Think Your Hockey Team Has No Chance? Think Again!

Why The NHL Has It Right, and Is Moving In The Right Direction

When it comes to sports, everybody has a little kid inside them. We all dream of that championship for the team we cheer for. In hockey, thankfully, the possibility of glory exists for fans of any team. Since everybody has the same spending limit, and everybody can spend to that limit without breaking the team, it all comes down to asset management. The same is true with the National Football League. How you manage your assets within the confines of strict financial parameters determines how you will fare. This bodes well for parity and competition. In these leagues, the most important player is not on the ice, but in the head office: the GM. It’s good news for fans, who can realistically envision their team winning a championship at some point in their lifetime. However, in some leagues and sports, winning a championship seems to require some sort of magical intervention beyond the human realm, unless you are part of an elite few.

Take a look at some leagues and sports where players, managers and executives haven’t bothered to properly address the need for real financial rules. Major League Baseball for example, has a problem with parity in revenue and spending. While this doesn’t always guarantee championships for the big spenders, it certainly puts the odds in their favour, especially when you consider how few teams actually make the playoffs. The final 2006 payroll of the New York Yankees was $190 Million. Tampa Bay spent $24 Million. In the last 10 years, the Yankees have appeared in the World Series 5 times, winning 3 times. The 2nd biggest spending team, the Boston Red Sox, have appeared in the ALCS 3 times in the last 10 years. In the past 10 years the St. Louis Cardinals have been in the top 10 in spending almost every year, falling to 11th in 2006. They’ve hit the NLCS 5 times in the last 10 years.

Of course, there will be the status quo defenders who point to the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks or the 2003 Calgary Flames to argue that the exception is somehow the rule. But the results prove that in non-restricted leagues the scales tip in the direction of the big spenders. There are sometimes exceptions, but that’s exactly what they are. Exceptions. Not rules. And in the end it makes for a less entertaining league. Baseball itself has other issues, like the lack of playoff teams, which results in the season being over for half the teams halfway into the campaign. But, that’s another discussion.

Let us move on to the biggest offender on the planet: football. No, not the NFL or the CFL. I mean soccer. The biggest and most competitive leagues in the world are in Europe. South American countries produce many great players, but eventually they all end up in playing for European clubs because that’s where the money is.

Think your hockey team got screwed in its last trade? Well in Europe, labour and contract laws greatly restrict the trading of players. So, instead of the headaches, players are sold. So the teams have to buy players, and then come to personal terms with them separately. Contracts are not traded. Players are sold, new contracts are made.

Take the former European player of the year, Andriy Shevchenko. His transfer fee from AC Milan to Chelsea this past year was 31.8 Million Pounds, approximately $60 Million CDN. The player’s wages are paid on top of that. Think your hockey team could spend like that? Scottish side Hearts just sold their goalkeeper to Sunderland for a reported 9 Million Pounds, almost $20 million CDN. That’s the biggest fee ever for a keeper. But the biggest fee for any player in history came in 2001 when Zidane went from Juventus to Real Madrid for 46 Million Pounds. That’s almost $90 Million CDN!

And let’s look at the results. In the last 15 years, the English Premiership has been won by exactly 4 teams, with Manchester United winning a staggering 8 times. Chelsea has won twice. Arsenal 3 times. Blackburn Rovers (the exception we talked about earlier) have won once, back in 1995.

In Spain, one of the 3 biggest leagues in the world, 7 teams have won the title in the last 30 years! In the last 10 Barcelona have won 4 times, as have Real Madrid. In Italy, the title switches back and forth between Juventus, Internazionale, and AC Milan with the occasional exception. It has been since 1985 since any side in Scotland not named Rangers or Celtic won the title.

The lack of competitions in domestic leagues is somewhat mitigated by the fact that in any one season there is more than one piece of silverware to win. In addition to the league, there is the domestic Cup as well as UEFA Club competitions: the UEFA Cup and the prestigious Champions League. But even then, the same names keep coming up. The past 10 Champions League competitions have seen AC Milan win twice, Barcelona win 3 times, and Real Madrid win 3 times. The extra revenue from a deep Champions League campaign (10 Million Pounds just to reach the 32 team group stages) can fund a club’s ambitions. Large European clubs that are outside of England tend to rely on it to fund their transfers. But it’s a cyclical problem.

There is a distinct correlation between money and championships. Managers still have to buy the right players, that is true. But for teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid, money is really no object. Both teams generate revenues through merchandise, television, ticket sales, and advertising that teams on the middle and lower end of the table simply cannot match. European football’s finances are so out of control that player transfers are actually referred to as a market that can rise, fall, and crash. Some teams’ survival depends on raising talent through their youth systems, only to sell them for profit. Would you want this in your league?

And the material point to all of this information is that in spite of what some pundits may say, the National Hockey League is moving in the correct direction. Regardless of his flaws, Gary Bettman ensured that this would be the case by holding out for linkage between player salaries and league revenue. The salary cap may hit the $60Million mark in the next few years, but it will only do so if the league’s fortunes continue to improve. And you, as a fan of any team, can cheer on your team and realistically dream of a championship. And after all, isn’t that the point?

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

Beckham to LA Galaxy: An Analysis


David Beckham: watched by millions, hated by millions more. It is a classic case of people hating what’s popular and overexposed. It’s part media frenzy, and part media frenzy of Beckham’s own making. Really, it’s a shame that so many hate him as in every interview I’ve ever seen with Beckham he’s been classy, soft spoken and charming. Whether at Manchester United, Real Madrid or with England, he always stops to sign things for the fans, especially kids. He’s run soccer camps for children on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet this man is hated by football fans and with zeal I’ve rarely seen. Those who don’t care for football tune in to his every move. Those who have never watched football before are snapping up MLS tickets just to see him. It is a setup for disappointment, and football fans who hate Beckham (100% by my experience, minus yours truly) will breathe a collective “See! I told you so!”

But in the end, it will be rubbish. Football fans who hate Beckham and are sick of seeing him everywhere should know full well what kind of player he is, and what to expect from him. Those who tune in to see what the fuss is about won’t understand why he’s not scoring hundreds of goals. After all, he’s the world famous David Beckham! Perhaps they can be excused, as they won’t know what to expect.

So, if Beckham isn’t a massive goal scorer, then what’s the big deal about him? Is it just because he is so good looking that even staunchly heterosexual men will easily acknowledge the fact without hesitation? Or is there something more? Well, it is the latter: there is much more, but it takes a comprehension of the game of football to understand. That is something that most North Americans just do not have.

There is a reason why football is called “The Beautiful Game”. It is a difficult sport to master in practice, especially at the highest levels. In order to be a player who is chosen to play for the biggest and best clubs in the world, you must have a serious proficiency in making a football do what you want. You must be able to stop a ball dead from high velocity with your foot while in stride. You must be able to anticipate the movements of others. You must be able to run for 45 minutes at a time with little drop in speed or energy. You must make decisions quickly as team mates are marked in tight spaces. And you must place the ball into those tight spaces, often while running at full speed. This last point is where David Beckham truly shines. Even those die hard footie fans who hate Beckham know this to be true. But the hatred runs so deep that admitting the fact is impossible for them.

David Beckham is not a striker. He is a midfielder. It is his job to get the ball to those who are proficient in scoring, and to give them the ball in such a way as that they can turn nothing into something in a split second. Becks is very nearly the best in the world at doing exactly that. This is not to say that he cannot score goals; he scored a Beckham classic in his first start for the Galaxy. But he has only ever managed a high of 12 goals in a season, and that was an anomaly compared to his usual strike rate. Many of those goals were scored on free kicks, a task that one may safely rate Beckham as the best in the world. Most seasons at Manchester United Beckham would score 6 to 9 goals per season. At Real Madrid he scored only 4, 3, and 3 in 3 seasons. But football is not like hockey. Leading scorers may only bag 20 in a season.

Those that despise him for whatever reason will no doubt point to his red card in the 2002 World Cup, or his disastrous penalty kick in Euro 2004. But neither of these admittedly sour incidents invalidates the man’s talents or achievements. If David Beckham is so over-rated then why did Real Madrid want him back so badly? Why were they publicly stating that they’d found a loophole in Beckham’s LA contract that would allow him to return? Why is he still a starter for the English national side? The fact is that he is still a very good football player, and if he had wanted, he could still be playing for one of the biggest clubs on the planet. No amount of glorious chances missed by Crouch in the 2006 World Cup will change that. The England team had the service, they just couldn’t put it away. That service came from Beckham, who, of course, unfairly took the blame.

David Beckham is not advertised correctly here. Clearly North Americans will be expecting bagfuls of goals. They won’t get them. But Beckham will no doubt improve the LA Galaxy team immensely. It will be a team of considerably less talent than England’s national side, but David Beckham’s ability at free kicks, and incredible ability to pass the ball precisely while both he and his target are in full motion will allow the Galaxy to score more goals. I would think that right now the happiest footballer on the planet is US national team star Landon Donovan, the captain of LA Galaxy. Donovan has scored 28 times in 54 appearances for LA. Beckham will only inflate those numbers. Luckily for Beckham, the MLS records not only goals, but assists. Perhaps through that statistic alone, Beckham may be vindicated.

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