| Friday, November 3
By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell
Special to ESPN.com |
|
There was an abundance of optimism early in the week when the Canadian
government announced a financial aid offer to
Canadian-based NHL teams.
But, it could turn out that the only club helped is the
Ottawa Senators because it appears the others might not qualify for the
criterion mapped out by the Federal plan.
In order to receive funds, the municipal governments and the
provincial governments have to agree to kick in as well. Across Canada,
it appears several don't want any part of subsidizing hockey players and
their owners.
It is a tremendous hot-button issue across the nation, dominating radio stations and newspaper columns. It has divided fans,
families and those in power. Some who favor the aid have been accused of
wanting to make rich players and owners richer while hospitals and farmers go
out of business.
It has had a domino effect on the other Canadian sports, too, with
professional teams in other leagues believing that if hockey is
going to be bailed out, they want subsidies, too.
|  | | Ken Dryden and his Toronto Maple Leafs aren't in terrible financial shape. |
It's completely unknown how this situation will end up. Although Maple Leafs
president Ken Dryden said he's planning to explore aid to his franchise,
Toronto seems the least eligible and is the most financially stable of the
Canadian teams. Last year, the Leafs actually paid into the fund that helped
cash-strapped teams. The city of Toronto has already said it doesn't intend
to kick in money for the Leafs.
Out in Western Canada, Vancouver president and GM Brian Burke
said, though the federal proposal is admirable, they're a long way from seeing
help.
"It's not clear how it's going to play out," said Burke. "The initial
reaction in Alberta is that the provincial governments and the municipal
governments are not prepared to step up. We don't know in British Columbia
here if we're going to get assistance at either level. It's far from clear if
there's anything at all in the federal government's proposal that will work
out to concrete assistance."
Burke said Vancouver is willing to discuss the matter but
doesn't feel bailing out the Canucks is a high priority. Burke said they
haven't been told a flat-out no by either the municipal or provincial
governments but neither have they been told yes. He believes that something
has to be done if the small-market Canadian teams are going to survive.
"There's no question that if something isn't done that Canadian teams
will continue to leave," said Burke. "We have never threatened to leave, and
we're not now. Our owner has never said, 'If we don't get this, we're
moving next year.' We haven't done what Ottawa did. ... But there's no question that in the long term, without
government assistance, this team cannot survive here."
Supposedly, the plan would run through the life of the current NHL
collective bargaining agreement, which expires in 2004. Ironically, though,
Burke said it's the current CBA which might be part of the reason the
municipal and provincial governments are reluctant to pony up any cash.
"The thinking to this point in time has been a lot of people in the
government of Canada have said they're not prepared to help the NHL until
they come up with a different collective bargaining agreement, a hard
(salary) cap," said Burke. "My reaction is, first off, the willingness of
the U.S. governmental authorities to help their teams in the form of new
buildings and no local taxes. That has never been preconditioned on a new CBA
or salary costs somehow being contained. And yet, the Canadian government has
said to a great extent their willingness to help is conditional on us solving
our problems in collective bargaining. There's an inequity there."
Even if the CBA were to include a hard cap, Burke said he doesn't think
that's a guarantee of anything necessarily.
"A hard cap has great advantages," he said. "But I'm not sure that's
the answer. The only league with a hard cap is the NFL, and the price tag for
that cap was free agency at a much lower age than we have in our league. I'm
not sure the Canadian teams want to go down that road. If I've got a star
26-year-old who's eligible for free agency, even though (a team from the U.S.)
has the same dollars to spend that I have, if for example, Boston offers this
guy $4 million, and I offer him $4 million, where's he going to go? He's going
to go to the U.S. where he pays U.S. taxes. So I'm not sure that the hard cap is
the panacea that everyone thinks it is up here."
Burke believes last summer's change in the tide, with more teams
standing firm in contract negotiations, is going to help.
"I'm convinced that if teams continue to make prudent business
decisions on their salaries that we don't need a war in 2004," he said,
referring to what are expected to be contentious negotiations on a new CBA. "I think last summer was a turning point and an important one for the
league. Teams said, finally, they were going to run it like a business and
they made hard decisions and made decisions not to pay all the dollars that
were asked and they had a record numbers of holdouts as well as a walkaway in
Boston (when the Bruins walked away from a $2.8 million arbitration award to
Dmitri Khristich).
"The percentage increase in players' salaries has not been
matched in any way by a corresponding increase in team revenues and that's a
prescription for disaster in any business. If your revenues are increasing at
a much slower rate than your costs are, you're in trouble. I can tell you as
president and general manager of this team, that we are in serious financial
difficulty."
In terms of a timetable on how soon something needs to be worked out, he
said he couldn't put a label on it but the sooner the better. Until then, the
franchise's problems continue, like those of his brethren in Calgary, Edmonton and
Ottawa.
"From our perspective, the government's announcement, and I don't want
anyone to confuse what I'm saying, but basically at this point, no one has
handed me a dollar," said Burke. "What I've been told is that the federal
government will assist us if the municipality of Vancouver and the province
of British Columbia do so. At this point, our situation is unchanged from a
week ago. That being said, we don't want to appear ungrateful. It's still a
major step in terms that someone has acknowledged there is a problem, and we're willing to help you solve it."
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes a weekly national NHL column that appears on Fridays. |  |
