Hyprocrisy Of The CBA Discussion!

1) Thus far I have allowed my good buddy Fauxrumors do most if not all the posting concerning the CBA crap. He does an excellent job spelling out what we both are hearing from sources within both camps, and telling what we believe will happen.  What I will outline here is the clear and total hypocrisy of the narrative.  Many of you fans and most of the media buy right into this NHL/Bettman spewed narrative. That is, the players are totally the ones responsible for all financial issues within the league.  (Ignoring the blight of Phoenix and other financially bleeding franchises brought on by poor location, and mismanagement.

2) Now, last go around in 2004 the NHL fiercely had a PR campaign against the players. Making the dupes in the public, and many of the sycophant media types Stan Fischler, etc go after the players as greedy bastards who were ruinng the game, destroying their (small revenue) teams' chances of competing  and causing ticket prices to get out of control. So the league reduced the players' % from a reported 73% (we dispute the number!) to 54% (now 57 as per the CBA).  To get to that players agreed to a 24% roll back of their existing contracts!  Imagine that. A player negotiated his contract in good faith and over night he had to take .75 cents on the dollar. In the end apparently the poor revenue teams are STILL struggling, and ticket prices have never been higher

3) Which brings us to the present.  Again the league's poor teams are crying  poverty. The league according to Bettman on Friday, believes its players compensation driving this and again the league is asking for ANOTHER 24% reduction.  Now, for a moment, can anyone imagine if the players had come to these CBA discussions and said, "since the NHL is enjoying record profits we want to across the board INCREASE all existing contracts by 24%?  The public/media outcry would be insane, yet this is exactly what the league is asking of the players, not once, but a second time. All the while ignoring the REAL underlying issue causing financial distress; No meaningful revenue sharing.

4) The sad thing for the players is, that much like they did in 2004 when their proposal actually would have improved that situation and were rejected out of hand, they will again come to the table(tomorrow) with a similar proposal (cure). As Faux tells us all the time. "Learn from history"!  The players proposal will again be rejected. Players will be labeled 'gready'. They will be locked out September 15th, and by years end they will accept the reduction, play will resume for a few more years until the next inevitable across the board reduction. All the while the underlying problems will continue.