Why NHL Owners Should Budge

NHL President Gary Bettman   is no doubt correct when he says  that  financial health for all 30 NHL franchises requires a bigger share of revenue for owners. But notice that the NHL  (1) does not have the same degree of revenue-sharing between owners that the NFL does, for example; and (2) does not relocate franchises as often as the NFL does, for example.

What  is the significance of these two facts?  That the NHL's reluctance to share more revenue or to move franchises around more are choices that they have made. And if those are their choices, the players should not be forced to shoulder all of the cost of those choices. If the owners' "southern strategy"  in search of TV revenue has failed, and they persist even when it is clear that more viable franchises are to be had in Ontario and Quebec, then that isn't the players' fault.