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Before the scheduled opening day of the 2004-05 NHL season, I took a poll from both sides of the hockey blogoshpere about questions they would like to ask the NHL and NHLPA. All of these questions were sent in to the NHL and NHLPA, but no responses to all have been given to date. NHL Executive VP and Chief Legal Officer Bill Daly answered one of my questions when these were sent into NHLcbanews.com.


Questions for the NHLPA:

-- Tom Benjamin [Canucks Corner]

1. What do you think the owner's strategy is in this dispute? If they do manage to have the court declare an impasse, what options will the NHLPA have if the owners impose a settlement?

2. Is decertification an option? Wouldn't most players be better off without a union if the alternative is a $31 million cap?

3. Would the NHLPA prefer 1) 30 teams and salaries at $1.3 million, or 24 teams and salaries at $1.8 million? Where is the tradeoff? Should the really low revenue teams simply be allowed to fold? Why or why not?

--Mark Stepneski [Andrew's Dallas Stars Page]

4. Bob Goodenow was once quoted as saying: "We believe that every team has a salary cap. It's called a budget." What's wrong with the league having an overall budget that sets a percentage of revenues that go towards player costs?

5. Would the NHLPA be willing to entertain the suggestion made by Brian Burke that would change arbitration to baseball's "high/low" system and permit teams to take a player to arbitration as well?

6. Would the NHLPA be willing to negotiate changes to qualifying offers that would drop the percentages from 110 percent or 100 percent to 75 percent as suggested recently by TSN and Burke?

7. Arthur Levitt has said he has offered to talk to the NHLPA about his study on the league's finances, but has not heard from you. Why is that the case?

-- Matt Saler [onthewings]

8. There are thousands of people who own downtown bars and restaurants, as well as those who sell concessions at games, whose very livelihood depends on revenue generated by crowds during the NHL season. As players who receive millions of dollars every year, what do you say to those people, those who do not understand your stance?

[See this interview with Ron Gonzales, the mayor of San Jose]

9. What can you do to improve the NHLPA's public relations in order to better get your message out there? Will it be similar to what the NHL has done? Is this a priority?

-- Brian List [onthewings]

10. How dedicated are the European players to playing in North America, and would they stay if there wasn't an NHL but leagues like the WHA and AHL instead?

-- Scott Bird [hockeybird]

11. Explain to the dedicated webmasters who create and maintain websites, or write content for others, why should they continue their endeavors? The websites included here total many thousands of unique visitors a day. What would the NHLPA say to these visitors? Does the NHLPA support these websites?

-- PJ Swenson [sharkspage]

12. TSN worked with a panel of NHL owners, general managers, players, agents, and media to develop one solution for the CBA. Their points were very nuanced, and looked to be the product of considerable analysis and negotiation. Are any elements of the TSN or Brian Burke plan solid enough to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table?

13. The NHLPA labeled all 6 of the proposals as different shades of a salary cap. How did the two proposals from the NHLPA differ, and how were they the same?

-- Eric McErlain [offwing]

14. It's clear now that Gary Bettman strategy of expanding into non-traditional markets hasn't had the desired effect of boosting television revenues. What's the NHLPA's stance on what the league needs to do to get revenue growing again?

15. Is the NHLPA willing to consider contraction of weaker franchises -- sacrificing a number of Union jobs in exchange for long-term stability?



Questions for the NHL:

-- Tom Benjamin [Canucks Corner]

1. The owner's case depends on the premise that the old CBA was inflationary, mostly because of the arbitration process and the fact that a contract negotiated by one team affects other contract negotiations around the league.

This premise can be easily tested by comparing inflation rates among certain categories of player. Has the average arbitration award increased faster than the average player salary? If so, it is inflationary. If not, arbitration represents a drag on salaries. If the average award increased at about the same rate as salaries generally, the system is working properly.

2. How much of the salary inflation over the ten year period can be directly attributed to unrestricted free agents? In other words, what has happened to the average salary for players age 30 and under?

3. The owners claim the entry level salary system has not worked. What is the average salary of players who came into the league after 1995? Has the salary of these players grown as fast as salaries for players who came into the league prior to 1995?

4. Many fans are as skeptical of the announced losses as the NHLPA. Why doesn't the NHL release the individual team reports that went into making up the URO to allay that skepticism? Release will not effect competition since every team's competitors already see the data. Release does not effect privacy since the reports reflect designated hockey revenues and the individual teams may not use the same definitions for their internal books. Why can't we have more transparency?

--Mark Stepneski [Andrew's Dallas Stars Page]

5. If the players were willing to make concessions on some of the inflationary aspects of the previous system -- arbitration, qualifying offers and the entry level system -- would the league be willing to come off the absolute "cost certainty" approach and possibly look at a luxury tax system? Don't both sides have to compromise here?

6. The league has said five of the six concepts it proposed to the union did not involve a salary cap. The details released to date have been sketchy. Would the NHL be willing to release more details on those five concepts so fans and the media could see exactly what they entailed?

7. The league and many teams have blamed high ticket prices on player salaries. Many economists say that this is not the case; that ticket prices are set by demand. If cost certainty is achieved in the new CBA, can the league guarantee fans some kind of "cost certainty" when it comes to ticket prices?

8. Why not take the recent proposals by Brian Burke and TSN and at least use them as a way to jump start the negotiations?

-- Matt Saler [onthewings]

9. What could you have done differently over the past decade to prevent this lockout, besides beginning negotiations earlier? (ie. fining frivilously-spending teams, creating a "GM School" for ex-players designated General Managers by their old teams, etc.)

10. How can you guarantee affordable ticket prices under a new CBA and still respect supply and demand?

11. What happens to the player's contracts if/when you get the salary cap you want? Remember that those same contracts were guaranteed under the old CBA.

12. Will there be some sort of "grandfathering" mechanism in place for implementing the salary cap? Keep in mind that many teams will have to do a complete overhaul of their rosters in order to slide underneath the cap level and that this will take a considerable amount of time.

-- Scott Bird [hockeybird]

13. Explain to the dedicated webmasters who create and maintain websites, or write content for others, why should they continue their endeavors? The websites included here total many thousands of unique visitors a day. What would the NHLPA say to these visitors? Does the NHL support these websites?

-- PJ Swenson [sharkspage]

14. TSN worked with a panel of players, agents, media, and league officials to craft a solution to the CBA. Their points were very nuanced, and looked to be the product of considerable analysis and negotiation. Are any elements of their plan solid enough to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table?

-- Eric McErlain [offwing]

15. No matter whether or not the league adopts a salary cap or a luxury tax, it seems the longer-term problem for the game is it's decided failure as a television property in the U.S. But when the league proposed a set of changes designed to increase scoring by adjusting the size of goalie equipment, the NHLPA blocked their adoption and insisted that the changes be subject to collective bargaining. Just what changes in the rules of the game are you willing to entertain that the league could implement right now?


PJ Swenson
http://www.sharkspage.com

Eric McErlain
http://www.offwingopinion.com

Mark Stepneski
http://www.andrewsstarspage.com

Tom Benjamin
http://www.canuckscorner.com/weblog/nhllog/

Scott "Bird"
http://www.hockeybird.com

Matt Saler
Brian List
http://onthewings.blogspot.com

***

On the Wings and Offwing Opinion are also syndicated on
http://www.letsgowings.com.