Hockey's finances?

[Richth76]

Ted Leonsis, owner of the Caps, was on the DC 101 this morning. He was moaning about how some NHL team salaries were double that of the NBA Salary cap even though the NHL has half the revenue the NBA does. He went on to say "I've lost more in the four years I've owned the team, than I spent on it." He sounds like an MLS owner!

[falcon6]

If you've been watching NHL free agency this summer you will have noticed that players are getting about half the money they used to. The NHL salary structure will have a massive restructuring in the next few years. Brian Leetch is only going to get 4 million a year. Last year he would have made 10 a year easily.

[WolverHamster]

The reason Leetch is making less money is becuase he is not as good as he once was. He is no longer in his prime, and therefore deserves to be paid less. (Thanks to the New York Rangers for overpaying players, even though they haven't seen the playoffs in awhile!) Players should be paid based on their performance, I bet the NHL would see much better hockey and performance from the players if it was that way! And the reason why players like Kariya and Selanne signed for much less is because they know they have a shot to win the cup in Colorado. Kariya knows that the Ducks chances of making the Stanley Cup Finals again anytime soon is very unlikely.

Hopefully the trend of lower salaries in the NHL continues so that fans can still afford and enjoy going to an NHL game.

[SYoshonis]

Originally posted by WolverHamster
Hopefully the trend of lower salaries in the NHL continues so that fans can still afford and enjoy going to an NHL game. Exactly what does that have to do with anything? Do you think for one moment that the owners will charge one penny less that the absolute limit that the market will bear for their tickets, regardless of what they have to pay their players?

[falcon6]

Originally posted by WolverHamster
The reason Leetch is making less money is becuase he is not as good as he once was. He is no longer in his prime, and therefore deserves to be paid less. (Thanks to the New York Rangers for overpaying players, even though they haven't seen the playoffs in awhile!) Players should be paid based on their performance, I bet the NHL would see much better hockey and performance from the players if it was that way! And the reason why players like Kariya and Selanne signed for much less is because they know they have a shot to win the cup in Colorado. Kariya knows that the Ducks chances of making the Stanley Cup Finals again anytime soon is very unlikely.

Hopefully the trend of lower salaries in the NHL continues so that fans can still afford and enjoy going to an NHL game.

Leetch was the rangers best player last year when he played. He is still pure class on the blue line. I watched the rangers beat guy last night on msg and he said the reason leetch got 4 million is because nobody else in the leaggue was going to offer him more than that. His agent knew that so they took the deal. The caps cant get rid of jagr because nobody wants his salary. There is no way in hell Kariya was getting anything close to the 10 million he was making from anyone. I hope your right they do lower ticket prices but I wouldnt count on it.

[WolverHamster]

SYoshonis and falcon6,

I wasn't saying that ticket prices would get any lower if the players get paid less, but obviously if they keep getting paid $10 million a season, ticket prices will continue to increase rapidly. Heck, I paid $35 for a playoff game about 10 years ago, good luck paying that much ever again for a playoff game!

And as for Leetch, I didn't say he was a bad player or that he was no good with the Rangers, just that he was overpayed. He was ALOT better then most of the other players, which is sad when you think how much they all get paid. Just goes to show you that you can't win a Cup with just money.

[RhinosBoy21]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by falcon6
If you've been watching NHL free agency this summer you will have noticed that players are getting about half the money they used to. The NHL salary structure will have a massive restructuring in the next few years. Brian Leetch is only going to get 4 million a year. Last year he would have made 10 a year easily. [/QUOTE ]

You are right about the salarys. Some players getting much less now then what they would have gotten it.

But Leetch won't get $4 million a season. More like $7-8 a year.

[microbrew]

Everyone is in a holding pattern until the current collective bargaining agreement expires. Then, it will get interesting? Another strike? A lockout? Who knows?

$7-8 million is still overpaying Brian Leetch. Hell, noone on the Devils makes that much money (thought Brodeur and Stevens come close)...

[WolverHamster]

Now what about this, Pavol Demitra of the St. Louis Blues gets awarded $6.5 million by some stupid arbitrator, no wonder players think they deserve to be paid such high salaries!