The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

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ESQ
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ESQ »

Potatoe1 wrote:In my mind being a pro hockey player is akin to winning the lottery, easily one of the most enjoyable careers on the planet and one where you can easily set yourself up with enough money to be be very wealthy until the day you die.
I think if I had my druthers I'd be a billionaire who inherited Daddy's fortune...*cough Rocky Wirtz

I don't think hockey is a "game" for the elite-level athlete. Its a job - and a goddam tough one at that. Few people have the skills to qualify for the job, and fewer still have what it takes to be successful in pro hockey at the highest level.

There are a lot of far easier ways to make that much money over the course of a career, without sustaining injuries that will affect your quality of life forever, working the kind of hours, and having the necessary total life commitment of your entire family to your career. Also there's the fact that only a miniscule of hockey players since the NHL came into existence have made "enough money to be very wealthy until the day you die."

I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Cornuck »

ESQ wrote:would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it?
Yes.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Island Nucklehead »

ESQ wrote: I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...
As opposed to a guy in my profession (the combat arms military) who sustains similar injuries (chronic bad back/knees/hips) for 65K/year? Guys who travel on multiple tours to shitty countries and go MONTHS without seeing their families at all? Yeah, it is like hitting the lottery. Seeing these guys get rich, buy lambo's, party their asses off all summer, boats, ho's, liquor, blow, all before they hit 30.... they are the best hockey players on the planet, but let's not kid ourselves: there are far harder jobs (brain surgeon, firefighter) that pay far less.

I don't feel sympathy for any of them (owners or players). Just get on with it so I can enjoy my down-time with a game of puck and 19 beers.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ukcanuck »

wienerdog wrote:
ukcanuck wrote:balance all that with a guy who spends a life time of 5 am practices with families who sacrifice money, holidays and hours on the road driving to games all in the effort to make it in the big time, only to be told where to play, how to play, how much you are paid and if you dont like it, fuck you go home? There is no one on this site who would accept such working conditions, and its all OK because they get million dollar paycheques? bullshit
FFS™, I hope you're drunk :drink:

Give your Limey head a shake - EVERYONE on this site would accept those working conditions, amigo.
fuck you you would. your not thinking it through, whatever it is you do for a living if your boss told you that he was rolling back your pay, changing your hours of work and transferring you to bumfuck idaho because it suited him better and your only choice was to lump it or completely change careers you would fucking flip and reach for the phone to call your lawyer.
or maybe not, i guess even communist russia had its supporters...
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ukcanuck »

Potatoe1 wrote:
ukcanuck wrote:balance all that with a guy who spends a life time of 5 am practices with families who sacrifice money, holidays and hours on the road driving to games all in the effort to make it in the big time, only to be told where to play, how to play, how much you are paid and if you dont like it, fuck you go home? There is no one on this site who would accept such working conditions, and its all OK because they get million dollar paycheques? bullshit
:lol:

Are you kidding? I did all that shit for fun.

Being a professional hockey player is easily one of the best occupations on the entire planet. I suspect most Canadians would rather be a good NHL player then just about anything else.

It is hilarious that anyone would try to garner sympathy for them.
Its not so much that I am trying to garner sympathy for the players as i am stunned at the double standard that the players are greedy and the owners are just poor business men trying to make a buck....
what's really hilarious is that the union view in this case is the one arguing for free enterprise while ownership wants a monopoly.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ukcanuck »

ESQ wrote:
Potatoe1 wrote:In my mind being a pro hockey player is akin to winning the lottery, easily one of the most enjoyable careers on the planet and one where you can easily set yourself up with enough money to be be very wealthy until the day you die.
I think if I had my druthers I'd be a billionaire who inherited Daddy's fortune...*cough Rocky Wirtz

I don't think hockey is a "game" for the elite-level athlete. Its a job - and a goddam tough one at that. Few people have the skills to qualify for the job, and fewer still have what it takes to be successful in pro hockey at the highest level.

There are a lot of far easier ways to make that much money over the course of a career, without sustaining injuries that will affect your quality of life forever, working the kind of hours, and having the necessary total life commitment of your entire family to your career. Also there's the fact that only a miniscule of hockey players since the NHL came into existence have made "enough money to be very wealthy until the day you die."

I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...
totally agree
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Potatoe1 »

ESQ wrote:
I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...
10 hours a day?

Are you kidding?
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by SKYO »

Potatoe1 wrote:
ESQ wrote:
I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...
10 hours a day?

Are you kidding?
NY-Suk-Nutz will will break it down for ya, down to the millisecond.

btw where the fcuk is NYSN?
Can the Canucks just win a Cup within the next 5 years.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Potatoe1 »

ukcanuck wrote: fuck you you would.
So just to clarify....

Despite making on average 2.5 mill per year.

Despite playing the game you love.

Despite being famous and having chicks all over you (if that's your thing).

Despite have an insane amount of free time (lol at 10 hours a day, try 5).

So despite all that we should feel bad for players because the league restricts where they can play and perhaps how much they can earn.

Again..

Are you serious with this line of reasoning because to me it just sounds utterly ridiculous?
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Topper »

ClamRussel wrote:
Topper wrote:
ClamRussel wrote: This fight is all about power, control ...
and the guys that write the cheques have it and those who cash the cheques don't.
Shea Weber begs to differ.

The battle over power isn't just between players and owners, lets not kid ourselves. Its primarily between the have & have-not owners. Does anyone really think New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver etc want revenue sharing and a salary cap?
You are confusing two separate issues. one is a players individual contract negotiations with a team and the other is the leagues negotiations with the PA. While the CBA sets the framework for the former, they are very different negotiations.

One could easily argue that the likes of Weber have already conceded defeat to the owners with their rush to lock into long term front loaded contracts.
Over the Internet, you can pretend to be anyone or anything.

I'm amazed that so many people choose to be complete twats.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ClamRussel »

Well you can separate the two if you like, sure...but they are very intertwined as well. The owners want all these rules to restrict the type of contracts that can be signed....yet at the same time its a mad dash for owners to lock up star players long term w/ front loaded contracts before the CBA is done. Its hypocritical at best....they're knocking at the door of AA but before they enter they're guzzling down the rest of the mickey.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Canuck-One »

Perhaps some of you are forgetting that the current CBA was dictated by the owners themselves. Bettman just about broke the Union during the last set of talks. Remember Linden and Chelios at odds over the agreement and then Lindens man getting the boot by Chelios' group all be cause of the uproar over how much the owners bent the Union over and had their way. Then the owner's representatives (the GM's) found ways to circumvent what the owners had thought they won in bargaining. So now the owners are after the players again! Threatening another lockout because they screwed up what they had ripped the players for. This is ridiculous and almost tragic in the loss of billions of dollars if these dumb ass owners force another lockout because they can't get they're heads together. I say make it 50/50 and dump the cap. That way the owners keep more money and the players can actually be free to negotiate freely in a free enterprise society. A contract should be a contract and then free agency.
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by ukcanuck »

Potatoe1 wrote:
ukcanuck wrote: fuck you you would.



What does money, fame or leisure time have to do with basic freedom to sell your services to the highest bidder?
You sound like a slave owner before the civil war, "what does the nigger have to complain about" his lot in life is much improved....
Support who you want pot but I think supporting the owners and condemning the players is ass backward.
oh and 5 hours a day??? There is no way you can maintain any skill with 5 hours a day.
they may be on the ice for that but don't kid yourself, including training and all that goes into being a pro athelete it's a full time job and all jobs suck whether you enjoy it or not
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Fred »

ukcanuck wrote:
What does money, fame or leisure time have to do with basic freedom to sell your services to the highest bidder?
You sound like a slave owner before the civil war, "what does the nigger have to complain about" his lot in life is much improved....
Support who you want pot but I think supporting the owners and condemning the players is ass backward.
oh and 5 hours a day??? There is no way you can maintain any skill with 5 hours a day.
they may be on the ice for that but don't kid yourself, including training and all that goes into being a pro athelete it's a full time job and all jobs suck whether you enjoy it or not
Under the term of their contract you can only practise players on the ice 1.5 hours a day ...... as negoliated by the PA.

Frankly I believe the owners have taken most of the risk, In the case of Vcr they built and paid for the Rogers Areana as well as paid a multi million $ franchise fee. They also provide and pay the Chicago players, charter flights and all the other goodies they provide. To say nothing of taking over and bank rolling failing franchises (guarateeing jobs to players ) when things don't work out It's not a cheap business. And the part i don't care for paying NHL salaries to players who have for one reason or anotherare not cutting it any longer in the NHL and paying NHL salaries for AHL players with no right to fire them. I'm sure there are equal or better ways to make money
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Re: The Final Nail in the Hockey Experience Coffin

Post by Boston Canucker »

ukcanuck wrote:
Potatoe1 wrote:
ukcanuck wrote: fuck you you would.
What does money, fame or leisure time have to do with basic freedom to sell your services to the highest bidder? You sound like a slave owner before the civil war, "what does the nigger have to complain about" his lot in life is much improved....Support who you want pot but I think supporting the owners and condemning the players is ass backward. oh and 5 hours a day??? There is no way you can maintain any skill with 5 hours a day. they may be on the ice for that but don't kid yourself, including training and all that goes into being a pro athelete it's a full time job and all jobs suck whether you enjoy it or not
I agree, while I don't feel bad for the players, I side with labor, not management, and for the players, while it is a game to us, it is their profession, and I have no problem with them defending and trying to get the best value out of what are for most guys short careers. And in terms of defending players v. owners, I don't really care whether a player makes 1 or 2 million in the abstract - clearly, there are bigger problems in the world - but I can say for sure that every player has worked his ass off to get a job in the nhl, a highly competitive meritocracy (one of the things I like about sports) but owners, please, I think of fat, lazy, I want to play in my blues band Jim Dolan who owns the Rangers, Knicks etc. Defending put more $$ in that silver spoon, never worked an honest day in his life, laughing stock in NYC mofo is some seriously weirded out "house slave" logic to be sure.

While I side with the players as a matter of principle of siding with labor over management, the only specific thing I hope comes out of the new CBA is that Bettman is not able to make player movement as inflexible as he has said he wants to do. He has said he wants a less flexible league, and he'll get some of what he wants, but hopefully it won't be so bad that it ruins the fans' experience (trades/ufas etc for their teams). We'll see what happens, after the loss of the entire 04-05 season I'm truly unmoved by the idea of lockout. I don't think we'll miss a whole year, so they can come back in December or Jan 1, fine, other than missing my fantasy league, I can wait it out. Losing 04-05 was a good lesson in living without hockey. Bettman is right that the fans will be back, I will, but in the interim, I say call me when it's over...I'll probably be out with friends, leave a message.
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