed. I have a feeling most owners are on the same page and is nowhere near a case of Bettman going rogue and stroking his ego by creating such a hard-line.
Again, that is my opinion and may not be the case.

The NHL's Problem: Only Three Teams Are Making Real Money

The NHL’s problem is the widespread disparity in profits for its 30 teams. We estimated that 18 teams lost money during the 2010-11 season in our annual look at the business of hockey. Several other teams barely eked out a profit, but the league’s most flush teams made a killing. The Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens had an operating profit (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $171 million combined. The other 27 NHL teams lost a collective $44 million. If you add the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers to the fat cats ledger, profits hit $212 million with the remaining 25 teams posting a loss of $86 million.

The concentration of wealth at the top is similar in the NBA. The three most profitable teams during the 2010-11 season, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers (a 1-year anomaly where the team sold out its arena with a cut-rate payroll ahead of LeBron James skipping town), earned $167 million. The total represented 96% of the league’s estimated profits of $175 million. The NBA tripled revenue sharing in its new CBA to help prop up small market teams.

Why did the NFL settle with its players before any regular season games were lost? Look at the numbers. The NFL’s richest teams, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins, earned a staggering $454 million last season. Yet, that total represented just 35% of the NFL’s $1.3 billion in total operating profit. The NFL cut back its supplemental revenue sharing program in its latest CBA. It expects $45 billion in new TV agreements to prop up the low revenue teams and keep their profit margins high.

Baseball is the most equitable major U.S. sports league when it comes to sharing the wealth. No wonder it will have had 21 years of labor peace by the time its current CBA expires in 2016. The top three earners last season, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs, made $87 million, which is only 20% of MLB’s $432 million in operating profit. High-revenue teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are content to run baseball operations with small profits, while making a killing through their ownership stakes in the regional sports networks that broadcast their games.

MLB has the heftiest supplemental revenue sharing system with roughly $400 million changing hands last season from the high revenue teams to the low revenue ones. The Yankees alone kicked in $110 million in revenue sharing in 2011.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenha ... have-them/

polaris_x wrote:

i think the biggest BS is that bettman only needs 8 owners to support him ... so, you have 8 out of 30 with a hard line agenda forcing their hand ...

is that 8 owners for any decision the NHL needs to make? Because if thats the case...then Quebec or Saskatoon or whoever else in Canada wants an NHL franchise can forget that...the US owners are not going to give up control of the NHL to Canadian teams.

MayDay10 wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

polaris_x wrote:

i think the biggest BS is that bettman only needs 8 owners to support him ... so, you have 8 out of 30 with a hard line agenda forcing their hand ...

is that 8 owners for any decision the NHL needs to make? Because if thats the case...then Quebec or Saskatoon or whoever else in Canada wants an NHL franchise can forget that...the US owners are not going to give up control of the NHL to Canadian teams.

I think that we will see talk of expansion to Quebec City, Seattle and/or Markham a little bit after this CBA is sealed up.

You also have Phoenix, NJ, Florida, and Columbus in a bit of trouble.


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... --nhl.html

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-o ... ed-why-not

You'll never see a team in Markham ... the Maple Leafs will not allow it, I don't even think an absurd amount of money would convince the leafs, just the fact that building that arena in Markham will undoubtably take away events from the ACC which I believe is owned by the same group that owns the Leafs, Raptors etc (polaris can confirm that). As for Quebec, they have no arena in place, they have recently changed governments so there is no guarantee they'll get an arena done anytime soon and the federal government is unlikely to help fund an arena.

lukin2006 wrote:

polaris_x wrote:

i think the biggest BS is that bettman only needs 8 owners to support him ... so, you have 8 out of 30 with a hard line agenda forcing their hand ...

is that 8 owners for any decision the NHL needs to make? Because if thats the case...then Quebec or Saskatoon or whoever else in Canada wants an NHL franchise can forget that...the US owners are not going to give up control of the NHL to Canadian teams.

According to NHLrules, Bettman only needs 8 owners to side with him in these lockouts. I don't believe that all the owners are siding with the lockout. teams like Nashville need these season in order just to pay Weber signing bonus.

games have been cancelled through December 14th. All-Star Game also gets the axe (but I figured it was probably history anyway)

polaris_x wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

You'll never see a team in Markham ... the Maple Leafs will not allow it, I don't even think an absurd amount of money would convince the leafs, just the fact that building that arena in Markham will undoubtably take away events from the ACC which I believe is owned by the same group that owns the Leafs, Raptors etc (polaris can confirm that). As for Quebec, they have no arena in place, they have recently changed governments so there is no guarantee they'll get an arena done anytime soon and the federal government is unlikely to help fund an arena.

MLSE owns the raptors and leafs and TFC and the marlies ... but MLSE just got bought by a consortium that includes Rogers and Bell ... soo ... really Rogers owns all the major sports teams except the Argos ...

I think if the NHL expands - it will pretty much reveal them as more frauds than they already are ... all the owners are gonna pocket the money and when these markets fail - it will be because of player salaries ...

With them owning all that I see no way that they'll allow another team in side what is considered their territory (unless maybe someone is willing to pay an obscene amount of money)...

polaris_x wrote:

I think if the NHL expands - it will pretty much reveal them as more frauds than they already are ... all the owners are gonna pocket the money and when these markets fail - it will be because of player salaries ...

You're right...they will fail.

In reality...they should fold Phoenix and they should have bought Atlanta and folded it as well...as exited as I was to see another Canadian team, when I paused to give it some thought, I figured we'll know more in 4-5 years...if their not winning are the fans willing to pay top $$$...