Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
I think there will be regional bubbles to start the season. Canada will be a regional bubble and you're playing each Canadian team 3 or 4 times in that bubble (a 6 to 8 weeks or so total in the bubble).
That way TV interest will be up so Sportsnet and teams can try and sell advertising based on rivalry team games.
Then they'd hope by early next year they can get fans into buildings as travel and group restrictions eased.
If not able to that yet they'd have to do a bubble format with other regions, again packing games into a two or three week bubble, then leaving a few weeks in between switching bubbles and allow to see family.
Maybe the season is only 55 games or so, playing the other Canadian teams 4x each, then teams in one other regional bubble 4x or so. Then playoffs from there.
The bubble format for Covid safety has been an unqualified success. Sure some isolation grumbling in earlier rounds. So I think in theory they can make it work.
That's all fine for schedule making and to a degree for TV, but for teams that need revenue from suites and seats and local advertising contracts, it doesnt really help economically.
It's going to be pretty ugly.
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And yet the NHL owners are giving out HUGE contracts that are not justified by any foreseeable increase in revenue.
The cap should be 63M (without Ticket sales revenue) with the players writing off 20% to escrow which they will never get. The actual cap would be closer to 50 M with the players being paid what their contracts call for.
The 81.5 CAP will weed out the weaker franchises... defeating the whole idea of the CAP being good for the overall league.
If the the bulk of the teams spend 75-81 M on salaries we come back to the pre CBA days where the rich owners eat their losses and/or rely on non-hockey revenue to cover them and the Flames, Oilers and Jets will move to a smaller internal cap and sell off their better players in an effort to curtail the losses.
The economic climate in Alberta does not bode well for government support and tax relief.
The TV networks are not going to give a HUGE long term deal for a league in trouble.