Yes, salaries are escalating and people everywhere are saying the sky is falling and why did we have a lockout only to see this?... etc. etc.
Except they're forgetting the key thing in all of this:
The players are guaranteed 56 percent of the leagues hockey revenues. No more. No less.
A certain amount of every player's salary goes into an escrow account and if the players as a whole make more than that 56 percent this season, they pay it back to the league at the end of the year.
That money then goes into revenue sharing for the league's 30 clubs (dependent on certain factors).
It's a fail-safe for the owners across the league. They are legally entitled to 44 percent of total revenues and can take back money from the players to attain that figure.
That's why Gary Bettman is still the NHL Commissioner and that's why owners can dish out these contracts in the first place.
They can't lose.
3 comments:
And for us Ottawa fans, we don't have to compete with a team with a 100 million dollar payroll - like the Leafs and the Habs certainly would have.
Hah. More teams are losing money now than before the lockout, ticket prices are higher than ever, and now players are being signed for 8-15 year contracts... ridiculous. And we missed a year of hockey because of the useless lockout!!! And Gary Bettman got to go on vacation the whole time...
Bettman's gotta go!!!!
http://www.FireBettman.com
Well put. I'm tired of hearing people sarcastically say, "What salary cap?". This was the agreement, and even though the Canadian dollar has made things look a lot better than they are, this is the structure that has been set up. I have no problem with the big contracts. The league has much bigger issues to deal with (ie. certain markets viability).
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