Game On!

So the NHL and the player's union (NHLPA) have tentatively agreed to a collective bargaining agreement (cba) that will allow the league to start back up and play a full schedule of games for the 2005-06 season.

Looking at the early reports it is clear that after the long lockout the player's caved the most. A 24% rollback on all player salaries to start out with, and then a $39 million cap for all teams with a $21.5 million minimum floor is the basic framework. And then the 'salary cap' for each season will be determined on league revenues, thus, linkage to income and salaries. So it will be interesting to see if the $39 million cap holds for next season, which is based on $1.8 billion of revenue, with disgruntled fans and an ever declining fan base.

I still like hockey. I've mentioned numerious times that I felt the player's union was in the wrong. They seemed to think that the NHL teams were holding out on them and when the facts began to surface were clearly wrong. They could have agreed to some last minute deals to save last season, instead they chose to agree to nothing and further hurt the entire league. The players will probably feel more pain (from their pocketbook) then the owners both short-term and long-term due to their actions...