PLOsportsmag

2013 WINTER ISSUE

PLO Sports Magazine NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE - LIFE AFTER LOCKOUT ÖREBRO HK’S HARD ROAD TO ELITSERIEN INTERVIEWS PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS ETC.

No Smoke Without Fire - Life After Lockout Text and photos by Jussi

The

NHL

lockout

lasted

11 3

days.

A

total

of

625

games

were

canceled,

amount-

i n g t o m o r e t h a n h a l f t h a t w e r e p l a n n e d f o r t h e 2 0 1 2 - 2 0 1 3 s e a s o n . Wa s i t a l l w o r t h i t ?

The lockout, which cost at least a third of the regular 2012-2013 season, was another stain on the leadership of long-time NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. The dispute was the third lockout in the nineteen years since Bettman became Commissioner in 1993, following player lockouts right after he started in his position in 1994-1995 and 2004-2005. The latter case lead to the cancellation of the entire season.

T h i s w a s a l s o t h e t h i r d l a b o r d i s p u t e f o r N H L PA e x e c u t i v e d i r e c t o r D o n a l d F e h r w h o , a s h e a d o f t h e M a j o r League Baseball Players’ Association, led his union through a lockout in 1990 and a strike in 1994-1995.

The NHL collective bargaining agreement is the basic contract between the National Hockey League team owners and the NHL Players’ Association, designed to be arrived at through the typical labor- management negotiations of collective bargaining. The most recent agreement was tentatively reached on January 6, 2013 after a labor dispute, and was ratified by the league’s Board of Governors on January 9 , 2 0 1 3 , a s w e l l a s b y t h e N H L PA m e m b e r s h i p t h r e e d a y s l a t e r o n J a n u a r y 1 2 , 2 0 1 3 . T h e d e a l w a s a l s o o f f i c i a l l y s i g n e d t h a t d a y. T h e c u r r e n t C B A i s a 1 0 - y e a r d e a l , t h e l o n g e s t i n t h e h i s t o r y o f N H L , a n d i s d u e to expire after the 2021-2022 season. The shortened 2012-2013 NHL regular season starts January 19, 2 0 1 3 . T h e 2 0 1 3 S t a n l e y C u p P l a y o f f s b e g i n t h r e e d a y s l a t e r. M o s t t e a m s w i l l p l a y 4 8 g a m e s i n a t o t a l of 99 days. The new season consists of 720 matches, played within the two respective conferences.

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The l e ngt h of t he ne w C B A w i l l b e fo r 1 0 y e a rs w i th a mutual opt-out after ei ght years, revenue shari ng was set at U SD 200 m illion wit h a U SD 6 0 m i l l i o n g ro w th fu nd, free agents can si gn maxi mum contracts of ei ght year s wit h t he te am they had t heir p re v i o u s c o n tra c t w i th ; s e v e n years w i th a new team, the maxi mum vari ance betw e en annual sal a ry on any c ont r a c t i s s e t a t 3 5 p e rc e n t, th e sal ary cap i n year tw o of the deal w i l l be U S D 64.3 million, each te am w ill be per m it t e d tw o c o mp l i a n c e b u y o u ts p ri or to the 2013-2014 season that w i l l not count agai nst t he salar y cap and will c om e ou t o f th e p l a y e rs ’ s h a re o f h ockey-rel ated revenue, al l fourteen teams that do not qualif y f or th e pos t s eas on will b e e l i g i b l e fo r th e fi rs t o v e ral l pi ck i n the N H L D raft as part of the draft l ottery syste m . Finally - b ei n g oneof t he m o s t ta l k e d a b o u t to p i c s b e tw een fans of i ce hockey around the w orl d - pl ayer participat ion

in

the

Many

2014

owner s

th ei r

play er s

cl e ar

t hat

t he

O ly m p i c hav e f or

a

g a me s

a l re a d y

in said

c o mp e ti ti o n

pla y e rs

and

Sochi,

th e

th a t

R ussi a th ey

th a t

does

fa n s

of

w oul d

not

t he

will

be

rather

benefi t

game

determi ned

are

not

them

stop

and

l ooki ng

i ndependentl y

at

the

the thi s

season

A meri can from

the

from and

l eague,

t he

CBA.

g ive

away

but

opposi t e

it

is

angle.

An i n t er es t ing c om p a ri s o n w a s p u b l i s h e d a b o u t how the A ustri an busi ness cycl e theory expl ai ns the l ockout . The Austri a n t heor y hold s th a t g o v e rn m e n t ma n i p u l ati on of i nterest rates l eads to a peri od of mal i nvestmen t f ollowed b y l i q uidat ion. T he s p o rts b u s i n e s s c y c l e o p e ra t es al ong si mi l ar l i nes, onl y i nstead of a central bank ma nipulat ing th e pri c e of m oney, t h e l e a g u e tri e s to c o n tro l th e pri ce of l abor through col l ecti ve bargai ni ng. E ach such a t t em pt in e vi tably r es ult s in a p e ri o d o f ma l i n v e s tme n t fo l l o w ed by l i qui dati on - the l ockouts - before the cycl e begins a new.

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is the villain behind these lockouts, the man who enjoys nothing more than depriving loyal fans of their beloved hockey. Bettman has been at the NHL’s helm for more than two decades, an outlander who came from the NBA - run by Bettman’s mentor and the template for modern sports commissioners, David Stern - with dreams of turning hockey into the next big thing. Bettman presided over the franchise expansion into the southern and western United States of America, all the while consolidating more league operations and power within his own office.

Bettman’s real adversaries in these work stoppages are not players, but the owners and general managers who stand in the way of his perfectly planned league. Allan Walsh, a longtime NHL player agent, noted that Bettman “dislikes most of his general managers as much as he loathes agents.” In an ideal world, Walsh suggested, Bettman wants to negotiate all player contracts himself, eliminating competition among franchises altogether.

It

has

been

argued

that

one

way

to

break

the

sports

business

cycle

would

be

to

abandon

the

fran-

chise model altogether and restructure the NHL as a new, single entity – for example, transforming the NHL to a single corporation with thirty divisions, as opposed to a cartel of thirty partially merged companies.

A fan and an active follower of ice hockey, Iiro, commented on the lockout: “I am happy to see that the lockout is over now and I am already looking forward to the beginning of the season. In the end, I think it lasted way too long and was sure that it would be over before the end of the year at the latest, but it even took a bit longer than that.”

Samuli, another fan, had the following comments on the matter: “No official winner was declared. It was a lockout by the owners of the game, instead of the players entering into a strike against them. This particular lockout was just a simple battle of the wealthy owners against the wealthy players - to put it simply - billionaires against millionaires. I think it is disgusting how they handle business in corporate America nowadays.”

Owners have approached the deal on a more positive note. The Washington Capitals team owner Ted Leonsis commented for the Washington Post that “the lockout was worth the end result – a new, long- term collective bargaining agreement. The big deliverables for me, were a 50-50 deal and a long-term deal. I was very, very adamant that if we could get a decade of peace that would be terrific and we have that. So I’m thrilled with the deal.”

In conclusion, the players with the NHLPA had to accept contract limitations, seven years for free agents and eight years for a team looking to sign a current player as well as a maximum salary variance of no more than 35 percent per season. Therefore, it seems now that lengthy deals are somewhat history in the NHL.

New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk, New York Islanders goalkeeper Rick DiPietro, Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber, Ryan Suter and Zach Parise of the Minnesota Wild, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby all have signed over ten-year contracts with their respective teams. On the other side, the owners who suffered the most with this work stoppage were all of the NHL franchises, losing millions in ticket sales and in regional and international TV revenues. Last but not least, most high-profile players have said that - in the end - the fans were the real losers of this lockout.

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