[BoLevi]

Originally Posted by Rutuu

Want to add to the darkness.

Regional tax differences, and a loose interpretation for LTIR make the salary cap tilted and less a hard cap, but more a soft capped luxury tax system.

The Flames with an arena deal are now an organisation worth more than $1bn, and they sell a real product. This isn't B2B O+G that the bulk of the fanbase is familiar with, where the product that comes out of the ground is fungible and the whole world needs 100million barrels of it everyday. Flames hockey has to compete and be sold customer to customer every year.

NHL hockey is operations, leasing, marketing of multiple product channels, hockey operations (scouting, coaching, trainers), logistics, customer relations, legal, etc etc. The business is complex, and we have to do everything better than 31 other sites to win.

The Flames aren't exactly a top employer in the city, the oil companies are. So they're not even getting the best people in the region. Once again...it sounds a whole lot like the government. The Flames hang on to their people forever...again like the government.

Edwards might be able to bring the CNRL mantra of low cost operator into the Flames business since he took charge, and they probably needed that, but there's only so far you can go with that mentality when you've got a product that needs to be marketed, not just being the last person standing on the cost curve.

I dont know you, but I like you.

The NHL/NHLPA partnership views the taxpayer as a fundamental part of their business. It's gross. There is plenty of revenue to build their own facilities but the owners and players would need to take a paycut. How awful for them.