FARK.com: (7439654) At this point, Gary Bettman has handled the lockout so poorly this might actually be a compliment

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		At this point, Gary Bettman has handled the lockout so poorly this might actually be a compliment (espn.go.com)		15
		More: Obvious, Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, Donald Fehr, NHLPA, Detroit Red Wings

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2500 clicks; posted to Sports » on 17 Nov 2012 at 3:40 PM | Favorite | share:

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Dafatone		2012-11-17 06:16:48 PM

2 votes:

Raaargh Donald Fehr Raaaaargh!

/that's what you sound like, people who think the NHLPA is at fault solely because of the name Donald Fehr.

Britney Spear's Speculum		2012-11-17 05:13:01 PM

2 votes:

I really want the lock-out to end, but I'd be happy with it going on until the players get their fair share.

slayer199		2012-11-17 04:39:08 PM

2 votes:

When the lockout cancelled an entire season years ago, I supported the owners. There's no way a 3rd or 4th line player should be making $4 million a year.

Now I find the situation reversed. The league is profitable, there's balance with the salary cap, and there's no good reason for the players to be locked out. The owners and Bettman are douchebags.

Fisty Bum		2012-11-17 04:25:08 PM

2 votes:

Rwa2play: poisonedpawn78: bronyaur1: I am not so sure. For the majority of the season, players lose more than owners if games are not played. If a shortened season happens, owners win.

TSN is reporting that some of the owners are now starting to get extremely upset that the season hasnt started yet. As in their gameplan isnt working and the wrong people are losing profits. They mention specifically Dan Snider, while claiming to be behind bettman has made it extremely clear that he was only on board for up to december 1st lockout.

The big time owners are starting to crack. Missing the big bucks on their end isnt going to compensate for whatever piddly solution keeps the bottom feeders alive.

Hope that crack becomes a canyon when this is all over and they kick Bettman out his ass.

If they didn't kick him out after losing the entire 2004-2005 season, he's not going to lose his job over this. NHL owners are idiots.

Rwa2play		2012-11-17 04:09:05 PM

2 votes:

LineNoise: Yeah, clearly the guys who hired Fehr were the ones looking for a reasonable, quick settlement.

You know how I know you haven't kept tabs on the NHL lockout?

Malcolm_Sex		2012-11-18 10:57:26 AM

1 votes:

ElwoodCuse		2012-11-18 03:24:16 AM

1 votes:

Tryfan: I almost wish the players could win one of these labour disputes just so the smug people who spout off "blame Buttman" without having any clue whatsoever as to what is going on could find out just what kind of a disaster that would be.

Let's start with dropping down to three (max) Canadian teams first, shall we?

Gary Bettman is bad at labor negotiations but it's undeniable what he has accomplished for the NHL during his tenure.

The NHL, warts and all, is far better off today than it was in the early 90s when it was a 21-team league with an incredibly limited footprint that needed gate receipts to make their money.

It's good that there are 30 teams. It's good that they are in non-traditional markets. The sport IS growing. The global talent pool is bigger than ever. The solution to the league's problems is NOT to take the bottom 10 teams in attendance and move them to Seattle, Milwaukee, Quebec, Hamilton, Saskatoon, whatever.

ElwoodCuse		2012-11-18 02:45:07 AM

1 votes:

carnifex2005: jayhawk88: I don't follow hockey that closely; it blew my mind to learn that the NHL lost an entire season, and somehow didn't come out the other side with a limit on contract length. "Nah, the owners won't take advantage of that, we can trust them to do what's right for the health of the game over their own teams self interests!"

Bill Simmons wrote the same thing. Bettman and the owners aren't terribly smart. The only reason he's kept around is because the business of hockey is making more money than ever (though I credit the Canadian dollar for a huge amount of that).

It helped but the NHL didn't go from $800 million a year to $3.3 billion a year because of inflation and CAD being on par with USD.

Bill Simmons also is the worst kind of hockey "fan". "Hey, here's my 'fark the Bruins forever' column since they lost in the playoffs again" *Bruins win Cup* "WOOOOOOO BRUINS BOBBY ORR CAM NEELY YAAAAAY" The very next goddamn season. "Wow, the NBA is so stupid about all this lockout stuff, I know, why don't I go to LA Kings games?" *NBA comes back, Kings are a boring team, oh wait they got hot in the playoffs and beat a lot of good teams* "HOLY CRAP WHAT A TEAM WHAT A SPORT THERE'S NOTHING LIKE HOCKEY WHAT HAVE I BEEN TELLING YOU ALL THIS TIME"

LemSkroob		2012-11-17 10:55:49 PM

1 votes:

slayer199:
Now I find the situation reversed. The league is profitable, there's balance with the salary cap, and there's no good reason for the players to be locked out. The owners and Bettman are douchebags.

The NHL owners don't want the NHL to be a real business, where sometimes a shop has to close, or an owner has to move a factory somewhere else. No, they want zero risk.

They want to be able to make make a bad business decision, like building a space telescope in smog filled downtown LA (or, putting a hockey team in phoenix), but then have a guarantee that the telescope will see the big bang. And if the telescope cant see shiat, they are allowed to blame the scientists and take their salary back instead.

The NHL doesn't want to have 90% of its teams successful. Its wants 100%, and that is a fantasy. No company has every branch turn a profit. It just does not happen in real life.

LesserEvil		2012-11-17 10:21:23 PM

1 votes:

slayer199: When the lockout cancelled an entire season years ago, I supported the owners. There's no way a 3rd or 4th line player should be making $4 million a year.

Now I find the situation reversed. The league is profitable, there's balance with the salary cap, and there's no good reason for the players to be locked out. The owners and Bettman are douchebags.

I'm shocked by all the idiots who blame Fehr. WTF? If he orchestrated some sort of strike, I could see it... if the players were demanding more money, I could see it.

The truth of this issue is very simple: The NHL has been making record revenues. The owners have been convinced by Bettman that they can force a renegotiation of the CBA by locking out the players and make even MORE money. Bettman is trying to roll back the revenue sharing to even smaller levels than the ones supposedly negotiated in "good faith" 8 years ago.

There is no way to spin this as the players fault.

It's like your boss at the banana stand claps his hands together, and announces how the stand has made more profits this year than the last three years combined. You say "great, my pay is based on those profits, thanks!", and the boss says, oh, wait, I only want to pay you half of what I agreed to pay you.... You say, "WTF? We have a contract!", boss says, fine, the banana stand is closed until you agree to what I want.

Let me repeat this: There is no way to spin this as the players fault.

I'm not big on unions. I often think players get paid ridiculous amounts of money to play games (though I acknowledge their risk and contributions to the revenue). I believe in Capitalism (not corporatism, though, capitalism's unchecked evil twin).

I think the owners are way out of bounds on this one, and I think Bettman is the instigator.

neuroflare		2012-11-17 09:05:53 PM

1 votes:

The Bestest: what's Selig's derisive middle name?

He's probably the best Commissioner of all of the big 4 sports. Frightening prospect.

Special J		2012-11-17 07:30:16 PM

1 votes:

The owners wiped out a season, got everything they wanted, and then immediately started trying to circumvent their own rules. Starting July 1, the owners handed out hundreds of millions of dollar in contracts. In the few days leading up to the lockout the scrambled to hand out as much dough as possible. Then the next day they "umm, yeah, we're going to need some of that back."

fark you Bettman and the owners you represent. I've got the World Juniors coming up, then it doesn't matter that much if I see another game this year.

Killer Cars		2012-11-17 05:16:11 PM

1 votes:

slayer199: 50% is more than fair...but the owners wanted more. During the first lockout and cancellation of the season, I believe all but 3-4 teams were losing money. This time around the situation is reversed.

The most hilarious thing, to me, about this lockout (and most work stoppages in professional sports) is the simple fact that regardless of what happens, there will be no tangible benefit to us as fans that come out it.

Largely, they're fighting over the costs of labor. Let's say for sh*ts and giggles, the new CBA is reached and it includes a 15% rollback on all salaries and labor costs. As a fan, ticket prices will not go down 15%, nor 10, nor probably even 5%. There is NO correlation between player salaries and ticket price, as scarcity (LOL SUPPLY AND DEMAND) is what drives prices. So, we get no hockey for now, and when it comes back, other market factors completely unrelated to the reasons why we don't have hockey right now will determine the cost of us being fans.

Rwa2play		2012-11-17 04:09:43 PM

1 votes:

poisonedpawn78: bronyaur1: I am not so sure. For the majority of the season, players lose more than owners if games are not played. If a shortened season happens, owners win.

TSN is reporting that some of the owners are now starting to get extremely upset that the season hasnt started yet. As in their gameplan isnt working and the wrong people are losing profits. They mention specifically Dan Snider, while claiming to be behind bettman has made it extremely clear that he was only on board for up to december 1st lockout.

The big time owners are starting to crack. Missing the big bucks on their end isnt going to compensate for whatever piddly solution keeps the bottom feeders alive.

Hope that crack becomes a canyon when this is all over and they kick Bettman out his ass.

poisonedpawn78		2012-11-17 03:51:33 PM

1 votes:

bronyaur1: I am not so sure. For the majority of the season, players lose more than owners if games are not played. If a shortened season happens, owners win.

TSN is reporting that some of the owners are now starting to get extremely upset that the season hasnt started yet. As in their gameplan isnt working and the wrong people are losing profits. They mention specifically Dan Snider, while claiming to be behind bettman has made it extremely clear that he was only on board for up to december 1st lockout.

The big time owners are starting to crack. Missing the big bucks on their end isnt going to compensate for whatever piddly solution keeps the bottom feeders alive.

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