Re: NHL Offseason
I again give credit to the players in this battle of millionaires and billionaires. They came out and said "Heck, we'll play without a deal", where the owners and NHL brass have played the lockout card for weeks now.
The case for the players is pretty simple:
A) After the '04 - '05 season was canceled and both sides began talking again in the summer of 2005, Bob Goodenow convinced the union to roll over and take the CBA that the NHL had written, up to and including the immediate 24 percent salary rollback across the board. It was an agreement written by the owners, designed to be in the owners' favor. They got everything they wanted.
B) In the intervening years, bolstered by dramatic increases in revenue, ownership begins spending more and more, including exploiting loopholes in the CBA to sign players to monster contracts once again.
C) Now pleading poverty despite constantly surging revenues, NHL owners demand that the union agree to significant concessions in a new CBA, including another massive salary rollback and a significant drop in share of hockey-related revenue. These demands are made because owners have been spending beyond their means.
Essentially, the whole thing boils down to the owners demanding that the NHLPA save them from themselves, and Don Fehr (who, unlike Goodenow, does not have a fatal case of having his head stuck up his ass) saying, "Fuck that, we're happy to continue playing under the deal that
you yourselves wrote and specifically designed to be in your favor. It's not our fault that a few of you can't keep your dicks in your pants."
Fuck the NHL, fuck Bettman, fuck Daly, and fuck the owners, all of whom are willing to blow up the league that has just regained some measure of legitimacy after the last labor struggle, just because they can't keep themselves from opening their checkbooks.