“[H]ow many [people] can actually stand up and shout to the world that they let a BILLION DOLLARS in cash disappear into thin air?
I couldnt name one off the top of my head that has lost cash money of 1 billion dollars or more, until today.
Congratulations Bob Goodenow, President of the NHL Players Association. You turned down 30 teams paying what would probably average out to 35mm dollars in salary per team for this year. Thats more than $ 1,000,000,000.00 in cash that would have been paid to NHL players this year.”
[Blog Maverick – How to Lose 1 Billion Dollars]
I guess it’s not surprising that the owner of the Dallas Mavericks sides with the owners. But he brings up an interesting point – the players are giving up money that they will never get back. And it’s more than a billion – the final league proposal was for each team to pay a maximum of $44.7 Million. Times 30 teams equals ONE AND A THIRD BILLION DOLLARS.
Even the league’s Feb 2nd proposal, which the players dismissed out of hand, guaranteed the players would receive a minimum of 53% of league reveues. Assuming $2.1 billion in revenue – which obviously the league won’t get back to for a long time – means the players would have received over $1.1 billion dollars.
The players have short careers (I think the average is four years) and are losing much more by not playing than the owners are. Even if you don’t believe the owners are losing less by not playing, I can’t imagine anyone believes the owners were making money hand over fist – i.e. the way the players are. How much common sense does it take for the players to realize the gravy train is over and forcing the owners to lock them out isn’t going to change that fact?