Players vs. League: Who deserves the greener pastures?

Money. Money. Money. Money. Everything in today's world is affected, twisted, and skewed by pieces of paper. Actually, when it matters most, it is just imaginary pieces of paper represented by numbers on a balance sheet. Why do people watch a sporting event? Whose name do the fans cheer in the stands? Whose jerseys and tee-shirts do these fans buy? Whose faces are used in commercials and advertisements to market events and games? The same word can answer all of these questions: Players, the men and women that train their whole lives to play the game that they love. Not only are their lives defined by the game that they play and the years of preparation it takes to play at a high level, but the sport IS their lives.

On September 15th, 2012, the National Hockey League's (NHL) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with its players expired. Why, you may ask, would the players and owners allow this to happen? Money. Who is at fault? That is the million dollar question (ignore the pun), but in my opinion it is the owners and the executives of the NHL. Without the talent on the ice nothing would be possible; the hundreds of millions of dollars earned per year by each team would be non-existent. Yes, the reason that players play in the NHL is because the North American market is the most lucrative for sporting events in the world, and players have the highest earning potential in this league, but with growing leagues looking for stars to propel them into the next echelon, the NHL better act fast and in the players' best interest.

The Kontinental Hockey League, which is an international professional hockey league founded in 2008 in Eurasia, has already signed a handful of players from NHL teams for as long as the lockout continues, including perennial all-stars Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin. With a less structured and restrictive governing body in the KHL, stars like these two may find a comfort level where they are treated like royalty and never find themselves back on the ice in the NHL. Losing talent like this to a foreign league means the loss of millions of dollars in revenues for both the individual team ownership and the NHL as a whole.

Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the National Hockey League

A quick outline of what the NHL has requested to be included in the new CBA:

• Reduction of the players' share of the hockey related revenue (HRR) form 57% to 46%.
• That would mean the owners would make 54% of all hockey related revenues acquired by the NHL while they sit in their press boxes and drink their wine.
• To set a limit of 5 years on all new players' contracts.
• Some may argue that this benefits the player as they are able to then negotiate a new contract sooner, but I say no. This not only hurts the player by making them trading cards for the teams management, but more importantly it hurts the fans who will not be able to cling to players as much as they would because of the fear losing them sooner.
• Extend entry level contracts from 3 years to 5 years.
• Why would a star player coming out of high school, college or juniors want to sign a contract where they are making a tenth of what they could be making in other professional leagues?
• Extend qualification for unrestricted free agency from 7 years to 10 years in the league.
• Any player who holds a contract in the NHL for 7 years deserves the right to not be a puppet at the hands of the NHL.

In conclusion, what the NHL and the owners are proposing is absolutely ridiculous. Slowly the sport of hockey is being taken away from those who love it most, the athletes and the fans, and being driven not by those who it affects the most, but by those who want to make $150 million a year instead of $120 million a year. The sick politics that rule the sport spectrum in 2012 disgust me, and the owners of these teams should be happy that the athletes are willing to offer them 47% of the money that the players earned by their on ice achievements. I hope the NHL wises up quick and realizes that they are the ones with less opportunity for rebuilding if they continue to be hard-headed regarding discussions with the NHLPA and understand who it is that drives the revenue of the National Hockey League.