Quote:
Originally Posted by 72off
so Triumph, your contention is that this thing is being driven by teams like the TML who are like "well we made $100m in profit last year, but i'd really like to make $110m, and am willing to axe an entire season again to make it happen"? and why, bc of which owners are shown walking out of these meetings?
i find it REALLY hard to believe that the TML, Habs, NYR, Philly, Van, Chi, etc wouldn't be happy enough to take a 5-7% win and call it a day. it seems much more likely to me that the ones causing the problem are the teams that are thinking "well even with a 5-7% win my team still might not make money unless we're REALLY good*, so why not go for even more bc we can probably get more".
* - save for significant revenue sharing
I guess you're stunned that companies making money are interested in making more money. Look, they're not going to jettison the whole season, that is rhetoric. They looked at the NBA lockout and said - why not us? The NBA lockout - did that produce any serious fan rancor? No - everyone acknowledges that the start of the NBA season is mostly nonsense anyway, people came back as far as I know. Ditto the NHL, especially in the US where it's overshadowed by real football and the start of the World Series.
They're doing it for the next CBA, and the next one, and the next one - the more they take this time, the less they'll have to take next time, and the less they'll have to take next time, etc. But they're the teams paying out the most in salary and they would like to pay out less. When have you heard Bettman talking about small market teams this time around? Have you heard him trot out something like the Levitt Report? Of course not.
So yeah, TML will lose $20M or whatever in revenue this time, but they will make it up and then some over the course of this CBA, plus the next one.
EDIT: Devin, yes, in baseball, although those markets would become more robust if the team were good, with some exceptions. But Tampa Bay struggles to halfway fill its building even during pennant races - that doesn't sound familiar to you?