Cba

[JD]

im so lost with all this bs....

so the cba is because players who dont produce much are being payed to much?

[realmendontwearteal]

its a money issue

[realmendontwearteal]

the NHL lost a ton of money and the agreement is up

[Dozerdog]

CBA- Collective Barganing Agreement-

It's a contract between the owners and players union to set the terms of employment. All unions have this, including other sports unions.

In sports unions, the CBA usually contains stuff like -

- contract guaranties and buy out conditions
- Free Agency Terms (who can be one and when)
- Minimum salaries
- how many rounds the draft is, for how long someone can hold draft rights
-expenses & meal money (beleive it or not these guys get money for meals when on the road on top of what they make)
- player's rights (suspension lengths, drug testing, when does he have to show up if a guy is traded, his rights if he's cut)
- mediacal benefits


The NFL is a bit different, and that's why they have a lot more success than other leagues. The NFL and the NFLPA agreed upon the league spending a fixed amount each season (65% of the money brought in ) in exchange for a cap on salaries and non-guaranteed contracts.


Here is the issues in the NHL-

The big issue is the amount of money owners are spending on player contracts. The owners claim that something like 75% of revenue went to salaries. On top of that, unlike the NFL, the teams aren't equall in what they bring in. A cable contract in Columbus Ohio or Buffalo is worth a lot less than a cable deal in New York or Detroit. That TV money isn't divided equally. The money the league gets from national games ia not very big. So the New York Rangers and Red Wings have deep pockets to spend on any player they want. Edmonton and Calgary can't. So when a guy gets expensive they trade him, or keep 1 expensive guy and surround him with cheaper players.


Solution? Either revenue sharing ( not likely) or a salary cap. A luxury cap might work (used in baseball) - Basically a team like the rangers can go over the salary cap ( let's say it's $30 million a team) but for every buck they go over, they put a buck in a pot to be divided by the poorer teams.

Second issue is the NHL can get rid of long term guaranteed contracts. Yashin makes a ridiculous $60+ million - now the NYI were dumb to give it to him, but if a guy doesn't earn it they should be able to cut it loose.
The players might go for this if they lower the age for free agency from 31 (or whatever it is) to something like 25.


Another issue is the canadian dollar. It's only worth 60 cents. Taxes are high up there too.

Solution? The league needs to give help to canadian teams, like Edmonton. I'd love to see the NHL bring back a team to Quebec and Winnipeg too. The Canadian government could help a brutha out too if they wanted.

[alyson]

Thanks for the summary! I hope this stuff gets resolved over the summer, but it sounds like players are making plans to play in their native countries or elsewhere come fall. That would SUCK, and the NHL would definitely lose less die-hard fans to (gulp) baseball (playoffs) or basketball, or football.