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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Jan 20, 2005 - 02:26 AM

  That's ice hockey for you Brits...
  
  There's a chance that the lock-out could be lifted today, finally. After three month of hockey being AWOL and a whole year of near-constant chatter about the possibility, things have gotten to the point where both sides know a deal has to be made.
  
  Just curious if anyone is up to talking hockey here today :) This "General Chat" forum needs a bit more diversity ;)

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 02, 2005 - 01:12 PM

  Im always down for hockey talk. Being European there is always a game going on somewhere Im interested in watching even tho the NHL has been so gay the last half year.

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• new_to_this
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 02, 2005 - 03:12 PM

  First off, I do like Hockey...
  
  But I tip my hat to the management with sticking to there guns! Pro sports players salaries have gone out of control over the past 15 years. I herd a player being interviewed at the beginning of the week saying how much of a risk they take, and if he got hurt he would only be able to make 1 million a month for the rest or his life on disability, rather that his FULL 4 million!!!
  
  Oh my heart bleeds for you... I will consider my self lucky if I make a million in my lifetime! And don’t give me that crap about the game being dangerous, look at the statistics. Pro sports injures out of all "occupations" are some of the lowest. And then if they do get hurt the best care $$$$ can buy is there.
  
  Please don't get me wrong I know there are still good players out there doing it because they have a love for the game and skill. But more and more it seams that the players ill mannered and bad role models! No corporation would tolerate employees fighting, insulting, or throwing things at there customers, why should sports? Last I checked getting the crap beat out of you with a folding chair is not part of the "game experience"!
  
  I have a lot of players that I like, and enjoy watching, but there is a lot of talent out there that never gets looked at, maybe it's time we get "the game" back and look at this new talent.
  
  The worst thing is this lock out is hurting rinks, private business, and fans the most!

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• CliffT
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 04, 2005 - 01:37 AM

  Yeah, the people hurting the most in all this are the people who have to hawk things for, or clean up after these prima donnas.

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• Slugger
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 08, 2005 - 09:32 AM

  Baseball never recovered from their second extended strike. I thought it'd never happen but, during that strike, I got out of the habit of listening to games on my way home from work. For years, I enjoyed season tickets to Dodger games but now I don't miss them a bit. I have a friend who pitched in the majors. He was making $9 million a year after he was all washed up! It's kind of hard to feel sorry for those guys when we're the one's who foot the bill so they can play games. Hockey might experience the same backlash baseball did.
  
  Slugger

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• Slugger
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 16, 2005 - 09:50 PM

  It's over...the season that is...and I hear the players are already talking about striking into next season. Sheeesh.
  
  Slugger

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 17, 2005 - 01:12 AM

  Here in Ottawa, the owner, a relatively new guy who is a billionaire, has vowed that there will be NHL hockey in Ottawa in October, one way or another, "period, end of story". H ewouldn't say it in so many words, but this means replacement players.
  
  Bascially, the owners have won. They were willing to lose the season. Most would lose less money by not playing than they would by playing. The Senators announced immediately after the season was cancelled that there would a 5% roll back in ticket prices for the next two years, and possibly more for season ticket holders. The players saw the owners remove "linkage" from their offer on the last day, which is something the players really don't want involved in a new CBA (linkage refers to an arrangement where salaries reflect the income of any given team. Lower income means lower salaries). Gary Bettman, after announcing the cancellation, stated that linkage is back in any future deal and is now non-negotiable.
  
  With the players finally capitulating and offering to accept a salary cap (albiet a high one), the owners know they have broken the union. A reporter from Phoenix last night stated that he was hearing rumblings of a player revolt and this group retaining legal council to see if they could accept the NHL's last offer as soon as today, despite the league calling the season off. The players were floored when their union offered to accept a salary cap on the final day of negotiations, wondering why this wasn't done in September when there was a chance the deal could become something that could be negotiated from.
  
  Any way you look at it, the owners have won and the players have lost. Come October, when replacement players are brought in and existing NHLers are watching from Finland or Germany or some minor pro team in Tallahassee, the players will relent and sign whatever deal the owners offer. Done deal.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 17, 2005 - 02:47 AM

  This salary cap is somehing I really don't understand ...
  
  Why it is needed? Why some teams are willing to pay to some players salaries they can not afford pay. Shouldn't businesses that have more outcome than income get busted and be replaced with healthier ones that have management with some understanding of profitable business.
  
  Unfortunately there ain't so many good NHL players playing in Finland even this season. Swedes, Czechs and Russians are playing mostly in their own country and many Finns are playing in Switzeland or Sweden as they get paid better there. Most Noth American players have stayed with their families and haven't come to Europe.
  
  Miikka Kiprusoff, Sami Salo and Aki Berg all originally from Turku are not playing in Finland, but in Sweden. Only Saku Koivu is playing here in his home town, perhaps because his father is coach of local team so he is also having time with his family.

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• markwest
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 17, 2005 - 03:26 AM

  upaja

  This salary cap is somehing I really don't understand ...
  
  Why it is needed? Why some teams are willing to pay to some players salaries they can not afford pay. Shouldn't businesses that have more outcome than income get busted and be replaced with healthier ones that have management with some understanding of profitable business.
  

  
  
  Salary caps come down to the attempt to create more even competition within a league by limiting the effect that a wealthy individual or organsiation can have and to limit the potential of financial ruin by overspending to achive sporting goals.
  
  While it seems sensible to say that sporting clubs should be run like any other business that's, for the most part, not the case. Not all business practices make sense (supply & demand etc.) due to the nature of 'fan base' i.e. a captive audience and relatively fixed market share.
  
  An example of the effect of a wealthy person becoming involved in a sports club can be seen at chelsea where a russion billionaire has become involved over the last couple of years and spent upwards of £200 million pounds on new players. It's very likely chelsea will win a number of of the top prizes this season. While not 100% down to the money it has serious tipped the balance of soccer in the UK and kept a dwindling transfer market articificially high. Chelsea can have virutally any player they like since money is no object.
  
  There are examples, again in soccer, of teams affected by financial planning losing out to the desire for success; Leeds United in the UK and Fiorentina in Italy are the two biggest clubs affected with the latter even going out of business.
  
  No salary caps exist in the upper tiers of soccer in europe so 'anything goes'. However further down the league clubs have introduced a 70% of income on wages limit.
  
  -Mark
  
  --
  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 17, 2005 - 06:13 AM

  Quote

  Not all business practices make sense (supply & demand etc.) due to the nature of 'fan base' i.e. a captive audience and relatively fixed market share.

  
  
  Problem with North American icehockey is competition with other ways of spending your free time. So they don't have fixed market share, they want to expand theirs. Competing with other more popular sport events like football (no I am not talking about soccer), baseball and basketball, which all are more popular than icehockey in US. NHL is trying to expand in US and there the competition is real and icehockey isn't as dominant there as soccer in UK. I haven't heard any talk about salary limit for cricket players in UK.
  
  Icehockey in NHL and football (soccer) in UK and Europe ain't sports anymore, they are entertainment
  
  If is still sports, then it's only sports and sports is competion. Why should there be any regulation besides the rules of the game. A football fan from Russia can afford to but millions on a London football club and because of that a few players will be paid a bit more than they would have otherwise.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 20, 2005 - 05:25 AM

  That season should be canceled, they should give us break and clean the whole NHL, there is much more mess than just salaries and caps... let them take the whole summer and come back with a better game of hockey...

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 20, 2005 - 05:28 AM

  By the way it will eb a chance for Canadian to realise there are other worlwide popular sports in which they dramatically suck...soccer, basketball to name a few...

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Feb 21, 2005 - 04:14 AM

  Funny, Canadian basketball is actually doing pretty well. Our men's and women's Olympic teams did fine last time around, and a Canadian is on track to win the MVP award in the NBA this year.
  
  Sure, we may suck in soccer, but that's due to complete and utter apathy for the sport in this country.
  
  In other, more relevant sports, Canada is fairly decent. Our Olympic baseball team had a great run in Athens. Mike Weir is a top PGA player. Jacques Villeneauve, Greg Moore, Paul Tracy and Patrick Carpentier have all been major players in auto racing in recent years.
  
  I don't know what country you're from, but chances are, it sucks at more sports than Canada does.

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• mazsalleh
  
  

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  Posted: Mar 04, 2005 - 11:07 PM

  As a former european pro Ice Hockey Player, I would say a few thinks to that topic.
  
  The NHL actualy is a great entertaining organisation. It's more like buying the best players in the world and make a league with them.
  
  It's the same with Spain and Italy with their soccer. So there is nothing wrong with. And it's up to all the players if they want to join or not.
  
  

  Quote

  This salary cap is somehing I really don't understand ...
  
  Why it is needed? Why some teams are willing to pay to some players salaries they can not afford pay. Shouldn't businesses that have more outcome than income get busted and be replaced with healthier ones that have management with some understanding of profitable business.

  
  
  It's a big business, top players (and the Clubs expect a lot of them) are to raise the Clubs profile. Star Players attracks more fans.
  Longer Season, because of longer in the Playoffs, means full Stadiums, and that's where a lot of money comes from.
  So some Clubs play a risky game, if the players perform well, it will work out, if not they loosed. And for the Hockey Players here, they know, it's only take 3 top players in a team to shoot your Team up.
  
  

  Quote

  By the way it will eb a chance for Canadian to realise there are other worlwide popular sports in which they dramatically suck...soccer, basketball to name a few...

  
  
  Even If I don't like some attidute of the canadians, there are a few points speaking for Canada.
  Canada got a lot of good athletes in certain sports. Downhill Skiing, Ice speed skating, athletics and much more.
  Every country got some sports they are excellent in and some where not so.
  Hockey holds Canada together. You can go anywhere in Canada and you will have at least one thing to talk about. For me now living in Asia, I can see what the Canadian Hockey culture is about. Hockey you must love and understand, you play the game out of knowledge and instict and you must be able to read the game. As the Canadians grow up with Hockey they all know how to play the game. And here in Asia there a lot of Ice Hockey Teams now, spicked with Canadian expats. And it's nice to see it, as they are able to come together throw the sticks on the ground, mix up to teams and still can play a better game, than many Asian National teams are able to.
  
  For our european Players or Fans here I can say, Canada might have the best checkers and penalty killers in the world, but europe got the players with the technical raffiness. This happens after Canadian Hockey got to organized and structured through the NHL.
  Eg: In Finland the Players still have a lot of time to play on the lake, no referees, no offside and 20minutes periodes, this gives them a lot of possibilities to improve their technical skills.
  
  Sorry for my english, as a german my german is excellent
  
  --
  Carl Georg aka Alif

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• **unknown user**
  
  

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  Posted: Mar 07, 2005 - 05:39 AM

  Well you can say whatever you want, but for a country that is among the 7th most industrialized in the world Canada presence in sports is limited to the kind of sports not practiced by the entire planet: volleyball, basketball, athletics (Ben Johnson anybody?), soccer, swimming, etc...
  
  Let's do simple counts: how many medal in athletics in 2004 olympics? how many in swiiming? how many in team sports?
  
  I love Canada but when it comes to sports, beside Hockey and Curling, sports here is handled like ina third world country...
  
  Are you aware that in june Canada is hosting the world swiming champinoship in MTL and almost lost it because of lack of money 6 months before the event? seems lieka developing countyry scenario here? Canada is the only country on the planet to ever host a summer olympics and not win gold medal during that event at home in front of your own crowd...
  
  In those sports that are praticed by 99% of the planet, Canada needs a lot of help...It's struggling
  
  You just need a ball to play soccer, you need much more equipment to play hockey even in the street...
  
  Russia, Sweden, The USA, Checz etc... all of those countries are great hockey lands but they apear and win in other sports, to just name one of them: soccer, the most popular on the planet...

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