NHLOL Offseason

[Gil T.Azell]

Zombie Seeker wrote:

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Could we have a season after all? Link

Lets hope they come to these senses and take this offer, they've already burned the fans enough.

[Timby]

Guillotine2Hell wrote:

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Lets hope they come to these senses and take this offer, they've already burned the fans enough.

It can't be repeated enough -- the owners got everything they wanted in the last CBA, and after it was instituted, the league saw years of growth. Now, all of a sudden, it wasn't good enough and they dug in. Okay, so they've made some mild concessions with this new offer, but it's still a bad one for the players. I mean, yeah, the NHL made some movement from its last deadline proposal, but it only looks decent because it's a step up from a shit sandwich on a stick.

Say your boss comes up to you and says, "Great news! We are not going to cut your salary like we planned! ... But you have to move your office into that smelly supply closet, and you have to use an outhouse instead of a bathroom, oh, and you can't keep your desk, you have to hold your laptop in your arms all day. But it's a great deal for you!"

At the end of the day, the NHL's offer is still Bettman and Co. trying to make everyone forget that the league is experiencing record revenues, and instead putting the blame for any perceived issues on the players' backs, instead of cockmongers like Daryl Katz. Even if a deal goes from ten kicks in the dick two kicks in the dick ... you're still being asked to be kicked in the dick.

[Timby]

NHL withdraws its most recent offer, we're definitely not getting an 82-game season.

[Danny99]

And no one is shocked...

[Timby]

And all November games are now canceled. Cancellation of the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game is expected to be announced on Monday.

To put this in perspective, the NHL has lost an estimated $700 million in revenue because assholes like Jeremy Jacobs are more preoccupied with greed and breaking the union, rather than actually making a fair deal. "What's that? Actually honor the contracts we signed over the summer? Oh, you silly players. "

[Timby]

Winter Classic officially canceled.

[Danny99]

Just cancel the season now. This is silly.

[Timby]

Danny99 wrote:

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Just cancel the season now. This is silly.

Fuck Bettman, always and forever.

I honestly don't blame the players' association one single bit in all of this. If they accepted any of the NHL's proposals thus far, they'd lose everywhere and get no concessions to prevent this from happening again. The players lose salary on existing contracts, the cap goes down, there are more restrictions on contracts, and in return we probably get another lockout in six years.

The NHL's idea of "honoring" player contracts already signed was actually just paying current players money from future contracts. The money to make up the difference now would count against the player's share of money in the future. It's not a concession at all: Essentially, the league offered to pay the players with their own money.

The players are willing (and, let's be honest, they will) to concede salary and such, but they want the league to address the problems with the current system that punish poor teams (to prevent another lockout in six years) and they want to address how their split of league money is calculated (because they think teams are basically stealing from them by not reporting some revenue as "hockey-related").

Typically, in a negotiation in order to get the other party to accept negative changes, you offer to accept other changes in compensation in a give-and-take. The NHL has never made concessions to the players, they've never justified their position that players need to take a cut now, and they've never proven that the "50 / 50" figure is what it would take to help out struggling teams permanently so we're not having this same discussion in half a decade.

So, again, fuck Bettman.

[tomalak301]

I know everyone says that Bettman works for the owners and all that, but I think it's crystal clear that he has to go. Maybe it won't make a difference in the long run, but he is the worst commissioner in all of sports, and we might have 2 seasons cancelled in a period of 8 years under his watch. Owners don't like him (Or at least based on reports I've read saying a majority of the owners hate this lockout) and the Players hate his guts with a passion. For the sake of bringing the peace back to both sides, I don't see how Bettman survives this. His head is on the chopping block and the axe is about to swing.

Right now I do think they should just cancel the season. However, if this lockout doesn't end with Gary Bettman's retirement, then I think it was a waste.

[Timby]

tomalak301 wrote:

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I know everyone says that Bettman works for the owners and all that, but I think it's crystal clear that he has to go. Maybe it won't make a difference in the long run, but he is the worst commissioner in all of sports, and we might have 2 seasons cancelled in a period of 8 years under his watch. Owners don't like him (Or at least based on reports I've read saying a majority of the owners hate this lockout) and the Players hate his guts with a passion. For the sake of bringing the peace back to both sides, I don't see how Bettman survives this. His head is on the chopping block and the axe is about to swing.

Bettman serves at the owners' leisure. If he didn't have the support of ownership through all of this, he wouldn't be around. I don't think you understand just how much the hardline assholes like Jeremy Jacobs are obsessed with breaking the union above all else. Remember, the owners turned on John Ziegler in a nanosecond after he worked out the settlement to resolve the 1992 players' strike.

[tomalak301]

Timby wrote:

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Bettman serves at the owners' leisure. If he didn't have the support of ownership through all of this, he wouldn't be around. I don't think you understand just how much the hardline assholes like Jeremy Jacobs are obsessed with breaking the union above all else. Remember, the owners turned on John Ziegler in a nanosecond after he worked out the settlement to resolve the 1992 players' strike.

You're right, I don't understand, and I didn't really start becoming a fan of the league until the late 90s, but through all of this, how can Bettman keep his job? The Asswipe owners want to break the union, and the union wants Bettman gone. I think this is a great reason this year to not have a season and really get a long term deal and FIX this damn thing because right now, everything is broken.

[Timby]

tomalak301 wrote:

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You're right, I don't understand, and I didn't really start becoming a fan of the league until the late 90s, but through all of this, how can Bettman keep his job? The Asswipe owners want to break the union, and the union wants Bettman gone.

Unfortunately, Bettman doesn't answer to the players. He answers to the Board of Governors, and the vast majority of them are fully in his corner.

[Danny99]

Bettman is the fall guy for the owners. He looks bad while the owners sit in the ivory towers untouched. The union will never fall and the owners will never yield.

But I've finally accepted it's billionaires vs millionaires and no matter how much they both profess that they love the game and this is to the save the game, it's all about the money in the pockets. If it was for the love of the game, we'd be playing by now. I'll be back when they finally work it out, but for right now, this game is silly and I'm done.

[Alidar Jarok]

So which KHL team should I start rooting for?

[gblews]

Why has the players' union not de-certified and filed anti-trust lawsuits against the owners?