How would you get hockey started again?

[prelations]

Negotiating has gotten us nowhere.
waiting to book meetings etc, hasn't helped.

Now that people have thought it over, there are a lot more suggestions on how to get people to the table, or quick solutions to get this thing going.

I've heard some crazy options:
-Gretzky as a mediator
-replacement players
-silent vote for the players assoc

Let's hear it!

 

[red]

drop the puck?

 

[Marbles]

replacement players ... i don't watch hockey to cheer on mats sundin or ed belfour ... i cheer on the toronto maple leafs, regardless of who's wearing the jersey. let the millionaires make minimum wage in europe and let the real hockey players play for the love of the game here in north america. it worked in the nfl, it'll work for hockey. and those millionaires will be crossing that picket line awfully soon.

 

[healer677]

Agreed.


Replacement players. The fans who really follow THEIR teams will cheer for anyone wearing the jersey.

Plus, cities that can't or don't support their teams really don't deserve a franchise - let them get gobbled up in contraction. It'll make for a better game.

 

[plyrs99]

simple, shut the doors on the NHL, as it exists now. then, start it up all over again. i do believe the NHL itself, owns it's own name, "national hockey league". if so, there is nothing stopping them from starting it up again, with a new word added if need be, to distance itself from any lawsuits.

then, set up all the rules they want right from day one, and let whoever wants to play, play, and whoever doesnt, let them be. AND!!! ...add some serious controls to limit the reach and power of any potential new player's union.

Plyrs99

get rid of about 12 teams, and give some cities, like winnipeg and quebec, where they actually care about the game, franchises back. right off the hop, buh-bye carolina, florida, atlanta, columbus, nashville. do we really need two teams on the coast, LA and san jose? get rid of one of them. i say keep the sharks, just for the cool uni's! what is a team doing in dallas?

you eliminate these teams, and then you rekindle alot of storied rivalries, and you watch the intensity and quality of play go up, and, fans will flock to the game! there was no problem with the game of hockey until all this expansion took place, and player salaries (and greed), went through the roof. goodenow and bettman have really been the two contributors to the demise of our great "canadian" game of shinny! it doesnt help when you have a few renegade owners, with bottomless pockets, and reckless GM's. charles wang/mike milbury and MSG/glen sather come right to mind. tom hicks hasnt helped in big D as well. teams like detroit, and even toronto, need to be reigned in as well. i do not pretend to know how to go about it, just to say a cap, or a luxury tax with serious bite, are the ways to accomplish this. i also agree though, that with a cap, there must be a minimum all teams must spend on payroll, or not benefit from luxury taxes.

 

[kumamake]

hockey is a canadian game

start a new league in canada only, and with canadian players.
give the players the shares in ownership.

NHL got screwed because off the big market teams in USA, that changed hockey from the game to business

 

[knight66]

The NHL is dead.
No one seem to want to acknowledge it.
Just start a brand new league from scratch.
As long as Betman and Goodenow have nothing to do with it then it should be ok.

 

[The Brus]

I personally cannot understand why hockey is played in arenas in Dallas or Florida at all. Those places in the southern U.S. have temperatures like 35C, humid and rely on are ex-patriot Canadians for patrons. The general locals look down on hockey as an oddity and nowhere close to being as exciting as football.
I think Winnipeg is a shoo-in for another franchise if an agreement can be signed.

 

[scubadoo]

I posted this back in March of 2004 and still think it is the way to go:

What the NHL needs is a new business plan. One based on rational thought and current and future market conditions. My cure for the NHl is a such:

1) Fire Gary Bettman

2) Hire a well respected person who knows hockey to run the league

3) In the new business plan concentrate on traditional hockey markets. Eliminate teams in non-traditional markets and establishing a couple of new clubs in the Canada market.

4) Have a hard salary cap that will help keep player salaries ias a percent of revenue

5) Generate tv revenue by setting up a number of smaller regional tv contracts with the monies pooled and shared equally among all clubs.

6) Reduce the number of teams to 16 so we have the skilled players playing the game to make it more exciting.

7) Eliminate the red line. It has done wonders in almost ever league I have seen to open up the game. Also, restrict puck handling by the goalies.

The new league could look like this

Halifax
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Winnipeg
Calgary
Edmonton
Vancouver
Minnisota
St. Louis
Chicago
Detroit
Buffalo
Philidelphia
New York (2 teams)

4 team per division in 2 Conferences


Prince of Wales Conference

Eastern Division -Buffalo-Toronto-Ottawa-NY Islanders

Atlantic -New York Rangers-Halifax-Philly-Montreal


Campbell Conference

Mid-West - Detroit-Winnipeg-St. Louis-Chicago

West - Minnisota-Calgary-Edmonton-Vancouver

Playoff Format

Top team in each conference gets a first round by. Teams ranked 2-7 playoff in first round. Second round the top ranked team that had the by plays the lowest ranked team left and so on.

 

[antaeus]

Everything is against any solution other than whatever happens between owners and PA.

-replacement players: never happen, teams as legal independent franchise must comply with labour law of their jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions allow replacement workers, some don't, some do with conditions. If NHL restarts with replacement players expect lawsuits from owners in jurisdictions with anti replacement-worker labour law.*

-new league: probably never. Previous attempts to start alternate leagues where existing pro league operates have failed. Existing pro leagues have grown over decades to the financial behemoths they are and today's finance demand returns by next 1/4, not decade. The only successful example of this is the ongoing battle with CART and Indy.

- teams in Dallas or Florida ...: Pro sports will put a team wherever financial conditions can be met, history and tradition are dead issues. Winnipeg, Quebec, etc. never.

* The only potential "alternate" solution is to break the joint resolve of owners or players:

- Players are individuals contractually obligated to their legal collective bargaining association. Nothing can break their resolve as they'd essentially be resigning from the PA at which point the individual player ceases to legally exist.

- Owners however are all executives of larger corporate entities. Some *ahem* 3rd party extra-legal financial finagling, collusion, aggressive share trading, takeover rumours or attempts real or fake: something that will make some of the owners corporate empires hurt requiring alternate cash or financing. This and only this will cause some owners to break resolve in their mad dash for cash.

- Union busting: if owners could manipulate the dismantling of the PA's legal collective bargaining status, then owners can write their own solution. Draconian, lawsuits galore, years to resolve but slightly possible the longer impasse lasts: NHL filing for corporate delisting, voiding every contract, 32 bankruptcies, asset transfer and restart with new contract models. Extremely unlikely, but...

Folks, you gotta remember we live in a world unfortunately run by lawyers, bankers and accountants.

 

[totravel]

* The only potential "alternate" solution is to break the joint resolve of owners or players:

-Folks, you gotta remember we live in a world unfortunately run by lawyers, bankers and accountants.

That is the most realistic look at the situation I've heard anywhere since this started.
It will have to come from an owners revolt, most likely. In '95 it was pressure from some owners for a deal that saved the season then. The players already gave the best deal they could last month, and the league brushed them off.

Maybe it would be better if the season is a write-off, then real lasting changes will have to be made.

 

[Asterix]

The season already is a write-off. If no real progress is made by this summer you can stick a fork in the NHL.

 

[n_v]

If no real progress is made by this summer you can stick a fork in the NHL.

Please tell me what you think the impeteus would be to have ANY movement in the summer? Labour woes or not, the league is shut down and the players are not paid regardless.

 

[21pro]

If they were able to resume play with actual and replacement NHL players, many of the Locked Out players would agree to play.... Flat out, their union is screwing them. My friend in Sault Ste. Marie is good buddies with Joe Thornton, and he (my friend) said that it was Thornton's sentiment that the Players need a new union because having a lockout situation that they are now in was not something that 75% of the players wanted. These players are willing to 'cut-out' the union, if possible and feel that they can better negotiate their contracts with their agents, not their union. the union has too much power over the players and thus, look what happens!

 

[Alluring]

I really don't have a solution off the top of my head but you guys sure have alot of them posted here.

Agreed.
Replacement players. The fans who really follow THEIR teams will cheer for anyone wearing the jersey.

I agree with this 100% Your team is your team regardless of whos wearing the jersey

get rid of about 12 teams, and give some cities, like winnipeg and quebec, where they actually care about the game, franchises back. right off the hop, buh-bye carolina, florida, atlanta, columbus, nashville. do we really need two teams on the coast, LA and san jose? get rid of one of them. i say keep the sharks, just for the cool uni's! what is a team doing in dallas?

you eliminate these teams, and then you rekindle alot of storied rivalries, and you watch the intensity and quality of play go up, and, fans will flock to the game! there was no problem with the game of hockey until all this expansion took place, and player salaries (and greed), went through the roof. goodenow and bettman have really been the two contributors to the demise of our great "canadian" game of shinny! it doesnt help when you have a few renegade owners, with bottomless pockets, and reckless GM's. charles wang/mike milbury and MSG/glen sather come right to mind. tom hicks hasnt helped in big D as well. teams like detroit, and even toronto, need to be reigned in as well. i do not pretend to know how to go about it, just to say a cap, or a luxury tax with serious bite, are the ways to accomplish this. i also agree though, that with a cap, there must be a minimum all teams must spend on payroll, or not benefit from luxury taxes.

Agreed. The game was better before when we had teams like the Jets and Nordiques IMO.

 

[Ranger68]

Both of these things may very well happen.
There's no way the NHL is going away.
It'll be back (for those who care) next year, or the year after - with an impasse CBA drawn up by the league and most likely replacement players.

Oh, BTW, is would be entirely legal for the NHL to start with replacement players - that is, whoever wanted to come back to play when they impose their impasse CBA. Naturally, the PA will try to get injunctions to prevent this from happening. What will happen in the courts is anyone's guess. However, using replacement players is NOT, a priori, illegal.

 

[antaeus]

Probably that's what will happen, some form of agreement or injunction allowing play for x years during renegotiation. This would equal combo of returning and replacements.

Mike Harris et al bluejay flag waving in parliament claimed sole reason for prolongment of MLB strike was NDP anti-replacement worker legislation. MH et al passed amendments to allow replacement workers. All it takes is one NHL jurisdiction with applicable anti replacement-worker labour law. That's not to say it might be ignored, contested....

 

[langeweile]

Start supporting the "lower leagues" those guys still appreciate when you show up and watch the games.
Put you money in to the OHL or AHL or whatever other league there is.
Once both sides realize they are losing the fight for the fans, maybe those whinny rich boys come to their senses.

NO FANS>>>NO NHL

A hockey team in FL, TX, TN never made much sense to me anyway. As a result the league is going to shrink and shed some of those excess teams.
In the US hockey is number 5 at best. looks like soccer is going to challenge that spot too.

 

[Spode]

Negotiating has gotten us nowhere.
waiting to book meetings etc, hasn't helped.

Now that people have thought it over, there are a lot more suggestions on how to get people to the table, or quick solutions to get this thing going.

I've heard some crazy options:
-Gretzky as a mediator
-replacement players
-silent vote for the players assoc

Let's hear it!

we execute a hostage every hour on the hour

 

[PDL007]

First: I'm a Hockey Fan. I love the game ( it does need some rule changes) I DO MISS THE NHL but it needs work.

I have to agree and disagree about Teams that some members want to eliminate.

24 teams Minimum and Maximum ( Someone has to miss playoffs)

Use Current proposal from League ( it gives room for more revenue for players if league is doing well)
But and a BIG BUT - Players should get a salary plus bonus for playing well. Based on contract and bonus structure negotiated. Everyone should get bonus if playing or working well. And if you had a bad year, TO BAD. SUCK IT UP AND PLAY BETTER.

Keep - L.A. Kings - They have been in the league for years and only have seen a drop in people going to the games b/c of Ducks and Sharks.
But also bring back the Gold and Purple Uniforms.

Keep - Colorado - Good Fan Base and it is a cold state

Keep - Dallas ( Good Fan base, has potential) Yes I know it's texas.

Keep - Tampa Bay - Lots of snowbirds and defending Champions. (but watch revenue) if falling behind move or fold. But give them a chance.

Add: Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec City

Drop: Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Nashville, Phoenix, Columbus, Anahiem, San Jose, Buffalo

Watch : Pittsburgh and Washigton ( If They can't survive under new rules then possible move to the following cities or states:
Just Suggestions!!

Halifax
North or South Dakota ( they love there college hockey)
Utah (Maybe but test the market first)
Cleveland (OHIO)
Green Bay

Cold Weather States are more likely to except a Hockey team.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?