If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport

Unfortunately, the greedheads are running amok in fat city once again, but this time it's not the NHL owners who are willing to sell the soul of the game but a group of renegade goalies. Haven't goalies ruined this game enough?

Led by player agent Rich Winter and a group of players that include Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek and Marty Turco, among others, this group is proposing to sell advertising space on every team's goalie jersey as depicted in the official mockup picture above.

According to the Toronto Star, this sell-out would generate an extra $30 million in revenue for the league and thus increase the slice of the pie that the players are guaranteed (54% of league revenues). When broken down, this amounts to only $1 million in extra revenue for each team and just over $500,000 extra, by team, to members of the NHLPA.

That's right. The players are willing to throw over a hundred years of history out the window for just over $500,000 per team, which in today's payroll scenario is like a fart in the wind.

From the Toronto Star:

As to the prospect of hockey traditionalists bristling over ads on uniforms nowadays, veteran Anaheim Ducks defenceman Mathieu Schneider, who's worked on marketing issues on behalf of the NHL Players' Association, says: "We've changed the uniforms so much already over the years. It's not that far a stretch."

Roloson echoes that sentiment. "I think it's a great way to grow (hockey-related revenue). They have (uniform ads) in Europe and it doesn't take away from the true jersey look."

The Oilers goalie shrugs off the prospect of criticism from traditionalists, who, he says, will "freak out" even more if the NHL makes the goalie nets bigger, something Roloson expects to happen. "And we have advertising on the boards, don't we?" .......

"This is the wave of the future," says Winter, the Edmonton player agent. "The NHL isn't as profitable as other leagues, and we have very little choice but to pursue new ways to create revenue so we can reinvest in our sport. It's just a way to pay the bills."

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As of right now, the plan is only for the goalie's sweaters to have the ads but you just know that it's only a matter of dollars before the experiment is applied to the rest of the players as well.

Hopefully the exposure of this plan will generate enough skepticism and anger from the fans to get these geniuses to back off and stop screwing with the game in such a disrespectful manner. Just because the NHL is not a high revenue sport at the moment doesn't mean a bunch of spoiled goalies should be able to sell a half-baked idea to the always money hungry owners at the direct expense of our retinas and our traditions.

Can you imagine the Yankees or the New England Patriots sporting McDonalds logos on their sweaters?

Now just imagine the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens logo's being displaced by a Molson or a Budweiser symbol.

That's the reality of this proposal and it should be exposed and rejected for the piece of garbage that it is.