Canadians and/or Hockey Fans: Explain the Lockout

[kappaloo]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/cba/

That website has a lot of information on the issue, but if you scroll down on that particular webpage they have a FAQ which says the following:

What is at the root of this burgeoning crisis?

Like most labour negotiations, this is about money. Bettman argues that NHL revenues aren't keeping up with increasing player salaries and that has to change if the league is to survive.

According to Bettman, players' salaries have increased 240 per cent since 1995, while revenues have increased only 160 per cent. The average NHL salary in 1994-95 was $733,000 US. Coming into the 2002-03 season, it's just shy of $2 million per season.

Owners say that, mainly due to the rapid increase in player salaries, many of the NHL's teams are in financial trouble. A recent report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that more than two-thirds of the NHL's 30 franchises suffered losses last season.

The league says total losses amounted to nearly $300 million US last season. Those numbers were seemingly confirmed by Arthur Levitt, a former chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, who issued a report on the NHL's finances in early February.

Levitt's study, commissioned by the NHL, found league's teams combined to lose $273 million US last season. The NHLPA characterized the report as "simply another league public relations initiative." They also questioned the legitimacy of the report because Levitt was paid by the NHL.

In the past, the NHL's players union has been skeptical of Bettman's claims, saying that teams have under-reported the money they bring in by tens of millions of dollars.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ted Saskin, the union's director of business affairs, said the financial numbers being put out by the League are "garbage in and out."

All 30 NHL teams are required to provide a detailed list of hockey-related income and expenses. Saskin claims some of those reports weren't comprehensive.

"There are a number of significant categories missing," he told the paper. He also added that "a number of teams understated cable revenues and didn't report concessions."

Levitt said he believed that NHL teams were accurately reporting revenues.