Master Shake said:
Banks werent financing NHl teams anymore.
Big markets will make out even better under this deal. Thats why they are happy as well. Its only the fans and media of big markets who are complaining.
The big market clubs are the ones who forced the last deal in 94. They are not owned anything but a big punch in the mouth.
If anything the NHL could afford to lose the big market clubs. Big markets are only good for tv deals and well, they aint helping are they.
Big market clubs don't get anything under what's being floated with the new CBA. Big market owners reap the benefits. Pretty big distinction there. So Tom Hicks may be happy here in Dallas, but I don't imagine Doug Armstrong (GM) or Jim Lites (president) or Dave Tippett (coach) are thrilled on a personal level about having to shed contracts.
And big market clubs didn't force anything in 1994. The loopholes were put in by Goodenow and the PA lawyers, not by the non-existant Avs or on-the-rise Wings or finally peaking Rangers.
And don't give me that b.s. about affording to lose big-market clubs. From purely a market standpoint, the league could stand to lose small media markets like Calgary and Carolina and Columbus that don't sell merchandise or tickets well on anything other than a local level. Those three from a hockey standpoint are welcome additions to the league, but in terms of the revenue numbers that have been bandied about are the weak links. Will some of this be addressed with the new CBA? Ideally, yes. But will there always be weak links in the chain (witness: Arizona Cardinals)? Of course. And the larger markets/bigger draws (which, admittedly, change over time) will always be "more important" in terms of league revenues than the smaller teams.
And Hootchie Cootchie - the revenge mark wasn't necessarily directed at your comment. It's just this whole attitude of "we don't owe the big markets anything but a kick in the teeth cause it's all their fault. My precious little Oilers/Flames/Caps/Bruins/Pens/Isles/whoever were hurt by their high-spending ways, dangit, and I'm happy that they have to suffer. They deserve it" attitude that drives me bonkers.
The NHL wouldn't have gained the tenous foothold it has in the US nationally without the marketing power of the larger profile teams, and frankly, those are the teams that are going to get the national attention when this is settled even as new power emerged (I predict a SportsCenter special on "how the new CBA effects hockey teams - case study of the Avs, Wings, Rangers and some small market that will get very little attention in the story").