The NHL in 2004 became the first major North American professional
sports league to cancel an entire season, a drastic measure Bettman
contended was necessary to control costs and reduce the percentage of
revenues funneled toward players' salaries. (Elliot)- Fact
the lockout broke the NHL Players' Assn. the union and got the hard salary
cap it wanted, plus a 24% rollback on existing contracts. (Elliot)- Fact
Special events such as the Winter Classic and the emergence of
successful teams in such major markets as Detroit and Chicago have
driven TV ratings to respectable numbers. Versus and on NBC, which
shares profits from its broadcasts (Elliot)- Fact
"We treat a work stoppage, a strike, as a last resort, and it's something you
consider only when you believe that all alternatives have failed," Fehr
(Elliot)- Claim
The current labor deal has been amended to curtail long-term contracts
that teams had given players in hopes of minimizing the salary cap hit.
(Elliot)- Fact
The shutdown came five months after the NHL's 30 teams locked out the
700 unionized players with the expiration of their collective- bargaining
agreement. (Fatsis)- Fact
the league wasn't willing to resume play until it reached a deal with players
that resolved its economic problems, namely a system that the league has
said resulted in $500 million in losses the last two years. (Fatsis)- Claim
the cancellation of the full season will cost the league's players more than
$1 billion in lost salaries and its 30 franchises -- 24 in the U.S. and six in
Canada -- more than $2 billion in revenue from tickets, media,
sponsorships and concessions. (Fatsis)- Fact
long-term costs could be incalculable in the eyes of fans, sponsors,
television networks, banks, potential club owners and the other bulwarks of
any major pro-sports enterprise. (Fatsis)- Claim
The main issue in the dispute is how players are paid. NHL salaries more
than tripled in the past decade to an average of $1.8 million in 2003-04,
and the league said it spent about 75% of its revenue on player
compensation, far more than the other pro leagues. (Fatsis)- Fact
the NHL said it wanted a system of "cost certainty" directly linking total
player compensation to total league-wide revenue. (Fatsis)- Fact
Mr. Bettman said the added damage of losing an entire season made it
unlikely the league would agree to a system that didn't link salaries with
revenue. (Fatsis)- Claim
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable channel had a one-year deal that would
have paid the league $60 million for 40 regular-season games and some
playoffs -- a drastic reduction from its previous deal. (Fatsis)- Fact
Replacement programming on ESPN -- mostly men's college basketball -has drawn ratings twice as high as those for the NHL. (Fatsis)- Fact
fundamental alteration in local revenue brought on by increases in the
value of local TV broadcast rights beginning in the late 1970s. (Fort)- Fact
changes in the rules of the games, the draft, the end of the reserve clause,
changes in the number of teams (merger and expansion) and their
locations, salary caps, and labor issues. (Fort)
As population and willingness to pay became more equally distributed
among the major cities hosting teams, competitive balance would increase.
(Fort)- Claim
The resulting damage could be immeasurable to hockey, which already
has limited appeal in the United States. (Lockout…)- Claim
the organization fully supported the owners during the negotiations
and he thought that while the cancellation was regrettable, it had to
happen. (Lockout… )- Claim
No Stanley Cup champion will be crowned, the first time that's
happened since 1919, when the 2-year-old league called off the finals
because of a flu epidemic. (Lockout…)- Fact
''This is a tragedy for the players,'' Bettman said. ''Their careers are
short and this is money and opportunity they'll never get back,''
(Lockout…)- Claim
''A few years ago, I thought the owners were making a lot of money
and were hiding some under the table, but then I got on this side and
saw the losses this league was accumulating,'' Lemieux (Lockout…)Claim
Taking a year off, or more, will only push the league further off the
radar screen. Lemieux (Lockout…)- Claim
''We profoundly regret the suffering this has caused our fans, our
business partners and the thousands of people who depend on our
industry for their livelihoods,'' Bettman said. (Lockout…)- Claim
The players proposed $49 million per team; the owners said $42.5
million. But a series of conditions and fine print in both proposals
made the offers further apart (Lockout…)- Fact
lockout that started on Sept. 16 and ultimately wiped out the entire
1,230-game schedule (Lockout…)- Fact
over 300 of the league's 700-plus players who spent part of this
season playing in Europe. (Lockout…)- Fact
The impact of a strike is greater for the linked firm than for the firm directly
experiencing the strike. (Schmidt)- Claim
It is suggested that the strike cost is limited to the strike period and that the
consumer demand returns in force immediately after the strike ends.
(Schmidt)- Claim
The events of a strike or lockout had no permanent impact upon
attendance in sports. In almost all instances attendance immediately
rebounded in the year following the labor conflict. (Schmidt)- Claim
The National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) was formed in
1957 by players protesting a television deal between the league and CBS
that gave all of the money to the owners. (Staudohar)- Fact
The union won concessions such as the right to choose arbitrators in
salary disputes, a reduction in the age for unrestricted free agency from 31
to 30, and an increase in the players' postseason revenue share.
(Straudohar)
Importantly, while at the NBA, Bettman designed and implemented
basketball's salary cap, the first in modern-day sports. He was viewed as
an energetic, marketing-oriented innovator and a perfect fit for the lessthan-pacesetting NHL. (Straudohar)- Claim
The lockout ended in mid-January 1995, barely saving the season, which
was cut from 84 to 48 regular-season games. As a result, the owners
dropped the payroll tax idea, but achieved a salary cap for rookies under
the age of 25, who were limited to an $850,000 salary in 1995, with the cap
rising annually to $ 1,075,000 in 2000. (Straudohar)- Fact
Unrestricted free agency could be achieved only at age 32 (up from age 30
under the old contract) for the first two seasons of the agreement and at
age 31 after that. It was the most restrictive free agency system in sports.
(Straudohar)- Fact
Although the owners appeared to have "taken it all," they nonetheless
wasted little time in bestowing lavish salaries on players in individual
negotiations with agents. This largesse would eventually lead to the
league's insistence on a salary cap applicable to all players, a turn of
events that became the major cause of the 2004-05 lockout. (Straudohar)Claim
THIS SOURCE HAS GOOD GRAPHS ABOUT SALARY OF PLAYERS
rookie salaries were supposedly capped under the old agreement. But a
loophole developed in this cap when the owners circumvented it by paying
bonuses to rookies. (Straudohar)- Claim
There were numerous issues on the bargaining table in 2004-05: higher
player fines for misbehavior, reducing the schedule of games, minimum
salaries, playoff bonuses for players, free agency, operation of the salary
arbitration process, and revenue sharing. (Straudohar)- Claim
the league wanted a salary cap of $35 million per team, with the players
guaranteed about 50 percent of league revenues. The union offered a
rollback of 5 percent on player salaries, a luxury tax on payrolls of more
than $50 million (with money going into a revenue-sharing pool), and a
rollback on the rookie salary cap to 1995 levels. (Straudohar)- Fact
s a result of the work stoppage, there were layoffs of team office personnel
and stadium attendants. The economic impact on league cities was not
great, because fans redirected their spending from attending games to
other forms of entertainment. (Straudohar)- Claim
the NHL probably would have used replacement players to get the 200506 season started on time, but as it turned out, the parties reached an
agreement beforehand, (Straudohar)- Claim
On July 13,2005, the NHL and the NHLPA reached a settlement on a 6year collective bargaining agreement. agreement is a team payroll cap of
$39 million for 2005-06, with player compensation limited to 54 percent of
league revenues. There is a minimum payroll of $21 million. (Straudohar)Fact
Rookie salaries are capped at $850,000 per season, with a top signing
bonus of 10 percent annually. Also, like NBA players, NHL players will
deposit an adjustable percentage of their salaries into an escrow account.
(Straudohar)- Fact
The new arrangement calls for a minimum of two random tests per year for
performance-enhancing drugs. First-time offenders get a 20-game
suspension, a second offense results in a suspension for 60 games, and a
player caught a third time suffers a lifetime ban (Straudohar)- Fact
Most teams eventually did this, as well as spending more money on
special promotions to entice fans back to the arenas. (Straudohar)
During the early years of professional sports through the 1950s, most
teams played their home games in a privately owned stadium or arena.
Team owners wanted little involvement from the public sector in their
business affairs. Later, when publicly funded facilities became more
common, the teams and other users paid rental fees that helped offset the
public sector's capital and operating costs for the facilities (Swindell)- Fact
several local governments now have invested more than $500 million in
these facilities. (Swindell)- Fact
Mayors and governors argue that teams and the facilities they use (1)
generate economic growth through high levels of new spending in a
region, (2) create a large numbers of jobs, (3) revitalize declining central
business districts, and (4) change land-use patterns (Swindell)- Claim
The increased costs of ownership, then, have also been shifted to the
public sector and fans in the form of demands for more tax subsidies,
higher ticket prices, and higher prices for food, beverages, souvenirs, and
other amenities available at stadiums and arenas. (Swindell)- Claim
Even those fans who watch games on television (or listen on the radio) are
"charged" for this privilege through the commercials that are part of most
broadcasts or the fees they pay for cable or satellite transmission services
(Swindell)- Claim