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Originally Posted by kutulu
Everyone is so quick to call players greedy bastards well what about the owners? How broke are the owners really? Are the losses real losses of money or are they using creative accounting to turn a $50M profit into a $20M loss. Using simple depriciation you can generate large losses for a team.
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Hello, does it matter? I'm sorry, but I would NEVER start or run a business where I did not expect a profit. Teams are losing money. Even if you don't want to accept the Levitt report (and it takes a pretty good fantasy world to say that the former SEC chairman is making things up), by the players OWN numbers some teams lost money (albeit less that the owners claim, but still a loss). When players debate this they are taking into assumption that tertiary revenues need to be included in the revenues, etc, etc. "Well the hockey owner owns the hotel down the street and THAT made money, so therefore we need to include that in the revenues of the hockey team...".
It doesn't fly that way. I love hockey. My kids love hockey. Hell I know people that would play hockey for 30k a year and LOVE it. But when 76% of incoming revenues are going to salaries, something is wrong. When two teams declare bankruptcy in three years, and more skirt it, something is wrong. When Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg, and Minnesota all move in a period in which salaries grow 240%, something is wrong. When players bitch and moan that they can't take less money and yet they play in europe for a fraction of the cash, something is wrong.
Hell, blame the owners if it helps you sleep at night. Consider this restructing the business model to ensure that the business does not destroy itself. But if I ran a business losing money, I'd sure as hell restructure. Personally, I blame commission based agents for the downfall of the NHL to where it is now. Look at the Thornton rookie contract. We all know an 18 year old kid coming outta the juniors never researched those loopholes himself, and the agent was getting his cut of every penny thornton made.
Sorry, greedy players make me cranky. I think, from now on, I'm going to skip Hockey Night in Canada and take my kids to watch the Penticton Panthers. Hockey players that play for love of the game and give it their all.
I love this link
Levitt Report