While everyone would like to think that all parties involved in the ongoing talks between the NHL and NHLPA want the same thing – a 2020-21 season, preferably as soon as possible – it seems that is not the case. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports that Commissioner Gary Bettman is currently dealing with several “disgruntled” owners who are upset at the league side of the recent CBA extension. Several of these owners allegedly have gone so far as to say that they would prefer not to play this season if the lack of fans results in financial loss.
Without fans in the building, NHL teams are certainly facing down potential losses. Some owners with financial concerns in the short-term are worried about their cashflow in 2020-21 and not content with what the players already gave up in CBA negotiations. The players opted to defer 10% of their 2020-21 salary and agreed to have escrow capped at 20% for the season. However, the league has recently asked players to give up even more in deferred salary as well as escrow, a proposal that was not well-received. Should the players ultimately not agree to any further concessions, it appears that a small group of owners would rather not play this season than pay their players the amount agreed upon in the CBA.
However, Kaplan adds that Bettman will not allow this to happen. The Commissioner has told these individuals that skipping the season is “simply not an option”, citing the long-term harm of a lost year. Bettman will continue to go to bat for the owners, but will not allow a lack of progress in talks to derail the season. Fortunately, it does seem as though the players are willing to negotiate so long as the owners are open to some concessions of their own. If that is not enough for the “disgruntled” owners, it seems Bettman and the players are unified in moving forward regardless.
Mlb owners pulled this crap months ago
Open up the books! Let’s see what kind of concessions hockey players need to make for owners to breakeven.
“Bettman will continue to go to bat for the owners, but will not allow a lack of progress in talks to derail the season”
I feel like, based on the article, he would not allow any progress in talks to derail the season. A lack of the beforesaid progress would be very much allowed, no?
As has been discussed by some hockey pundits, the owners are supposedly crying “foul” in that they didn’t really know the severity of the COVID impact. The problem is, the CBA extension was negotiated *during* The Pause. They DID know what the worst-case scenarios were, yet still plowed through with the deal. Now, revisionist memory has kicked in with some of them. Virtually everyone else on the planet has been forced to take a haircut in one form or another, so “disgruntled” owners, it’s your turn. I am well aware that a business exists to make $ and create jobs; rinse and repeat. Some companies will make sacrifices from the top down to try to minimize the impact to the worker-bees. Those are the admirable companies. Some immediately start whacking those jobs at the first sign of an economic “sniffle.” In the real world, a company is free to take either approach, knowing that the latter one of those two mentioned will result in damage to the brand. We would prefer no company (or team in the NHL) would opt for Plan B.
I am tired of professional sports team owners complaining that they are “losing money”. Are you ACTUALLY losing money which would mean expenses > revenues? Or are you “losing money” meaning your net income in 2020 is smaller than it was in 2019? Because yeah if you are losing money meaning expenses > revenues then sure, shut sports down. Unfortunately I would have to support that 100%. But if you are “losing money” by still achieving a profit but it is smaller than last year, shut your dang mouth. If you don’t like making less money than last year, while still being profitable, then sell your business.
@JtS12 – Not a fan of “paper” losses? Me either! Welcome to the club! A paper loss is not a real loss, it’s just B.S. propaganda. (Thumbs up for ya!)
Also, their investment (the team value) continues to grow and mature, regardless of “losses.” So even if their income is less than expenses the team is worth more money. For example Amazon.com continues to be worth more money despite not actually having profits. So again, calling BS!
Amen,Brother!
Even then I look at it like the owners can afford to take a loss every once in awhile. If I’m a middle class fan and take my family to a couple games a year, buy merchandise, and spend money on food and alcohol, it’s not going to take long to add up to a few thousand dollars. You’re telling me that these billionaires can’t take a hit of a few million over a year or two that they’ll easily get back when we’re back to normal? I get they can’t sustain this over the long term like the MLB or NFL can because of their TV deal, but they really can’t give the fans one year which won’t even come close to 82 games? And who knows, they might be losing a ton more money than I suspect, but these billionaires aren’t getting any sympathy from me until they open their books and prove it.
Not to defend the owners, but the team value growing means little day to day and only matters when they sell. Imagine inheriting a very nice house, you can’t afford the utilities and are on the verge of losing it. Yeah, eventually you’ll be forced to sell it and will make more money off it than you put into it, but that does nothing to keep it open and day to day operational expenses from sinking you.
@The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant – Thumbs up!
I’d put money on it that The Jacobs are one if not the leader behind it
Do you all think that it may also be because the owners are scared for their players lives… With Vegas and Columbus players getting it now I really think the state of this virus in the USA and now its getting crazy throughout Canada should be looked at as the real reason…I do agree with u all that these billionaires are losing money is nuts… If they are not good with putting money away for a rainy day.. This is it that rainy day….
If that were the case, the owners should come out and say it. The one issue the owners have, per the article, is no fans which equates to no money. No where do they mention player safety.
Columbus has been handling it relatively well because our Governor DeWine has been mostly doing the right thing every step of the way. It’s not getting out of control.
the MLB and NFL decided to have seasons. i dont see NHL owners being more concerned for player health.
Bettman telling Eugene to sit down and shut up
Not like he was getting a ton of fans recently anyway.
@MoneyBallJustWorks – His fans are doing their impression of Claude Rains in character (1933) … :)
Tell me Jeremy Jacobs is one of those owners and I’ll pretend to be shocked.
I don’t doubt this.
Many of the owners are silver spoon kids who inherited teams without having any business savvy. Many (like, yes, Jeremy Jacobs and Vinnie Viola) are cheap and short sighted.
But, yes, most pro sports teams and leagues have used the phrase “losing money” to describe a situation where they are making less money to curry pity.
And, yes, year to year losses are less important than franchise value, which continue to rise, even in the pandemic (see Steve Cohen).
Teams that have cash flow issues can take out loans like pretty much every other business in America. They’ll be OK.
The damage done by not playing, in terms of diminishing your own brand and allowing your customers to develop new habits and find ways to replace your product, would be epic. But, again, lots of clueless owners.
We’ll see.
Does anyone know anything about watching other leagues in Europe or Russia? Haven’t really looked into it, but I keep hearing about players being loaned to overseas leagues which makes me wonder how to watch those games if the NHL is so far behind getting started not playing at all in 2020/2021!
@cheapgm4hire , did some research and even watched a part of a game from Russia , here is link to site , hopefully you are able to figure it out and how to translate games. Good Luck in your endeavor
link to livesport365.ws
Thanks river! Definitely will check it out!