Comments on: Bettman and Jacobs vs. the World? http://www.mcsorleys-stick.com/2012/10/bettman-jacobs-fehr/ Fact or opinion? Exactly. Mon, 20 May 2013 04:59:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: jewelsfromthecrown http://www.mcsorleys-stick.com/2012/10/bettman-jacobs-fehr/#comment-3718 jewelsfromthecrown Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:26:00 +0000 http://www.mcsorleys-stick.com/?p=13499#comment-3718 I thought this was an interesting contrast to Botta’s article on the same subject, which said Bettman wasn’t going anywhere. It’s so hard to tell what’s really going on. Fans’ best hope is for 23 moderates to push Jacobs off. It makes no economic sense to kill a whole season, and they’re truly not far apart.

And who has Phoenix’s vote? I have no idea. Jacobs, as acting chairman?

“And didn’t someone just suggest in the last day or so that expansion
fees (which constitute several hundred million dollars in instant
revenue for the league) could play a part in settling the CBA
standstill?”

Yeah, it was Paul Kelly, Fehr’s predecessor. The idea works, but like so many reasonable compromise proposals, it involves the owners making some concessions. They won’t budge on HRR, so I don’t see it happening. What’s more likely is that the NHL will deny all expansion plans until affer the settlement, then keep all the lucrative expansion fees for themselves, since those don’t go into the pot of revenue they split.

Contraction makes sense, but almost never happens in pro sports. Relocation would be better, but owners reap lower fees. How I wish we had a few economists running this league.

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