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Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Union head wields power
By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com
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It is dinner hour on a Wednesday in Toronto, but the lights are still on
in the offices of Robert W. Goodenow, Esq. It's always a busy day for the 48-year-old NHL Players Association boss, but then again, just keeping up has become the routine.
"Oh, that's alright," Bob Goodenow says. "I'm still going to the game
tonight just like you are."
Goodenow is a familiar face at Air Canada Centre, and in hockey locker rooms
all across North America. For he is as active a player advocate and counselor
as you will find anywhere in all of sports.
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There are those who call the 1980s a golden era of hockey. But there was a period of complacency that set in then ... The owners had it good. The players still hadn't hit a point where they were commanding better salaries. These owners sat around and got fat and lazy during the '80s, until the 1990s hit and they said, 'Woah, we better take a look at this.' ” |
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— Goodenow on the last two decades of ownership. |
Goodenow has a reputation for being a tough interview -- if only because you
can never track him down -- and tough to work for. He is a married father of
three and hails from Dearborn, Mich., so he's a hockey fan at heart.
Yet his mind is perfunctorily Harvard-trained.
If a casting call were made for the role of NHLPA head, Goodenow would be the perfect man for the job. Yet because of the tremendous influence he possesses, opinions are split over
whether Goodenow's tenure has been more positive or negative for the league.
Since his ascension to power in Jan. 1992, salaries have escalated some 300
percent. Revenues from endorsements and concessions have risen sharply.
Ticket prices have tripled, too. And most of that happened after he led a
subdued player revolt that resulted in the owners locking the players out of
training camp in 1994.
Since a truce was called early the following year, Goodenow has given his
players financial gain, but one result of that has been the game being taken
away from the common fan because the cost for the fans has underwritten most of the player gains.
"The Players Association says the business of the league has to be left up
to the owners of the league," said Flyers president and GM Bob Clarke. "But
in reality, it's a league-wide problem. It's everyone's responsibility. There
has to be cap. With a salary cap, it's the only way that everybody is going
to have an equal chance of competing.
|  | | Goodenow, at left alongside Phil Housley, has been a major reason NHL players have more monry in theior pockets today. |
"Look at baseball. The Yankees spend more than everybody else does, and
that's why they've won. But the teams that can't spend that kind of money,
they don't have a chance of winning. We're pretty much there now. Just about
all the Canadian teams, we've made it pretty tough for them to compete. And
lots of teams in the states can't compete, either. It's a horror show. You
have to be concerned about the future of the league. But nothing's going to
change until the CBA changes."
The next real chance of that happening will be 2004, when the current CBA
expires, and what is generally predicted as the year all hell will break
loose in the NHL.
War. Good God, y'all.
"There is no doubt there has been a handful of contracts that have
stretched the elasticity of the economics, and those contracts are also going
to fall by the wayside," players agent Mike Liut recently told the National Post.
Chris Pronger, trophied last spring in recognition of being the best defenseman and
most valuable player in the league, has already fired a preliminary shot.
Though Goodenow said he supported him unequivocally, some union members had
to be miffed when the St. Louis franchise player lowered his demands and
agreed to a three-year, $29.5 million deal.
Fans of sport, you might have trouble believing it, but this contract call
was a victory for management.
"Right now," one league source said, "what's going on with salaries is
that the NHLPA is trying to break the $10 million barrier. He (Pronger) didn't get
there."
The theory is that consistently breaking the $10 million barrier will open a financial floodgate and
send salaries, that grew very slowly last year, spiraling at the rate they did
a few years ago. And all before the next war.
"There's still time to analyze for all to see if the current agreement is
working," said Goodenow, who also has said that since the last CBA agreement (and
subsequent extension), growth has wavered between revenues exceeding player
salaries and vice-versa.
Goodenow sees salary growth to continue slowly and steadily, at about that
five percent pace until the agreement comes up for renewal. He wonders if the
owners and what he calls "their commissioner" can accept that.
"Both sides will look at the relationship between these patterns at the
appropriate time," Goodenow said in the form of an expert politician.
Meanwhile, a busy and confident lawyer carries on in his role -- protector
of the player or destroyer of the game, take your pick -- in a high-stakes
game carried out on uncertain footing. But there will be no looking back.
"There are those who call the 1980s a golden era of hockey," said
Goodenow. "But there was a period of complacency that set in then ... The
owners had it good. The players still hadn't hit a point where they were
commanding better salaries. These owners sat around and got fat and lazy
during the '80s, until the 1990s hit and they said, 'Woah, we better take a
look at this.'"
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.
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ALSO SEE
Parent: Who dictates deals
Goodenow bio: The skinny on NHLPA leader
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