Hockey Fight Off The Ice

             In the history of sports not one season has been annulled until Wednesday, February 16, 2005, when National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the entire 2004-2005 NHL season. Due to inability to coordinate an agreement between the League and the National Hockey League Players Association there will be no hockey this year. When the Collective Bargaining Agreement, an arrangement negotiated between the NHL Players' Association and the owners that sets forth the rights and obligations of the players, expired September 15, 2004 many problems surfaced mainly concerning a salary cap (CBC Sports Online). With economic issues concerning both sides, stubbornness plagues the unyielding players and owners. Owners are demanding a salary cap to restrain the rapidly increasing income of overpriced athletes and players resent a restriction on their value to a team, but who is to blame for this year's absence of a professional sport? Obviously many reforms are necessary before we will see hockey again in the U.S., however most of the concessions must come from the unreasonable players.
             The issue, which sparked a lock out by owners, came with the realization that the player's salaries continue to increase dramatically compared to company income. Bettman announced an increase of 240 percent in player salaries compared to only a 160 percent increase in revenues. In the 1994-1995 season the average player's salary was $733,000. Even more shocking is last year's average salary expanding to approximating $2 million (CBC Sports Online). Gluttonous players hire agents to extort the most they can out of suffering business owners. How many millions does a person need to play a recreation they love? A substantial decrease in the amount a player "earns" is necessary for the survival of the sport and required to end the lock out.
             Some fans share the beliefs of the players, that it's the owners' fault fo...

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Hockey Fight Off The Ice. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 05:07, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/28430.html