I'd like to preface this blog post by saying that I am no expert in the CBA or the salary cap, but a general working knowledge of it is enough to point out the absolute irony that the NHL has a salary cap... but let me work up to that.
In our first few weeks our critics really only have one argument... Toronto Maples Leafs ticket prices are so high because of the laws of supply and demand. I'm not going to argue that, in fact the whole purpose of developing Be Fair To The Fans is to help raise awareness in hopes of effecting the demand, just enough to get MLSE to give back to the fans.
Now, on to my main point of how the NHL salary cap is related to the Be Fair To The Fans cause and the argument of supply and demand. When it comes to the ticket prices the the Toronto market sets the price for Leafs tickets, so if people are willing to pay up to $200 for a ticket than so be it and everyone else who can't afford it is out of luck.
Interesting isn't it, that the same owners who bargained for a salary cap are charging ridiculous prices for a poor product (tonight the Leafs lost to the last place Carolina Hurricanes btw, who are now only 2 points behind the Leafs with 2 games in hand). Now, let's consider the salary cap and Alexander Ovechkin, arguably the best player in the NHL. If the market were to set the price for Alexander Ovechkin, he could be earning up to 15 or 20 million dollars. But no, there is a cap on salary because apparently some teams can't afford these players and that would be.... unfair. See the relation.
The NHL is, in fact, the perfect model for Be Fair To The Fans and why ticket prices should be capped... among many, many other reasons, such as pointed out in yesterday's Toronto Star article that the Leafs are sacrificing future fans by charging crazy prices.
Join the community of Leaf fans asking for fair prices:
http://befairtothefans.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165241259266
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What would this model be though? Set a maximum hard price cap of what amount? What about restrictions on concession prices? And if you restrict the tickets to a cap, do you also have to restrict what these management groups can charge separately, ie, in order to pickup the tickets, you're charged 10 dollar handling fee or they charge other fees in order to increase the value of the ticket but not the price?
ReplyDeleteAlso would there also be a bottom limit to this price cap? some teams charge very little for their tickets and some a lot, where do you draw the line, because if some teams are charging an average of 30 and others 60, then there's still the issue of increase prices for seemingly no reason. The NHL I believe has a minimum cap that teams must spend up to, but it would be difficult to say that the cheapest tickets in the league would now have to be made more expensive against the owner's will just because of this cap, punishing those fans for no reason. *shrug* it's a great idea and one I'd like to see implemented, just not sure on how those details would work out.