In NHL Deal, Owners Shoot and Score on Players

Just because workers are well paid it doesn't mean management can walk all over them

January 7, 2013 RSS Feed Print

[See 2012: The Year in Cartoons.]

But just because the workers in question happen to be very well paid doesn't make it okay for employers to walk all over them. Both the NBA and the NHL lockouts over the last two years have resulted in substantial reductions in the players' share of league revenue, with the benefit all going to owners (who, incidentally, then plead poverty to extract public infrastructure money from taxpayers).

Sure, those deals could have been worse for the players, but owners have successfully used the public's "pox on both their houses" view of the matter to take more and more away from their employees, playing the role of corporate titan to perfection. So while the NHL will be back on the ice, it will be with management taking a larger, and seemingly ever-growing, share of fans' money.