Quote:
Originally Posted by soulchoice
No it won't ever work. The NHL has no responsibility to fund a league which will be a losing financial business.
The part about being the elite in their sport, thus should be paid a liveable wage is nonsensical and illogical. The top players in sledge hockey are the elite in their sport too, so does that mean they should also get a league and a liveable wage?
|
I cherry picked parts of your post, so my apologies in advance.
Heres the thing...its not like professional leagues popped out of a Cracker-Jack box as a fully formed, fleshed out and shiny final product.
You dont have to look too far back in the history of most, if not all, established professional sports leagues to see how they got started and the conditions involved in that.
The players at the moment are saying that they are professional athletes and deserve to be paid as such.
Well...'deserve' is a strong word.
But furthermore, look at the beginnings of the NHL and....it was borderline slavery.
I mean, the Habs had a form of of 'Right of First Refusal' to players just because they were French.
Long hours, physically demanding, punishing work for pay that, lets be honest, calling it 'semi-pro' would be generous, 'amateur' is likely closer to accurate and going down from there.
Despite the fact that they genuinely were the best players of the sport at the time.
What we're seeing here with the Women's game is an unwillingness to accept that. They really want to skip that grass-roots step that was fundamental in creating an interest and a paying fan base.
And as thats the case then the answer, sadly, is 'No.' It wont work.