The owners have the PA by the short hairs and the players and Donald Fehr know this. If the PA decertifies, the players are automatically looking at minimum another full season missed, possibly two. Decertification will be disasterous for the majority of the leagues players and will in no way assure them victory through litigation. The NHL has an extremely good chance to win the court battles that will ensue.
Even if the PA were to win the legal battle, when the dust settles they will have wasted 2 to 3 years of their careers, many will not return and most likely will not get back the majority if any of the money they've already lost.
IMO the players choice is very clear, take the deal that is currently in front of them or delay and/or destroy the careers of hundreds of players who can't afford to miss another full season or more either due to age or financial issues. - MnGump
Is the decertification process different in the NHL than it was in the NFL? Because the NFL decertified and brought the battle to the courts while also continuing to negotiate at the table and thats how a deal was done.
Now the NHLPA has an A$$Hole as its leader in Fehr and the NHL has an A$$hole in bettman so if the players decertified and negotations totally stopped I would blame those 2.
Was at a Bantam house league game and worried that the little (frank)ers might grow up to be greedy pro's who might someday rip off defenseless old billionaire owners.
What is this world coming to? - Canada Cup
Ummm, it's not the billionaires who foot the bill pal, it's the fans. Take a look at what the most "profitable" teams pull in. They'd get a better return in a basic savings account.
Location: Bobby Ryan + 1st rounder for Clarkson, ON Joined: 08.30.2007
Dec 27 @ 2:26 PM ET
Ummm, it's not the billionaires who foot the bill pal, it's the fans. Take a look at what the most "profitable" teams pull in. They'd get a better return in a basic savings account. - Stubby
Wow ok...supply and demand enters a conversation when I'm making a joke to wedgie regarding a conversation we have had multiple times in the past. But to answer your question as a business owner in the distribution industry I think I have to understand supply and demand. Thanks for asking though
The owners have the PA by the short hairs and the players and Donald Fehr know this. If the PA decertifies, the players are automatically looking at minimum another full season missed, possibly two. Decertification will be disasterous for the majority of the leagues players and will in no way assure them victory through litigation. The NHL has an extremely good chance to win the court battles that will ensue.
Even if the PA were to win the legal battle, when the dust settles they will have wasted 2 to 3 years of their careers, many will not return and most likely will not get back the majority if any of the money they've already lost.
IMO the players choice is very clear, take the deal that is currently in front of them or delay and/or destroy the careers of hundreds of players who can't afford to miss another full season or more either due to age or financial issues. - MnGump
i don't disagree my point is if your going to make a threat don't make it an idle one. if your going to disband then you may as well go all the way. the owners don't think they will, that is why there aren't any talks going on so your hand is forced. It's the only bullet the players have left in the chamber, and since they have gone this far may as well go all the way, which is what the owners are betting won't happen
Location: Corner of Kirk Maclean's Toe and Robert Reichel's face. Joined: 01.09.2006
Dec 27 @ 6:18 PM ET
i don't disagree my point is if your going to make a threat don't make it an idle one. if your going to disband then you may as well go all the way. the owners don't think they will, that is why there aren't any talks going on so your hand is forced. It's the only bullet the players have left in the chamber, and since they have gone this far may as well go all the way, which is what the owners are betting won't happen - magarats
To think the owners have all the cards is a falacy. Decertification holds a huge threat to the owners who will either (a) End the lockout right away by redoing every players contracts, not to mention who is a free agent and who is not.... not to mention there will be no salary cap or escrow or insurance.... but if they fail to do that, the players can sue for 3 times what was owed on the original contract through anti-trust legislation.
The Anti-trust legislation is there to make sure that two or more seperate organizations do not work together to control market costs and avoid illegal monopolies... which, one could say the current NHL is already.
What this means for the current NHL, probably disaster. But that is not the end of hockey. I, for one, would welcome a new league with a fresh start. So what if it takes sometime to do it.
But Bettman could have avoided all the this by changing his tactic from controntational deadlines and 'take it or leave it' negociations. His actually has overplayed his hand quite badly and it shows that no negociations have come from the NHL but only things conceded by the NHLPA.
And before anyone says the NHL has bargained. No they have not. They took all the cards off the table, tried to re-define what revenue was and then when they made a concession, it was only to lesses an earlier drakonian take-back. In other words, they started with 5 apples each, the NHL took all 10 then returned 3 and expected that return of 3 to be seen as a magnanemous offer.
But it is not. Clearly it is not.
I am not against the owners making money but they are literally reduced to a ponzi scheme under Bettman whose only resolution to making money is to create new organizations with 300+ mil franachise fees. One day this was going to catch up to him... and many think that day already came when while everyone was Looking at Phoenix to combust, we overlooked Atlanta, Sl. Louis, Dallas and New Jersey as being in danger. St. Louis and Dallas have new leadership now but only time will tell if they are successful. It is was Florida or Columbus, I would not be so concerned but these are established franchises whose only salvation will be through revenue sharing which is lessoning and only will be proped up again by expansion.
Then the argument comes that the PA would not want to lose teams as it costs them jobs. In truth, there are two prblems here.... the first is that the PA is not a Union per,se but an organization. (Sorry, I forgot the actual term for when a union is not a union.... collective? maybe) and also, even if they were a union with a democracy... if there are 700 players... and at least 200 of them are AHLers, goons or headhunters that should not be in the watered down league but are only there to fullfil a 30 league roster.... then the other 500 could easily vote to shut down the union at the expense of a lost season ( or 2) if it meant the 500 returned with comprable salaries but a much safer working environment.
