DIR Return Create A Forum - Home --------------------------------------------------------- Herricks Highlander HTML https://highlander.createaforum.com --------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************** DIR Return to: Health and Sports ***************************************************** #Post#: 57-------------------------------------------------- NHL Lockout: Difficulty in Breaking the Ice By: Rrashid Date: October 9, 2012, 7:57 pm --------------------------------------------------------- By Rifath Rashid 14' Just like the NBA did, the NHL is now experiencing an unpleasant altercation between the team owners and the players regarding none other than, money. The argument is over who should make more money, a question that is always brought up by athletes making millions of dollars annually. But, as the saying goes, “more money, more problems,” and unfortunately in this case fans will be shutout from hockey action until the dispute is completely resolved. In numerical terms, the conflict stems from the difference in share percentage of income between owners and players. In previous years, players have received 57% of the income, while owners owned 43%. With the 10% difference between the shares, which when you think about could amount to millions of dollars depending on how much revenue a team makes, it’s intelligible that the owners would want to negotiate a better deal. In order to close the share gap, owners have asked for the share of revenue for players to drop down from 57% to 47%. As a result, the owners’ share percentage would increase to 53%, giving them a 6% lead over the players. The players union has grudgingly agreed to accept a share percentage of 53%, but that proposal is inconsistent with the owners’ goals and still gives players a 6% lead over the owners. On the other hand, for players who would hate to see their wallet weigh thousands of dollars less, major negotiations, such as a 10% drop in their revenue, appear to be nonexistent. Both sides have had trouble in breaking the ice and ending the lockout. Owners have failed to persuade the players to accept a percentage change, and players have remained intractable. Regarding the end of the lockout, Bill Daly, NHL deputy commissioner, noted, “Ultimately, it’s their call. Hopefully, we all want a quicker resolution to this negotiation than a longer one. How the PA [Player’s Association] ultimately decides to deal with that issue will be very telling.” “After some of my experiences in baseball, I’m out of the prediction business. I don’t think I’m any better at it than anybody else. All I can say is, you try every day. You hope and you hope it starts just as soon it possibly can,” said Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players Association. Similar to Daly, Fehr and the rest of the Players Association want the lockout to end as soon as possible. In the meantime, the league will lose an appreciable amount of money while the Lockout persists. Last year, the preseason for the NHL was cancelled and the league lost a hundred million dollars. Preseason games don’t even attract that many fans. So, if the cancellation of a couple of preseason games results in a hundred million dollar deficit, it will be interesting to see how much money may be lost due to the cancellation of regular season games, which attract hordes of fans. Another question that has been brought up as a result of the lockout is what should the players be doing in the meantime? Well, some are patiently waiting for the conclusion to the arguments and are eager to return to the ice. However, others, who are not confident that the lockout will end any time soon, have made deals with European hockey teams that are now making efforts to attract NHL players. “Feels like I’m going to practice without a purpose, and I hate it,” tweeted Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who, like many players, is anxious to resume playing hockey. Until the lockout comes to end, players, owners, and even the millions of employees that work in NHL arenas, are being greatly affected. So far, prospects of the lockout reaching its demise in the near future don’t seem too positive. However, both sides understand that the lockout is detrimental to the welfare of the sport and the support of its fans, and are making efforts to end it as soon as they can. *****************************************************