Friday, June 24, 2005

NHL Lockout: Who cares anymore?

As the National Hockey League lockout drags on and on, word today is that "Super" Mario Lemieux, the player/owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, stated that the NHL Player's Association should have bitten the bullet and accept the final contract offer given to them in February before Gary Bettman shut down the season.

While negotiations are ongoing, Bob Goodenow and the players finally agreed to the principle of a floor-to-ceiling salary cap -- expected to be around $42.5 million US for each of the 30 teams (24 in the US, 6 in Canada) in the NHL.

But as Lemieux (who's now sold most of his stake in his team and is left with just 5% of the ownership) points out, the players will now be worse off than they would have been under the February offer.

Four words: What a bloody surprise. And guess who suffered? Not just the fans, but the front-office staff and the crews at the arenas who have been laid off during the duration of the dispute.

I don't know who said that greed is good. But he or she was wrong. Greed, like the other seven deadly sins, results in Newton's Third Law: Every action has a positive and negative interaction. I've got better things to do with how to spend $200 in a night. Like, maybe dinner and a night of Shakespeare?

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