To say if you were a union leader who wouldn't aggressively bargain for the best deal for your membership and not get strong armed is equal bullshit. These deals don't exist in a vacuum. This deal affects the next and the next and so on. They can't just cave every time.
You do know the only time the players "caved" happened to be 2004... Which they won quite handily. People don't realize they didn't cave. They lost a year. They earned a massive amount of money.
The other CBAs have been constantly in the players favor. And it shows when you compare the old CBA to the other leagues.
The players in the NHL are treated like fucking gods compared to the other leagues. What the NHL was offering was still going to make them have the best CBA in pro sports (with a few exceptions)
Sorry, if the NHL is the 4th league in North America... And I'm a union boss... I say what's wrong and how can we fix it going forward so the nhlpa will be far better positioned for years to come? Like I said from the start, nhlpa mindset going in should have been just to nudge for a 48-49% but claw the fuck out of player rights- not contract limits, those make sense. But I'd be pushing for RFA years, ELC years, bonuses, a fat fucking pension, and a transfer to fixed percentages instead of contract values. If growth occurs, all players gain - not the teams. There's risk but very little. A player could have signed for 10% cap in 2005-06 and would have made $2.9 million. Today that would be $7 million. This way it ensure all revenue gained is used effectively - I would have fought for any unused cap to be divided among teams equally and all teams HAVE to pay to the cap. Even at a cap of 44% just to grease their wheels. That would set cap at 48 million, that would also mean that percentage guy from 05-06 earned $4.8 million. This also helps eliminate cap growth which can push players down to being able to sign more players.
What's eventually going to happen? They are going to lose in every fucking area. The way this has been handled by the nhlpa has been outright stupid. They could have had made out like bandits. Money side, no. But that is going to be an inevitable loss. Player rights, though? They are the most important function. That's where you see if its for now or later. Fighting over fucking hotel rooms? Lawwwllllll they want more personal care afterwards? Like. Fuck. There is no semblance of priorities outside of money. Fucking greed. And eventually they will lose out.
Ovechkin crying about slashed salaries
Here's some hard math for those stupid ass players.
$88 million left on his contract
Two year lockout is $18 million
That's a 20% reduction
Or NHLs last offer for a whole season? $9.8 million, an 11% reduction
That's right.
With a lost season, in order to make more than the NHLs last proposal he'd need 56.4% for the rest of his contract. And theirs was 50/50
Now it's going to be like 54-52-50 onwards.
Which is looking like his contract will be $5.4 mil (50 game season with make whole), $8.2 mil, and $8.77 onwards
$13 million, a 15% reduction... Which would be roughly equatable to taking 48% from the beginning. (Actually likely worse due to league growth... It would have continued with no labor disruption. but after a lengthy lockout... Numbers get worse when they are clawed back to correct for lower revenue)
Just to provide an example of that:
His contract could look like: (15% loss, 5% gain, 10% gain, 10% gain, 10% gain, etc)
$5.4 million, $6.97, 7.89, $8.68, $8.77 onwards
Loss of $15.2 million, 17.3% reduction
Under my percentages plan if it was done from the start? We will estimate 44% cap with 5% gain every year.
$6.95 million, $7.3 million, $8.5 million, $9 million, $9.4 million, $9.85 million, $10.35 million, $10.85 million and $11.4 million
A net loss of $4.4 million
NHLPA expects 7% growth, so to show what their dummy projections would have netted under my proposed system...
$6.95 million, $7.43 million, $8.84 million, $9.45 million, $10.11 million, $10.82 million, $11.58 million, $12.4 million and $13.26 million
A gain of $2.8 million.
Lack of forward thinking? For sure!
They are actively making their numbers worse while losing on everything else. Idiots. All of them.
