Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
Without them, there's no league. They're fairly paid (if not slightly underpaid), given the amount of revenue the league takes in.
|
You missed the point. It’s a philosophical argument. Are the players business expenses or are they business partners?
If they’re business partners then put your wages to work building the capital projects the business allegedly (and I use this word purposefully) requires.
If they’re business expenses (they are) then wages need to go down if the theory is you need massive capital infusions to build new arenas every 40 years. Because obviously the revenues don’t support good returns unless massive public subsidies appear, apparently. So yes the business model is broken because no other business requires the public to come along and subsidize massive capital projects. Imagine CNRL coming in and asking Fort McMurray to pay $200MM for CNRL’s new oil sands project because Fort McMurray will benefit with jobs. Same thing here but without the emotional component the NHL leverages with fans.
I like the NFL model where every team contributes to basically a stadium “pool” of collective funds annually and then when teams need a new building the NFL pool pays out.
Agree the NHL needs a certain level of talent but not at all cost. Pretty obvious that player salaries either need to go down or owners need to step up if the NHL business can’t get it done. The problem is you have 32 different municipalities that will all do their own thing and maybe give public subsidies which opens the door to this public abuse. And the emotional component of a team leaving gives billionaire owners all the leverage in the world. BUT- at some point enough just be enough.
Also find it amusing when people say “well you can’t go to public plebiscite because people won’t want it”- yeah no ####, what does that tell you then?
Skipping on the Olympics was one of Calgary’s best decisions of all time given everything we know about the Olympics today. Go to plebiscite on the Green line and maybe you get different outcomes. If something isn’t popular maybe there’s, oh I dunno, a reason?