The NHL Lockout: Here We Go Again

Last night at 12:00 the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement expired and the players were officially lockout by the owners. If that sounds familiar, it is because the exact same scenario played out only 8 years ago when the entire 2004-05 season was cancelled because of a lockout. That one was over whether the league should implement a salary cap and, as we all know, they did in the end. Since that missed season, the league has grown leaps and bounds. But yet still we find ourselves back in the same spot. How could this happen?




In the time since the 2004 lockout, the league has seen record breaking growth across the board. According to a blog Bob Mckenzie recently wrote, the league's revenue has grown from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $3.3 billion last year. And the salary cap has risen from $39 million in 2005 to $70 million in 2011. So both sides of the negotiation did ok with the last CBA.

So then why would they go back to negotiating at all?  The current CBA brought loads of money to both sides, the league is growing across both Canada and the United States faster than ever. But yet the league is willing to put a stop to all the growth and potentially cancel another season. It simply doesn't make sense.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman 

The main culprit behind the lockout is again Gary Bettman. When midnight struck last night, the third lockout under his tenure as commissioner began, a terrible track record. But yet, the 30 owners he represents in the negotiation have no problem leaving him in charge and fans and players can only watch as he continuously makes bad decisions affecting the league. Last time, he made out like a bandit, seeing his salary increase from $3 million to $8 million over the seven years of peace. With that money, he has no reason to lockout the league, but he is anyways.

Bettman, and in turn the owner's, claim that they are losing money and want to reorganize how the revenues are split between players and ownership. Currently the split is 57% to the players and 43% to the owners on every dollar made. The reason the players get more is because the owner's gave it to them in exchange for implementing a salary cap. But now the owner's want more of the revenues and until both sides find a common ground, there will be no hockey.

The league argues that they are losing money and need more revenues in their favourite to keep their books green. They claim they lose money every year. Though this may be true about some teams, it is still very ironic when players like Zach Parise, Shane Doan and Milan Lucic sign huge, long term deals, even when their owner's complain about losing money. The league is aiming for a 50/50 split, but have yet to propose an offer that has that.

The players, on the other hand, created a plan that saw their revenue earnings decrease in exchange for an increase in salary payments. This would have been fine with the owner's if not for a loop hole thrown in; the players revenue goes back up to 57% after the third year. The players know how important revenue is to the owner's but that was a selfish way of making sure they still get more.

The NHL lockout affects a lot of people

There have been no formal meetings or presentations since Wednesday and no further meetings are planned yet. Training camps were expected to begin as early as the coming Wednesday but those will all likely be cancelled too. From there cancellation of pre-season games will soon follow. The regular season is scheduled to begin October 11th but if a deal isn't reached by then, then there likely won't be hockey until at least December.

The NHL lockout doesn't just affect the people involved in the negotiations. Fans, bar owners, arena ushers, referees and writers are all hurt by the loss of games. Out of protest, fans are unfollowing the official NHL twitter account. But even though the game is very important to all these people, they have no say. Its the millionaires who run the sport that decide if there will be a season and as of right now, that is far from guaranteed.

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