Well, just so long as along the way
most of the current owners go tits up too. They're basically trying to set up a business where they Can't Lose Money, No Matter How Stoopid They Are.
Needless to say, most of them have been Pretty Stoopid of late. Among other things, and unlike most other fields within an industry (ie- professional hockey in entertainment), the owners get to collude on salaries and how much they charge the customers, and they still can't figure it out. The real problem they have is they need to take the majority of small and mid cap teams and use that majority on the BoG of the NHL to bring the big cap teams' owners to heel on certain major issues. In short, the real reason salaries are so high (and in fact, seem so high; most grinders make less than one million a year) is because the big cap teams can price the smaller teams out of the market for the quality talent... and do so on a regular basis, bringing up to total cost of payroll for everybody. In short, the league owners lack discipline, have lacked it for years, but could hide it for the last ten years because they were all getting so rich on new team franchise fees. Now, they can't use that to staunch the bleeding anymore, and they're crying uncle.
IMhO, when the players offered a global rollback of 24%, they pretty much did it right; that puts total player salaries back into the app. range it should be (ie- ~50% of revenue), at which point the owners will be as a group easily profitable. The problem the owners have is that they already know they can't control themselves, and further REALLY REALLY know they can't control teams like the Leafs, Red Wings, and Rangers when they go shopping for that free agent to take them somewhere in the playoffs.
