The Business of HockeyDiscuss the financial and business aspects of the NHL. Franchise sales, valuations, TV contracts, ratings, expansion, relocation, the CBA and work stoppage discussion goes here.
What do the Leafs and their fans get out of the 'New NHL'?
People complain about ESPN, but the NHL went into purgatory until the Versus/NBC contract. I'm waiting but for how long. The MLB only gets 800k for games nationally so how hard is it for 1 million viewers. Not 10 or 20, 1.
ESPN is a self serving network anymore it's 75% NFL 15% NBA 5% College Fooball 4% MLB and 1% everything else and it's April. They have been talking Tim Tebow and Saints bounty for 2 freaking months!!!!!! After the draft, they then start to cover the schedule release for the NFL. NFL now has 3 networks on cable and it's on nationwide radio network.
Please tell me how many times the Yankees have won. Or who's ratings are higher? NBA and MLB with their dynasties or the NHL with the everyone gets a turn in the sandbox.
this is much more exciting than Red Wings or Devils winning cup every year. Salary cap = GOOD thing. btw this is coming from fan, which team was totally ****ed, because of salary cap and we haven't won anything since then.
I can't speak for anyone else but my main beef is players not having the freedom to play where they want.
That goes for any professional athlete.
If you want to have a draft, fine, but let the player become a UFA when he's younger. I suggest 22 y/o.
Players can absolutely play where they want (assuming the team wants them).
Players may not be able to play where they want and get paid what they want.
The choice is theirs though.
Players play where they want? What a bunch of bs. That would ruin the league in a matter of years.
I'm not paying money, giving a minute of my time as a fan to watch the same 5 teams fight over a trophy while the other 24 teams hope to be so lucky as to have a good player give them the courtesy of watching them play.
This league isn't MLB. You think anyone wants to play in Columbus right now. Kiss that franchise goodbye.
It's morons who come post here plugging players rights like the poor guys are treated like Afghani women. Give me a friggin break. You don't want to play for Columbus. Go play hockey in some other league.
Players play where they want? What a bunch of bs. That would ruin the league in a matter of years.
I'm not paying money, giving a minute of my time as a fan to watch the same 5 teams fight over a trophy while the other 24 teams hope to be so lucky as to have a good player give them the courtesy of watching them play.
This league isn't MLB. You think anyone wants to play in Columbus right now. Kiss that franchise goodbye.
It's morons who come post here plugging players rights like the poor guys are treated like Afghani women. Give me a friggin break. You don't want to play for Columbus. Go play hockey in some other league.
Players play where they want? What a bunch of bs. That would ruin the league in a matter of years.
I'm not paying money, giving a minute of my time as a fan to watch the same 5 teams fight over a trophy while the other 24 teams hope to be so lucky as to have a good player give them the courtesy of watching them play.
This league isn't MLB. You think anyone wants to play in Columbus right now. Kiss that franchise goodbye.
It's morons who come post here plugging players rights like the poor guys are treated like Afghani women. Give me a friggin break. You don't want to play for Columbus. Go play hockey in some other league.
Spot on.
Plenty of people work in professions that send them to places they really don't want to live. Why do they do it? Money. And those people aren't making NHL base salary money.
You're a professional. Suck it up. You're paid to play a game and entertain people, whether that be in Vancouver or Vladivostok.
Poor decision making by ownership, management will sink a team in any sport if it continues long enough. Until Toronto fans start demanding more from those running the team, and voting with their wallets when they don`t get it, then nothing will change and Toronto will continue to be a financial success while continuing to ice a mediocre product more often than not.
Ownership hasn't made a management-related decision since 2008.
Ownership hasn't made a management-related decision since 2008.
That only leaves the other 40 odd years.
Bottom line Toronto has a history in the last 44 seasons of at times poor ownership and or management. Either a bad owner like Harold Ballard who was probably one of the worst owners of a team in any professional sports league, or simply not hiring the right people to run the team, and when they did interfering with them doing their job.
Whether it`s a capped or uncapped league those kind of problems contribute more to holding a team back from being successful on the ice than a salary cap would ever do.
Bottom line Toronto has a history in the last 44 seasons of at times poor ownership and or management. Either a bad owner like Harold Ballard who was probably one of the worst owners of a team in any professional sports league, or simply not hiring the right people to run the team, and when they did interfering with them doing their job.
Whether it`s a capped or uncapped league those kind of problems contribute more to holding a team back from being successful on the ice than a salary cap would ever do.
Of course, no Leaf fan will deny the ineptness of ownership over the past 44 years. The last 4, however, have had no meddling whatsoever (or that we publicly know of). Burke is running the show and he has a virtual carte blanche to do so.
Remember when we were kids and learned new words by how they were used in a sentence? When I was a kid in Richmond Hill and everyone was always saying "The Leafs suck" I figured out that must mean to not be good at something. At the time I was 8 or 9. Now I am 36, and moving back to Richmond Hill, I have been all over North America in the intervening years and the Leafs still suck. Glad to see things haven't changed.
Yeah. The premise of this thread is absurd. What I get is this: the Leafs are not doing well. They could do better if there were no cap (ignoring that they didn't do so well before the cap). Ergo: get rid of the cap.
I watch the NHL because the league as a whole is exciting and often has surprises (Panthers this year, for example).
Then, there is the bizarre 'free market' argument: i.e. I'm a Leafs fan and I'm supporting losing teams and we could win if this weren't the case. Ok. You want a free market, lets put a team in 905 and Hamilton and see how long the Leafs can continue to field a bad product and remain a revenue generator. That would be a 'free' market (and I say this as a transplanted Toronto former Leafs fan who moved to Ottawa a few years ago and got sick of what was once my team).
You're saying the current system is communist, I'd say it's rather ultra-capitalism (not much of a difference) they want all the teams to make the most profit as possible that's why the draft is based from the worst team up like any other sports. Because in the past we didn't have the means we have today teams like Montreal had exclusive rights on Quebec players, the reason why Quebec habs fan only wants to see french-speaking players, the reason why we think we have won 24 cups. Toronto had the same exclusive rights, and why a team like Quebec was the first to go draft european players under the iron-curtain. The league has evolved and we can scout wherever we want and even before that I don't think a team like Toronto had much success anyways. I prefer seeing teams fight with equal means and get down to talent in managing/coaching/drafting than being a pure game of money. Just look at the MLB and it's easy to say that odds aren't fair. The current hockey system doesn't stop the red wings, penguins and canucks... from having success.
I think you're just another frustrated leafs fan looking for an excuse, especially after losing the last game 4-1 against to the Montreal Canadiens.
Last time I checked choosing the best front office was not constrained by the cap.
The Leafs, with all their resources, should be able to put together a world class organization. Instead, they're probably the worst run team in the league.
Last time I checked choosing the best front office was not constrained by the cap.
The Leafs, with all their resources, should be able to put together a world class organization. Instead, they're probably the worst run team in the league.
Exactly management is the issue here. Something's wrong but no one seems to know what it is, Goaltending as far as I can remember was an issue and maybe the leafs rely too much on offense and that's why they never made it good in the playoffs and now not even are able to enter it.
I love this idiotic system you propose. All Ontario born players must sign with The Leafs and there is no salary cap. It'll be just like the 60s again except this time the celebrations will be in colour.
Let's just completely ignore that the players and NHL legally have to agree to a collective bargaining system in the absence of free agency. Yep. The entire system will just revolve around the whim of the Leafs and their whiny fans.
I love this idiotic system you propose. All Ontario born players must sign with The Leafs and there is no salary cap. It'll be just like the 60s again except this time the celebrations will be in colour.
Let's just completely ignore that the players and NHL legally have to agree to a collective bargaining system in the absence of free agency. Yep. The entire system will just revolve around the whim of the Leafs and their whiny fans.
I guess you would know all about that being from Vancouver.
I love this idiotic system you propose. All Ontario born players must sign with The Leafs and there is no salary cap. It'll be just like the 60s again except this time the celebrations will be in colour.
As an aside, the NHL *never*had a regional model. Each NHL team sponsored their own junior development teams in whatever league/region they wanted. So you had teams like the Drummondville Rangers or the Hamilton Red Wings or the Estevan Bruins. Just for example.
I love this idiotic system you propose. All Ontario born players must sign with The Leafs and there is no salary cap. It'll be just like the 60s again except this time the celebrations will be in colour.
Let's just completely ignore that the players and NHL legally have to agree to a collective bargaining system in the absence of free agency. Yep. The entire system will just revolve around the whim of the Leafs and their whiny fans.
So, sign the best 15 Ontario players for league minimum, since they can't sign with anyone else, and then spend $15 million a piece on half a dozen mercenaries from regions without a NHL team, whether it's Europe or other parts of North America. So Rick Nash makes $800k while say, Lilja makes $10 million.
I see no reason why the players union wouldn't leap at such an opportunity.
I love this idiotic system you propose. All Ontario born players must sign with The Leafs and there is no salary cap. It'll be just like the 60s again except this time the celebrations will be in colour.
Let's just completely ignore that the players and NHL legally have to agree to a collective bargaining system in the absence of free agency. Yep. The entire system will just revolve around the whim of the Leafs and their whiny fans.
I am not proposing it. I would get rid of the draft and allow all players to be UFA's to be honest. Let them sign where they want. My point is the fact that the current system basically punishes a team like the Leafs (and of course their fans) for being successful. Leaf fans are basically paying the freight for alot of teams in this league but they really get nothing out of it themselves in return. If the NHL were to follow MLB's common sense solution and have a luxury tax then at least Leaf fans could see their team use some of their resources to bring in more high end talent. This goes for fans of other big market teams as well. There is always alot of talk about what needs to be done to keep the smaller markets happy/competitive, but I just think the fans in bigger markets are getting taken for granted at times.
I am not proposing it. I would get rid of the draft and allow all players to be UFA's to be honest. Let them sign where they want. My point is the fact that the current system basically punishes a team like the Leafs (and of course their fans) for being successful. Leaf fans are basically paying the freight for alot of teams in this league but they really get nothing out of it themselves in return. If the NHL were to follow MLB's common sense solution and have a luxury tax then at least Leaf fans could see their team use some of their resources to bring in more high end talent. This goes for fans of other big market teams as well. There is always alot of talk about what needs to be done to keep the smaller markets happy/competitive, but I just think the fans in bigger markets are getting taken for granted at times.
And yet clubs like Boston which are situated in large markets have no problem icing top notch squads.
I am not proposing it. I would get rid of the draft and allow all players to be UFA's to be honest. Let them sign where they want. My point is the fact that the current system basically punishes a team like the Leafs (and of course their fans) for being successful. Leaf fans are basically paying the freight for alot of teams in this league but they really get nothing out of it themselves in return. If the NHL were to follow MLB's common sense solution and have a luxury tax then at least Leaf fans could see their team use some of their resources to bring in more high end talent. This goes for fans of other big market teams as well. There is always alot of talk about what needs to be done to keep the smaller markets happy/competitive, but I just think the fans in bigger markets are getting taken for granted at times.
Hate to break it to you, but the Leafs already have that option. They have more money then anyone else, so they could spend that on facilities and scouting and training and player development and any number of other factors that could not only produce better talent, but attract it in free agency as well by making it clear that the organization is committed to winning. And yet they've drafted for **** for a long while now, completely discounted the importance of the draft for the past several years, and have barely made an impact when it came to going after major free agents as of late.
If the Leafs are proof of anything, it's that throwing money at a problem (with how many experienced people are in their hockey operations staff) isn't necessarily a solution.
I am not proposing it. I would get rid of the draft and allow all players to be UFA's to be honest. Let them sign where they want. My point is the fact that the current system basically punishes a team like the Leafs (and of course their fans) for being successful. Leaf fans are basically paying the freight for alot of teams in this league but they really get nothing out of it themselves in return. If the NHL were to follow MLB's common sense solution and have a luxury tax then at least Leaf fans could see their team use some of their resources to bring in more high end talent. This goes for fans of other big market teams as well. There is always alot of talk about what needs to be done to keep the smaller markets happy/competitive, but I just think the fans in bigger markets are getting taken for granted at times.
No. System doesn't punnish Leafs "for being succesful". Leafs should not be mentioned anywhere near word "succesful". System punishes teams for bad managing and rewarding good managing. System prevents from buying throphies.
That only leaves the other 40 odd years.
