Blog Entry 3

     "Millionaires fighting Billionaires" tends to be a hard battle to really feel too sympathetic for either side when it comes to a labour war focused on money. In the case of the NHL there can be a lot said against either side. While I support the players, it is not difficult to argue for either side in terms of who is wrong in this battle. There is pretty well just apathy for both sides as the fans, and local businesses related to the NHL suffer.

     The easiest argument to be made against supporting the players is that they are just outright overpaid. Making an average of over 2 million a year it is hard to find many industries that provide that kind of salary as an average. It is especially difficult to fathom when you consider that it is for playing a sport that most people actually have to pay to do. With a group making so much money, it is plausible to see the reasoning that they deserve to take a pay cut.

     Another argument that can be made for the owners is that they bear the responsibility of managing and running all of the rinks in which they play. This comes with the obvious associated upkeep costs as well as liability for everything which occurs. Not to mention the difficulty of actually building stadiums in the first place. The players don't incur any of these costs or liability, they just play hockey.

     It could also be argued that there are legitimately teams in the NHL which lose money annually. These teams should be able to be made profitable by reducing player salaries. I think this is a weaker argument though, due to the nature of the salary floor and the massive profit of the top end teams.