"The deepest, darkest part of winter is undeniably cold but if you are prepared it can be an adventure. Furs and vodka keep people warm and snow-covered landscapes are picturesque. A solid snowpack covers the ground from November to March. The city gets fired up to ring in the New Year, when Muscovites emerge from their warm homes into the winter night for free concerts and fireworks."
Soon will have to buy Rosetta Stone for learning Russian if there is no hockey this year and next.
Forgot to add stock up on vodka and fur? Maybe artificial fur will have to do.
Except for the New Year 10-day holiday you don't see too many drunk people on the streets of Moscow. Not nearly as many as in the other Russian cities.
Except for the New Year 10-day holiday you don't see too many drunk people on the streets of Moscow. Not nearly as many as in the other Russian cities.
**** the people. I wanna go to Moscow to see the dogs.
Wow, we're reduced to discussing dogs on the Metro, eh?
2 things:
1- I am so sick of this lockout. I read a great piece the other day. The author posed the question: Should Bettman be locked out? I'd say, YES.
2- I hate Metro dogs. They force their way in line, and wag their tails at every good looking woman that walks in.
I don't think this is Bettman's doing at all. He is going along with the owners who I personally fully support. The players have long been claiming a huge share of the profits without taking any of the monetary risks involved. Far more than NFL and NBA players. I've never seen a player, after a bad year, just hand money back to the team. A team has a bad year (at the gate for whatever reason) and they are in the red.
I personally think that hockey players, generally speaking, are less educated than NFL and NBA players who at least attend some form of college/higher education across the board. Some NHL players do but not all that many.
This makes it easy for them to be duped by the likes of Fehr.
Did Fehr ever get a mlb cba without a lockout/strike? During his tenure with the baseball players there was a lot of lost baseball including a world series. Anyone that expected something different with him now in control of the hockey players was just engaged in wishful thinking.
I would agree with BR that next season is realistically in jeopardy. This season is on the block right now and the two sides are not even talking on the phone about talking about a contract. its dead in the water.
Its interesting. Ive given up the NFL as Snyder killed the Redskins for me. Maryland sports are not worth watching anymore. I stopped watching the Wiz when they were still Lez Bullett's. With no NHL, i am almost not watching any fall tv anymore. Burn Notice and Top Chef and a little H 5-0. Thats it.
How things change.
When the NHL returns, I am sure I will watch. Right now? I really dont miss it. The last lockout took all my give a damn on that subject. Anyone know the song, "My Give A Damn's Broken" ??? Thats me.
Haven't been on HF Boards in a few months. Recent On Frozen Blog commentary on the ongoing current lockout is attached. I comment, but at the end of the OFB article, so no need to do so here. Hopefully my link was successful.
Did Fehr ever get a mlb cba without a lockout/strike? During his tenure with the baseball players there was a lot of lost baseball including a world series. Anyone that expected something different with him now in control of the hockey players was just engaged in wishful thinking.
The 2002 and 2006 MLB CBAs were ratified without strikes and with Fehr at the helm of the MLBPA. 2002 did come down to the final hours (it was literally approved after 10:00PM the day before the strike was scheduled to start).
The 2002 and 2006 MLB CBAs were ratified without strikes and with Fehr at the helm of the MLBPA. 2002 did come down to the final hours (it was literally approved after 10:00PM the day before the strike was scheduled to start).
I don't think this is Bettman's doing at all. He is going along with the owners who I personally fully support. The players have long been claiming a huge share of the profits without taking any of the monetary risks involved. Far more than NFL and NBA players. I've never seen a player, after a bad year, just hand money back to the team. A team has a bad year (at the gate for whatever reason) and they are in the red.
I personally think that hockey players, generally speaking, are less educated than NFL and NBA players who at least attend some form of college/higher education across the board. Some NHL players do but not all that many.
This makes it easy for them to be duped by the likes of Fehr.
Love ya bro, but you're not convincing me.
The owners won the last lockout, and they got what they wanted.
How can getting what they wanted be unfair to them?
The reality? The NHL is making record profits as to revenue. Their losses are all due to their own stupidity.
Example: Minnesota's Craig Leopold hands out a $98-million,13-year deal to Ryan Suter and Zach Parise ( front-loaded, no less) last summer.
Remember the Duck's bidding war against the Red Wings for Fedorov? Literally, 3 months after, they were crying about being unable to meet payroll.
One owner raised Jagr's inflated salary for 7 years before he played a single game for them. Anyone remember what team that was?
Gotta agree with the players. Why should they foot the bill for the owner's stupidity?
The reality? The NHL is making record profits as to revenue. Their losses are all due to their own stupidity.
PROFITS AND REVENUE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Revenue simultaneous to cost increases doesn't lead to increased profits. They are not making record profits.
The league revenue figures are being propped up by a handful of major markets. Three teams (Toronto, Montreal, New York Rangers) have a $171M profit. The other 27 teams combine for a collective loss of $44M. The revenue in large hockey markets continues to drive the league totals upwards, but most franchises aren't seeing an increase in revenue. Thus they can't keep up with the rising salary costs (since the cap ceiling/floor is based on total league revenue).
You know what the alternative is to the "owner's stupidity?" Collusion. It's a competitive free agent market, so team management is forced to bid higher and higher in order to remain competitive (or even just to retain homegrown talent). The only way to avoid that is to have the owners agree not to bid against each other, which is not only far worse for the players, it's illegal.
PROFITS AND REVENUE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Revenue simultaneous to cost increases doesn't lead to increased profits. They are not making record profits.
The league revenue figures are being propped up by a handful of major markets. Three teams (Toronto, Montreal, New York Rangers) have a $171M profit. The other 27 teams combine for a collective loss of $44M. The revenue in large hockey markets continues to drive the league totals upwards, but most franchises aren't seeing an increase in revenue. Thus they can't keep up with the rising salary costs (since the cap ceiling/floor is based on total league revenue).
You know what the alternative is to the "owner's stupidity?" Collusion. It's a competitive free agent market, so team management is forced to bid higher and higher in order to remain competitive (or even just to retain homegrown talent). The only way to avoid that is to have the owners agree not to bid against each other, which is not only far worse for the players, it's illegal.
Correct.... which is why you must make sound business decisions: the owners do NOT!
As to the rest of your post, again, it's not the players who employ a socialist business model, it's the league. Franchises that are not solvent cannot be made solvent by taxation, which is what is employed. This never works.
Your last paragraph, I'm not buying. I'd remind you, that Tampa won the Cup with a payroll of $27-28 million, far below that years cap.
Just because you have a cap, doesn't mean you have to spend to its level.
Collusion wouldn't even help them that much. If owners agreed to keep contracts reasonable, every player would just get some % raise from escrow to keep league spending at the agreed upon %.
Owners handing out dumb contracts matters in terms of bang for the buck and cap management, but leaguewide it doesn't matter as much financially since player costs are (were) certain.
