The Business Flashcards
Lecture 5
What is amateurism?
An exclusionary social system that excludes lower classes from sports, defining an amateur as someone who has never competed for money or taught sports for a living.
Labourers were deemed professionals.
What were amateur associations primarily composed of?
Social clubs, organized leagues and teams, creation of rules and regulations.
What class-based distinctions were made in amateurism?
Upper class vs. lower class distinctions, with upper class making rules to exclude lower class participants.
Believed that lower class (those who worked for a living) had an advantage.
What is ‘shamateurism’?
The practice of fake amateurism where players circumvented rules about being paid to play.
How did the amateurs justify excluding professionals?
They were dirty, not honourable, would do anything to win, couldn’t play sport just for it’s own sake.
What aspects of sport emerged from amateurism?
Civic boosterism and commercialization, competition, urbanization (rising costs and interest), community representation.
Market became a spectator sport, began chargin gate to offset costs!
People playing on these teams were from the local communities, and once winning became important they began to think about ways to bring people in to represent their community, play on their team and win!
What concerns arose with the commercialization of sports?
Concerns over professionals (jobs, broken time payments, bets, and the emergence of shamateurism).
How did amateur teams circumvent the rules regarding paying players?
(as players were not originally allowed to be paid to play)
Hired players as construction workers, electricians, etc in order to pay them to play.
Broken time payments.
Making super easy bets with players, intending for them to win.
League found out and players were banned (?)
What are broken time payments?
Paying player for time that they missed work.
What was the issue with excluding professionals from sport?
Amateurs couldn’t stop them from playing on rinks outside and working on their skill.
(They could however exclude them from tourneys).
What did entrepreneurs/ rink owners do to professionalize hockey?
They shared gate revenues with teams, leading to the emergence of a market.
This put pressure on amateur associations who were banning players.
What is civic boosterism?
Following teams just because they’re from Edmonton/ St A… etc.
What significant change occurred in 1908 regarding the Stanley Cup?
The Stanley Cup became open to professionals, previously a challenge cup for amateurs.
What was the role of the IHL in the early professional hockey landscape?
(1904-1907)
It was a league formed in northern Michigan by banned players from Canadian amateur associations, paying players to join.
Disbanded in 1908, players moved home (Canada) as they wanted to play at home.
So successful that they were asked to join a league.
Pittsburgh made a team and joined, along with 1 Canadian team and 3 other American teams.
Operated for 3 seasons (many players joined as they wanted to be paid).
What was the role of the WPHL in early hockey leagues?
Hockey had not evolved (no good players in Pittsburgh) so they made a 14 team league from the banned players from Canadian amateur associations.
Duquesne ice arena.
Did not have to worry about regulations surrounding paying players, but Canadian league was fortifying the “enemy league.”
What were ‘revolvers’ in the context of early hockey leagues?
Players who played leagues off of each other in order to negotiate higher salaries.
What changed in 1914?
Foudation of Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.
Split between high level hockey, but amateur senior teams remained strong.
Best amateur mens team often went to Olympics as they were so reliable.
What characterized the Original Six era of the NHL?
aka. Norris House League
A period of dominance by six teams, with significant control over the league by James E. Norris.
1920s-30s bankruptcies, relocations…
Could control players much better, as they had much less options in a single league.
(see Hamilton Tigers: schedule got longer, players asked for a raise so the league folded the team completely)
What were the Original 6 teams?
Montreal Wanderers
New York Americans
Ottawa Senators (St Louis Eagles)
Quebec Bulldogs (Hamilton Tigers)
Pittsburgh Pirates (Philly Quakers)
Montreal Maroons
What were the different leagues in the 1910s?
NHA in the East, PCHA in the West.
PCHA, WCHL, WHL eventually absorbed by NHA (later known as NHL).
Which teams made up the WCHA?
(Western Canadian Hockey League)
Edmonton, Calgary.
What was a C-form contract?
A contract signed by 14-year-olds that granted teams rights over their location.
Who was James Norris?
Grain industry man, very rich (200 mil)
Owned…
* Red Wings and Olympia (1932)
* Controlled owner of Blackhawks and Chicago stadium (1936)
* Lots of shares in MSG (NY Arena)
* Loaned money to Bruins
Controlled every team except Leafs and Habs.
What was the cause of the competitive imbalance from 1942-1967?
(Original 6 era)
Norris having control of 4/6 teams meant that he was going to have an increase in the amount of home games in his arenas.
Did not care as much if the teams won, but rather if they sold out home games
What characterized the monopoly era?
Private club: No admittance
Private teams and facilities: Small rosters, low salaries.
No need for expansion
No sharing: Leafs and Habs had CBC contract, were not sharing money with USA teams.
Territorial player access: C-form contracts
Infighting and conflict: Art Ross and… some other guy idk.
What were the main profits of the NHA?
CBC contract, control of arenas (Norris), control of labour (pension plan/ players association), farm system.
Explain the beginning of the first players association.
Pension plan began in 1940s, but players were not allowed to know much about it. So players began discussions of the first players association.
What was the farm system?
C-form contract players would play for a junior version of the team they signed for.
Intense control of players = salaries were easy to suppress.
What led to the necessity of NHL expansion in 1967?
The need for a US network TV contract and concerns over a potential rival league.
NHL approached CBS, ABC, NBC to offer tv package to mimic Habs/ Leafs CBC deal.
Vancouver was left out due to Leafs and Habs not wanting to share CBC deal.
Why was a tv contract enough to prompt league expansion?
NHL was still a regional league, so the contract offers with CBS, ABC and NBC did not make sense for cities like LA with no team.
This created the need for expansion.
Why was St. Louis chosen over Baltimore to become an expansion team?
Wirtz was Norris’ bff and he owned the arena in St Louis. They created a team there without an ownership group, even though there were 3 separate offers from Baltimore.
What was the impact of the WHA on the NHL (NHLPA)?
The WHA was the last rival league. They broke the reserve clause, allowing players to negotiate higher salaries and play where they wanted.
These became the 1967 expansion teams.
Players became highest paid athletes in the world at this point.
What was task force report?
Challenged c-form contract, introduced player draft.
What changed in 1979?
Additional expansion teams from absorbing WHA: Whalers, Nordiques, Jets, Oilers.
Competiton for players stopped and monopoly came back.
Salaries plateaued again.
What was the impact of the NHL expansion?
From 6 teams in 1966 to 21 (26?) in 1972.
Game became diluted as talent was widely dispersed.
Teams began picking up players that could fight, even though they had no skill.
What were some challenges faced by the NHL?
Financial losses, market disparity, and disruptions (lockouts) due to collective bargaining agreements.
US struggles to have people watch games on tv. Coyotes market was terrible for money. Florida market is problematic when they’re not winning, much like Washington, Anaheim.
Covid de-localized game consumption: more valuable as a televised product, covid set a new standard for games to be played anywhere.
What is a notable trend in the growth of the NHL in the 1990s and 2000s?
An explosion of minor pro hockey and an increase in franchise values and attendance.
True or False: The NHL has always had a balanced competitive structure.
False
Fill in the blank: The _______ era refers to the period when the NHL was dominated by six teams.
Original Six
What were some of the financial issues faced by the NHL?
Market disparity, Canadian market impacts, and financial losses from COVID.
What was the significance of the 1914 Foundation of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association?
It marked the establishment of a governing body for amateur hockey in Canada.
What was the outcome of the 1926 NHL monopoly?
NHL gained monopoly over professional hockey in North America.
What was the significance of the 1979 NHL expansion?
It absorbed WHA teams and restored control over player competition.
What were the two major factors contributing to the NHL’s financial growth during the 1960s?
Control of arenas and lucrative TV contracts.
