Walk around campus and you’ll notice that many students are sporting the jersey of their favourite hockey team. In recent years, hockey has seen a rise in popularity, with record highs in viewership and revenue. However, this state of affairs has been jeopardized as the NHL entered its third lockout in 18 years with no end in sight.
While not every fan will be deeply upset if there is no hockey this year, most will, and some will turn their attention to other sports, and perhaps forget about hockey altogether. For this reason, it is important that fans know exactly what is threatening to deny them the pleasure of an entire hockey season. Enter the collective bargaining agreement negotiations — the “what.” Now, add the NHL Players’ Association, representing the players, versus the NHL Commissioner and the owners of each NHL team — the “who.”
The September 15 expiration of the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) means that the NHLPA and the NHL have to negotiate a new agreement that dictates, primarily, how NHL revenue will be divided. The agreement is not about the rules of the game; it is about contractual and financial considerations. The NHL owners and the commissioner are hoping to reduce the share of revenues that players get. Under the previous agreement, players were entitled to 57 per cent of revenues, while the owners got the remaining 43 per cent. The NHL now wants their share of the revenue to increase beyond the 50 per cent mark with the claim that the cost of hockey operations has increased.
At the same time, the league seeks a higher percentage of revenues in order to pay for struggling franchises in subpar markets. The owners of teams in poor markets need more money to keep their teams afloat financially. Although it is good for the sport to have many teams throughout North America, the NHL’s stubbornness on having teams in the southern US has proven to be a financial black hole, prompting the league to seek more money to bail them out rather than move them to more lucrative markets.
The players, on the other hand, are fine in principle with ceding some of their share of the revenue. The issue for the players is that the NHL is asking for too much. The players feel that while it is true that hockey-operating costs have increased, they want a fair agreement that reflects their contributions to the sport. After all, no one goes to a game to see the owners. Moreover, once the players’ share of the revenue goes down each players’ salary decreases to reflect the new distribution of revenue, meaning that existing salaries will decrease. The players accept this fact, what they really want is a fair agreement; they do not want to be coerced into accepting a biased resolution.
At the end of the day, what will most likely end up happening is an agreement that is close to a 50–50 share of revenues. On top of that, while there may be a year-long lockout, it is possible that the season will start around November or December in the hope of still playing the Winter Classic. What matters the most though, is that there is a season. If fans feel like they are being taken for granted, which will happen if the negotiations drag on for too long, then the progress that the sport has made in the past few years will be marred by yet another work stoppage.
