A realistic answer to NHL Salaries

Apparently, according to an article published on The Globe and Mail website, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Union are set to resume their labor talks on Tuesday, April 19th, furthering (if that is an accurate term) what seems like a hockey-based tennis match over issues such as player salaries, league revenue, and replacement players. According to the article,

The league has spent more than a week chewing on what the union put on the table at their last meeting: a floating team-by-team payroll that would have a base of $30 million and an upper limit of $50 million US. But sources indicate the range would fluctuate depending on the league’s revenues. The $30 million to $50 million is based on $2 billion in revenues.

As has been stated several times throughout the duration of this lockout, the average player salary at the end of the old collective bargaining agreement was US $1.8-Million per player per season, with twenty of thirty NHL franchises running at a corporate loss. Under various proposals, this average salary would have been reduced to approximately US $1.3-Million per player–a proposal that has been continually and steadfastly rejected by the Players Union.

Apparently $1.3 Million per season isn’t enough for a single person to receive.

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

My father has been a school bus driver for 25 years, and has done so without a single accident. While that may not seem a major factor, consider that he carries $144-Million worth of insurance ($2-Million insurance policy on each child, multiplied by 72 children) each day … and after 25 years, he makes less than $50,000 per year.

Consider further the following scenario–When Vancouver Canucks’ Todd Bertuzzi injured Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche, it was a situation of a $7-Million per year player injuring a player who gets $800,000 a year. The doctors who treated Steve Moore for his injuries (and otherwise spend their days saving people’s lives) average $100,000-$150,000 per year, and were educated by teachers who average $60,000 a year.

In short, a high-end player in the NHL makes 140x the income of a bus driver, 116x that of a teacher, and 70x the income of a doctor.

Someone please explain to me how playing a game warrants so much more than the essential services of our day-to-day lives?

Perhaps it’s time to put some things back in perspective. As a convenience store employee, I earn $8.25 per hour The normal running time of a hockey game is 60 minutes. Seems only fair and appropriate that people who play a game should receive no more than those who actually work–If that doesn’t seem fair, maybe it’s time we give the hockey players’ "jobs" to people that actually want to earn their pay.