Do owners ever learn???

Question

For a Regional sport with little TV and who rely heavily on the ticket base the NHL owners are once again showing they learned nothing!!!!

I cannot believe the amount of money been thrown around to players..There were no players on the market worthy of 6-7 million dollar deals.

They deals were horrid..

Ie. Toronto paying over 3mill each for Finger(who is he?) and Hagman.

NYR paying Rosival 5million and Redden 6mill

Commodore getting almost 4,

Campbell's deal is ridiculous at 8 years

Ryan Malone 4.5million for 5 years...after 1 decent season.

Hate to see what happens next year if the cap goes up again?

Cap was suppose to protect owners for overpaying..so its just like it was before. Have a handful of guys making way too much money on your team and the rest making very little.

Eventually this overspending is going to cause major problems for owners and hurt the sport again.

Answer 1

You left out Huet now being paid more than Brodeur, and for what?

Part of the problem is when the cap goes up, so does the floor, or the minimum each team has to spend on salaries.  So if a team is forced to spend 40 million, it's going to be spent overpaying players for longer terms to meet that base team salary.  

I hope nobody is dumb enough to pay Sundin and Jagr the kind of money they want and they both leave for Europe/Russia.  But we know it will happen. I want to welcome the NHL to the ridiculous world of MLB salaries.

Answer 2

Don't cry for Toronto or New York Rangers. As long as they don't go over the cap they will be okay financially. They both have TV deals that keeps Batman up night salivating. All their games are televised. They play to sell out crowds for all games and there isn't a loss leader ticket sold in either house.

Speaking of loss leaders. Does any one else remember when the Detroit Red Wings would give away a free car at every home game just to boost ticket sales.

If these numbers are surprising you just wait until Sundin, Jagr, and Hossa sign. As the old vaudevillian used to say. "You ain't seen nuttin yet."

Answer 3

Natural selection... the owners that handle the cap well will consistently do better than the owners who just want to pull that hockey slot machine one more time. Strong teams will stay strong and make money consistently and the others will move from some parts of canada and the west coast of florida to other markets.

Answer 4

Wait till you see how much a player like Jagr gets and Sundin both way past there prime.Sundin will get $10 mill per year.What aboot Sakic how much will he get?

Answer 5

Sadly your right and its going to cause major problems in the near future.....i hate to say it but they seem to be like lock-out sized problems......

I'm biting my tongue.....

Sundin and Jagr won't help the cause by getting huge contracts for players who are cleartly declining

Answer 6

I honestly think the Eastern Conference is worse when it comes to overpaying players for the sake of signing them.  Too many players are moved around for too little reason in the East.  People just want to see stars play, and if they pay them a lot, you can fool half of your fanbase into thinking they are better than they are.  I'm not saying teams like Chicago don't pay Khabibulin and Havlat too much, or that other teams in the West don't have the same problem, but it seems like EVERY team in the East pays a lot of players way too much for the amount that they produce in the season and especially the playoffs.