It's gonna be interesting how the hockey lockout works out. I'm sure most
remember when Baseball owners tried the same tatic in 1994 but finally
caved in
after pressure from the goverment, fans and the media.

If the NHL owners hang tough and force the union to accept a salary cap (or
break the union) it will have a huge influence on how other major sports
leagues negoticate with unions in the future.

I just saw a Central Hockey League game last week between the Bossier
City-Shreveport Mudbugs -VS - The Fort Worth Brahmas... the Brahmas team
captain is Brad Lukowich who was a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning last
year.


Billy
  

At 07:57 PM 10/29/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Wow. Deja vu, Batman.
>
>This is the exact scenerio that has shutdown the NHL...and hockey for this 
>year. The teams want to cap the player salaries (because it currently 
>accounts for 72% of all team revenues). The players balked because they're 
>used to 5,6,7,8 million dollar salaries. The teams caved over this issue in 
>1994 just so that the league could carry on...it destroyed several small 
>market franchises like the Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordique because 
>they couldn't afford to out-spend the other teams.
>
>However, during THIS episode all the teams have stuck together and shutdown 
>the league indefinitely. The players are in for a real shock when they 
>finally realize that there is no deadline on re-establishing talks or 
>negotiations. The teams will be declaring a dead season on December 
>2nd...and may even dismantle the league itself, and break the union, should 
>it carry on into the Spring.
>
>The lower pay tiered players have already headed to Europe to play for 1/8 
>of the salaries their fighting for just to keep fit and do SOMETHING while 
>the NHL and the Players Association stare at their navels.
>
>Jaimie Vernon,
>Truly not a sports person, but have been following this bizarre hockey 
>"lockout" for some reason.
>  
Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio