Fri Feb 18/05
Inflate to ten billion PSI

I'll have more on this in the near future, but I hereby present, thanks to Excel's graphing function and my half-assed command thereof, "The Problem with the NHL in a Nutshell."

Average NHL salary vs. inflation

1986-2003

Highest Maple Leafs ticket price vs. inflation

1986-2003

Unlike in the NFL or the NBA, a huge majority of NHL revenue comes directly from the fans: gate receipts, merchandise, beer, etc. The NHLPA says it simply wants its fair share of the pie, as if the massive increase in revenues over the past 17 years was meted out by cosmic forces beyond mortal control. In actual fact, said massive increase in revenues is due to massive increases in ticket prices (at MLG/ACC: +463 percent in the nosebleeds, +728% in the bluebloods), merchandise prices, and beer prices.

It's the fans' pie, in other words, and the players have ice cream all over their faces. This is the root of the PA's rather serious image problem.

The economic situation also means that revenue sharing makes no sense for the NHL. With no league-wide source of revenue independent of individual teams and their fans (that is, a television contract) to share, such a system would amount simply to redistributing money from the rich teams' fans to the poor teams' players. You'll need one hell of a PR firm to spin that to positive.

[Related: Matt Fenwick has gone after "Soviet" revenue sharing on more ideological grounds — and he's a Flames fan. His point about "good management" vs. "good market" is one that needed to be made, too.]