BOSTON – When Gary Bettman sug gests the NHL is all about providing temporary help to needy franchises – not that there are any really needy franchises in the commissioner’s the-earth-is-flat report from a week ago – perhaps he would want to take another look at the clause in the CBA that deprives the Islanders of the $12 million in revenue-sharing that by all rights should be theirs.
The Islanders are in the bottom five, maybe the bottom three, in NHL gate receipts. They are, for the foreseeable future, stuck in an antiquated money pit of an arena that has the added whipsaw effect of discouraging marquee free agents from even considering the franchise.
And, because NHL owners couldn’t bear the prospect of giving a portion of their revenue-share money to the Blackhawks back in 2005 when Bill Wirtz was doing his very best to drive his historic franchise into the ground, they concocted a clause in the CBA that prohibits teams in television markets with more than 2.5 million homes from eligibility to participate in Bettman’s socialism.
It is a clause that disqualifies the Islanders, even though they are about as big-market as Edmonton, and far more needy. It’s a clause that discriminates against the Islanders, even though they are as much in need of aid as the Coyotes, who are receiving advances from the NHL even while employing the top-paid coach in the league.
If the NHL is serious about maintaining a 30-team league, and if the league is serious about capping the number of teams in Canada at six, then this is a clause that must be stricken from the CBA. NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly sure believes it’s time.
“I believe the television-market clause discriminates unfairly against teams like the Islanders and Ducks,” Kelly told Slap Shots last weekend in Montreal. “The union would certainly support eliminating that clause. It doesn’t make sense if we’re committed to helping clubs in distress.”
If the clause doesn’t make sense, eliminating it from the CBA wouldn’t add so much as five cents to the contributions big-money clubs pay into the revenue share system. The Maple Leafs still would contribute their $12 million. The Islanders simply would replace another welfare recipient.
Bettman has endorsed the concept of teams purchasing their own tickets at deep discounts in order to reach revenue-share recipient benchmarks. He has flat-out rejected the notion that such an act constitutes circumvention of the CBA, though it sure seems to violate the spirit of the agreement.
The Islanders, though, can’t worm their way into eligibility. And they need help, every bit as much help as the Predators, who always seem to be in the middle of some scam, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The fact is, NHL owners have the ability to provide $12 million of help with the stroke of a pen. What are they waiting for, a move to Kansas City where there are 1.5 million television households . . . and where the second coming of the Scouts would thereby qualify for a bailout?
*
The NHLPA has established escrow withholding for the third quarter at 22.5 percent, Slap Shots has learned, a deduction that is expected to remain consistent through the final quarter.
The union projects the players will suffer a loss of 15-17 percent on their face-value contracts this season, largely because of the economy, but partially because of the number of athletes on Injured Reserve and Long Term Injury Exemption.
Remember, players subsidize owners paying injured players. It is one of the most onerous parts of the CBA. Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje at $3.5 million apiece on the Flyers’ Long-Term Inuries? No problem, Mike Richards, Sidney Crosby, Kyle Okposo and Henrik Lundqvist will help defray owner Ed Snider‘s cost.
There are currently 72 players on injured reserve, whose contracts count against the cap. There is $61 million worth of contracts on LTI, a number that doesn’t count against any cap, but is added to the total payroll and thus has significant impact on percentage of the gross.
Bettman is now projecting a one-percent growth in revenues, down from two percent in December. Slap Shots has been told by an NHLPA official the union will not have the option of building a five-percent escalator into next year’s cap if revenues are projected to decrease in 2009-10, as surely will be the case.
*
It was our pleasure to chat last weekend with Dickie Moore, Montreal’s Hall of Fame left wing from the ’50s and ’60s. There was this night at the old Garden in 1958-59 when the crowd chanted “Get Moore” all night after he had been judged guilty of spearing a Ranger and thus due the frontier justice that ruled back in the day. We were there, in the side balcony.
“I believe there had been an incident with Red Sullivan in which I was obligated to defend either myself or a teammate,” Moore told Slap Shots, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “Red could be a very feisty player, if I recall.”
But what, we asked Moore, did he remember about the chants . . . about “Get Moore! . . . Get Moore! . . . Get Moore!?”
“That they got less.”