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Molehills amid mountains Flames are just tip of NHL's problematic iceberg
Posted: Saturday April 15, 2000 04:08 PM
By Jim Taylor, Calgary Sun The immediate priority, of course, is to save the Calgary Flames. But that's like trying to save a gangrenous arm by trimming the fingernails: the hand looks great, but you're nowhere near the rot. This is a league problem, a greed problem, a study in uncaring arrogance by the National Hockey League and its players. It would not be here if there was league-wide profit sharing. It would not be here if there was a league-wide salary cap. It would not be here if the league didn't suffer from delusions of grandeur and picture itself spread all over the U.S. with a pie-in-the-sky television deal that is never -- repeat, never -- going to happen. It would not be here if rampant, greed-fueled expansion hadn't long-since surpassed the capacity of the talent pool to fill its rosters, thereby inflating the bargaining power not just of the marquee players but of every guy out there capable of standing erect on his skates. It would not be here if the NHL conducted itself as a family business with 28 far-flung branch offices instead of as 28 fiefdoms playing screw-the-little-guys. The Flames' efforts to revive flagging fan interest are laudable, but they're one finger in a Swiss cheese dyke. This is not about saving a franchise. This is about buying time. It's about backing and filling in the faint hope that four years down the road, when the last drop of blood has been spilled in the battle over a new collective bargaining agreement, maybe the generals will have enough bandages left over to save the grunts in the western trenches. And pigs might fly. A battle in one of the outposts, no matter how successful, isn't going to be enough. To save Canada's NHL franchises -- and in the long run, the league itself -- it's going to take an empty-seat revolution or a whole new mindset by players and owners alike. They could start by asking a simple question: Where is it written that a young man just entering the work force in his chosen profession has to be made instantly rich? He hasn't got another league to go to. There is no World Hockey Association and, on the experience of the first one, there's not likely to be. Thanks to the draft, he can't play one team against another. So what's wrong with saying "Minimum wage is now $200,000, maximum is $500,000. Now, who wants to play?" Hands up, any kid just entering any profession who'd turn down an entry-level offer of $200,000. Yesterday, it was suggested here that if the Flames really are projected to lose $72 million over the next four years, the owners should sell the franchise and wave good-bye as it leaves town. They might be interested in the response. In all the e-mail, there was not one letter from someone who said the team had to be saved, no matter what. There was genuine regret at the prospect of losing the Flames, but the overwhelming feedback was that the game has lost touch with the customers and with reality, that it's priced itself out of their range, that the owners, the players and the league should get real, and if they don't, na-na-na-na, kiss 'em good-bye. The Flames deserve rescue. But when you're going down for the third time, your partners have to toss you something better than an anvil.
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