Flawed Logic
I’m no physicist but I think I’ve come up with a scientific theory that goes a long way in explaining some of the puzzling world around us. It reads:
The spatial volume of a single enclosed area has a finite cerebral capacity that, if exceeded, decreases the total cranial aggregate inversely to its surplus.
In short, the theory states that any area, be it a carnival tent or a boardroom has a maximum allowable intelligence quotient and anything beyond that capacity actually decreases the total combined acumen of the said area. In even simpler terms: more brains means less intelligence.
This theory can be illustrated daily by any legislative or governmental body worldwide. In fact it might be said that common sense takes a proverbial backseat when too many suits congregate in too small an area. Apparently geniuses have a way of canceling each other out.
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Flawed Logic
I’m no physicist but I think I’ve come up with a scientific theory that goes a long way in explaining some of the puzzling world around us. It reads:
The spatial volume of a single enclosed area has a finite cerebral capacity that, if exceeded, decreases the total cranial aggregate inversely to its surplus.
In short, the theory states that any area, be it a carnival tent or a boardroom has a maximum allowable intelligence quotient and anything beyond that capacity actually decreases the total combined acumen of the said area. In even simpler terms: more brains means less intelligence.
This theory can be illustrated daily by any legislative or governmental body worldwide. In fact it might be said that common sense takes a proverbial backseat when too many suits congregate in too small an area. Apparently geniuses have a way of canceling each other out.
Such is the case occurring in the battle preparations leading up to the end of the current NHL/NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement. Both sides are so busy with public posturing and fortifying their legal fortresses they fail to realize their defenses are built on ideological quicksand. Their most fundamental arguments are inherently flawed.
Take the basic tenet of the NHLPA which feels that professional hockey is simply another shining example of the free enterprise system. That is, a business that sets its rates and prices based on what the market can sustain. If the New York Rangers can afford to pay a player $10 million dollars, then they should be allowed to do so. The fact that few other teams are able to compete financially with the Rangers matters little to this argument. Teams must either find a way to keep profitable or risk professional extinction. It’s just business, right?
Wrong. While this model would seem to fit all the criteria for a free market society, the bottom line is that professional sports do not qualify as a free market. You cannot compare the New York Rangers to Wal-Mart. They are vastly different animals.
Think about the most basic goals of a company like Wal-Mart versus an entity like the NHL. Wal-Mart’s ultimate objective is market domination, essentially to create a monopoly. You may try to pretend they welcome the competition but their final perceived destiny is still to be the largest and hopefully, last company in their field. A corporation’s one and only aim is to crush those that cross its path. Massive conglomerates like Microsoft and General Motors are proof positive of this. This is not opinion, it is a fact.
The NHL however, and all other professional sports associations for that matter, operate on a very different principle, one built on the most basic concept of competition. They not only welcome competition but also need it to survive. Sports leagues, in effect, are built on socialist doctrine whereby the weak cannot be too far removed from the strong. This is the very reasoning for forming leagues in the first place. Without that inherent competition there is no reason to play the games.
Originally the standard used to fuel that competition was simply the rules of the game. All teams that participated would adhere to the basic fundamentals or face the consequences for not doing so, hence, a “level” playing field. All sports operate on this premise.
The situation changed only after the non-defined elements of the game, namely its economics, grew to a point where a gap was created between clubs with the ample monetary resources and those without. As salaries and operating expenses rose certain organizations lost their ability to remain profitable and with it went their capacity to stay competitive. And, although there have been instances where teams with limited resources have remained competitive, these situations are little more than fleeting aberrations.
Eventually one stark reality of modern sports economics triggers another in this destructive chain of events, starting with simply being unable to operate under the same system and ending with the futility of becoming nothing more than a talent supplier to the wealthier organizations in the league. Without competition there is no interest; without interest there is no support; without support there is no league. It’s that simple, or at least it should be.
And don’t think this simply proves the owners’ validity for wanting their vaunted salary cap. Aside from creating the messy bed they presently lay in, owners are also guilty of violating their own very basic rule of logic. Interestingly, it’s another principle straight from the first chapter of Business 101. That is, the law of supply and demand.
This fundamental premise, illustrating the inverse relationship between supply, demand and price, is a major cornerstone of all business practice. Apparently though, it doesn’t apply to human talent, ergo free agency. The ruling logic here is to overpay for a select few each summer, then sustain the vicious cycle by allowing only another select few free passage to the world of free agency the following year. They have, in effect, turned copper into gold by limiting the flow of gold so severely that copper starts to look surprisingly like the precious metal.
Best of all, the individuals who fail to grasp these simple concepts are the same ones left to determine hockey’s future in the next few months. Which leads us right back to my original physics theorem.
Maybe it’s time to get a bigger room…
