Drop Dead Date Set

[Robb]

You're not going to get me to defend the owners, unless someone is going to point out the person who held a gun to their heads and forced them to sign those big contracts.  They want to win AND they want guaranteed profits.  Egotistical AND greedy - not a good combination.

[CowbellGuy]

I'm not sure. It didn't specify, but it did say that that margin is much higher than it was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

[KeithK]

[q]You're not going to get me to defend the owners, unless someone is going to point out the person who held a gun to their heads and forced them to sign those big contracts. They want to win AND they want guaranteed profits. Egotistical AND greedy - not a good combination.[/q]The problem with the auction market for free agents is that all it takes is one owner to act irrationally or make a bad assumption abaout a player's worth and the market becomes inflated.  It's easy to act irrationally when you want to win, which the majority of sports owners do.   In an ideal free market situation this would be less of a problem because the owners that consistently made bad decisions (overpaying) would go out of business.  But of course bad franchises don't ever go under anymore.  

I don't think it's unreasonable for the owners to want a system which tempers and limits the tendency to act irrationally, thereby assuring a better bottom line.  

[Pete Godenschwager]

[Q]They want to win AND they want guaranteed profits. Egotistical AND greedy - not a good combination.[/Q]

I would hope that any buisness person would want both to put out a good product and to make a profit.    

[KeithK]

[q]I would hope that any buisness person would want both to put out a good product and to make a profit.[/q]I don't know if this is a quote (er, paraphrase) or legend, but Connie Mack, long time manager owner of the Philadelphia Athletics said that he preferred a team that was in the pennant race all year long but then finished 3rd or 4th.  That way you aintained fan interest, but didn't have to reward the players because they didn't win.  I guess that's wanting to put out a good, but not too good product.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 [Q2]I would hope that any buisness person would want both to put out a good product and to make a profit.[/Q]
I don't know if this is a quote (er, paraphrase) or legend, but Connie Mack, long time manager owner of the Philadelphia Athletics said that he preferred a team that was in the pennant race all year long but then finished 3rd or 4th.  That way you aintained fan interest, but didn't have to reward the players because they didn't win.  I guess that's wanting to put out a good, but not too good product.[/q]

Certainly seems to be the Phillies M.O. currently. too.  :`(

[Josh '99]

[Q]Jacob 03 Wrote:
... parity is basically the only argument for the nfl's business model that the average nfl fan can actually understand.[/q]This isn't true.  The NFL's business model also makes it possible for small-market teams like Green Bay to benefit from the league's massively profitable TV contract and remain viable, which wouldn't necessarily be possible with local TV contracts and no revenue-sharing.

[Jacob 03]

well, you're giving the average nfl fan more credit than i would give them, josh (how many of those packers fans sit down and talk about this stuff like most of the elynah crowd do?).  but i obviously err on a side some would describe as condescending to them.  at no point did i mean to imply there were no other benefits of the nfl model, simply that its justification was simplified for its fan base.  

[Josh '99]

Perhaps I am giving average fans too much credit.  I guess I can't really say one way or the other.  *shrug*

[puff]

As a bills fan, most message boards i've come across about them are like this:
"We're gonna kick thier ass."
"bledsoe sucks"
And of course the normal, how good is this player/who are we signing/who got released and all that (not much of it is more than what you find at www.espn.com)

I'll go out on a limb and claim that the average avid cornell hockey fan, is more knowledgable of the workings of this game, than the average avid football fan (i'm bettign we're less drunk at the games too). When the playoff picture was developing this season, i got sick of people trying to say they knew how tiebreakers worked (wrongly), and then argue with me when i would point them to a knowledgable website (like nfl.com or espn).

So no Jacob, i don't think i would call you condescending.

BTW, before i got to Cornell the only sport i followed regularly was football. NFL playoff selection and seeding is so much easier than this hockey mysticism.

[DeltaOne81]

What are the chances that Gary Bettman is really an NBA ploy to eliminate the winter competition?  ::nut::

A waste of effort perhaps, but a significant possibility  ::help::

[Jordan 04]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 What are the chances that Gary Bettman is really an NBA ploy to eliminate the winter competition?  

A waste of effort perhaps, but a significant possibility   [/q]

Was the NHL really a competitor of the NBA?  Weren't they getting lower ratings than women's badminton?

[billhoward]

The NHL owners may be fatcats who could afford to subsidize their teams' losses if they chose to by drawing down their personal fortunes. But that's different from the question of whether the teams cost more, way more, to operate than their ticket, TV, concession stand, and game-worn jersey revenue and tax breaks bring in.

A pox on all their houses. Players, too.

[DeltaOne81]

Jordan,

That's why I said it would be a waste of effort. Oh, and it was a joke ;-)_

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 The NHL owners may be fatcats who could afford to subsidize their teams' losses if they chose to by drawing down their personal fortunes. But that's different from the question of whether the teams cost more, way more, to operate than their ticket, TV, concession stand, and game-worn jersey revenue and tax breaks bring in. [/q]
Agreed. But that's also a completely different question from if a salary cap is needed to fix the problem, and from whether a 54% cap is the first, last, and only offer the NHL should make.

[kaaren]

Bettman to announce cancellation of season tomorrow.


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