Weekly Blog Recap

Here's a rundown on all of the content on the blog this week:

(2/2) Why the Bulls-Cavaliers Trade Means More than You Think 
Incoming freshman Mitchell Myers makes his blog debut with this NBA trade analysis. This in-depth look at what Luol Deng means for the Cavs, and what Andrew Bynum and draft picks meant for the Bulls.

(2/3) Letter to 49er Fans
Featured Blogger Thomas Kroner pens this open letter following the San Francisco's disappointing playoff finish. This unabashedly biased piece comes off like an obituary, and a must-read for Bay Area fanatics.

(2/4) The Weekly Rant: Arbitration and Bullpen Construction
Max Fogle ponders if teams are acquiring veteran relief pitchers in order to keep the arbitration prices of their current bullpen low.  He reaches the conclusion that "proven closers" may actually represent relative bargains in the long run.

(2/5) Blogger Roundtable: Foreign Invasion- International Sports in the U.S.
Assistant Editor Adam Malz rounds up the bloggers for the weekly roundtable. This week's question? Which internationally popular sport has the most potential in the U.S.?  We all chime in without any understanding of how cricket is actually played,

(2/6)  Rivalry Wear Changing the Model
The blog profiles Rivalry Wear, an emerging sports apparel start-up with a unique e-commerce model.  It's innovative founders are two recent Cornell grads, so it's more than worth a read.

(2/7) Event Recap: NHLPA's Alex Dagg and Mathieu Schneider
We finally got around to posting Jon Levitan's recap from this awesome event last semester.  NHLPA officials Alex Dagg (Director of Operations) and Mathieu Schneider (Special Assistant) spoke to SBS members about labor relations in hockey, among a host of topics.  Schneider, a former All-Star and Stanley Cup winner discussed his playing career through a series of work stoppages.

(2/8) Batting Leadoff: Marginal Win Value and Dollars Per Win
Our partners at Batting Leadoff deliver premium baseball content, and this piece is no exception. See what factors need to be considered in evaluating baseball transactions.

Also, check out our Contributors Page to get to know our staff.  Contact information, career plans, and their sporting interests are all there. 

Event Recap: NHLPA's Alex Dagg and Mathieu Schneider

On Tuesday, November 12th The Cornell Sports Business Society was lucky enough to host Alex Dagg and Mathieu Schneider, from the NHL Players Association for an informal question and answer session. Dagg has been the Director of Operations for the NHLPA for the past two years, after working for 25 years in private sector unions. Schneider is a former NHL defensemen and Stanley Cup winner who was a player representative to the union and now works for the union after his retirement in 2010.

Before taking questions, the two gave a brief history of the NHLPA. The union became relevant in 1992, when the player's went on strike for the monetary rights to the their names. The strike only lasted 10 days, as the playoffs were approaching and the league could not afford to lose the important revenue.

The first major battle between the union and the league came in the 1994 lockout, where the major conflict was the owner's desire for a salary cap. Despite the owners getting the cap, Schneider noted that the period after this lockout "was a great time to be a hockey player" because average incomes rose from $100,000 to $1.5 million.

The next lockout came ten years later, and the entire 2004-2005 season was lost. Because the average hockey career is 4 years, one lost year is incredibly damaging to the players, and the union ended up fairing poorly in negotiations. Two years before the last lockout, Donald Fehr was hired as the NHLPA. 

Schneider said that Fehr has been an incredible leader, and lauded his ability to "break down most complicated issues so that young kids coming into the NHL could understand them". After the last lockout, last season, Schneider said that the NHLPA was in a great place, and Dagg added that a goal of theirs was a "more mature bargaining relationship" with the league. After this brief discussion of the union's history, the two took questions from our members.

What is your daily interaction with the league in a period, like now, where there is a long period of time before the CBA expires?

Dagg explained that, in the last CBA negotiations, a number of committees were formed that facilitate constant interaction between the league and the union. These committees force the two parties to work together and find common interest. Dagg recognizes that interests will not always intersect, but added that relations between the two have been largely positive of late. Schneider added that the working relationship between Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, and Fehr is terrific, which keeps the relationship between the union and league positive.

How does the union keep its member educated during this dead period?

Dagg explained that the union regularly meets with its young members to keep them educated about all the nuances and complexities of the CBA, an document that she noted was over 500 pages long. She also added that the union and players must think about life after hockey, and the union teaches players financial responsibility to prepare them for retirement. Schneider added that the union holds rookie orientation each year, which helps it connect with new players. He said this was necessary because the union was "much better when we have players actively participating".

What is the difference between working with low-wage and higher-wage workers?

This was directed at Ms. Dagg, who spend 25 years working with low-wage workers before joining the NHLPA. She said that working with low-wage workers felt more "real", since gains made by a union can affect the workers' lives far for greatly than it can for pro hockey players. 

She does really enjoy working for the NHLPA, saying that she loves working with the people, and that it's great to work for a union where disputes are major media stories. Schneider quickly added that “we’re working for the lower half of the league, no one’s worried about the Crosbys or Ovechkins”, saying that the top-tier players will always be paid well.

As always, the Cornell Sports Business Society extends its sincerest thanks to Alex Dagg and Mathieu Schneider, who took their own time to educate our members about working for a professional sports union. Alex and Mathieu provided invaluable insights into the nuances of NHL labor relations, and we would love to have them back should they find themselves in Ithaca again.

Does Union Solidarity Decrease Fighting in the NHL?

Rival stars such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin
flank NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr during the lockout.

Recently, in a collective bargaining course at the ILR School, a labor official familiar with this season’s National Hockey League lockout gave his take on a number of issues. While it was easy to accept most of his opinions on collective bargaining in sports as expert testimony, one prediction would have to be tested by looking at data. The speaker claimed that because of the solidarity developed among players during the work stoppage, the NHL would experience fewer fights this season. He felt that the goodwill exhibited as union brothers off the ice would carry over on the ice. 

The argument seems to stem from the fact that NHL Players Association Director Donald Fehr effectively united workers who are normally paid to compete against each other. The NHLPA leadership effectively pitted players against management rather than against each other. There was actually more dissent among League leadership and owners, who arguably compete for much higher stakes in normal years. But while solidarity is always an important part of union strategy in collective bargaining, could it have unintentionally made players less pugilistic?

Unsurprisingly, the stats do not overwhelmingly support this theory.  According to hockeyfights.com, there have been .50 fights per game since the lockout, up from .44 per game last year. Though the four year period of 2008-2012 shows an average of .54 fights per game, it decreased in each of those years, dropping a total .16 fights per game. It doesn’t appear that the lockout had any immediate effect in reducing fisticuffs between players.  

But this was an unusual season in many regards. The shorter season could make this data less reliable in theory, but more importantly it could have affected how often players drop the gloves. Perhaps, because of the intra-conference schedule (to make scheduling easier, Eastern and Western Conference teams did not play) the familiarity of opponents increased tensions. Or maybe more fights take place closer to the playoffs in normal seasons, and with the entire season taking place in this timeframe, a whole season’s worth of scores got settled in less time. A whole season of post-lockout data might look different.  

Fortunately (actually unfortunately), there is another data set, as the NHL did experience a work stoppage lasting the entire 2004-05 season. In the previous 2003-04 campaign, fights reached a violent .64 per game, with the four year period of 2000-04 seeing nearly .60 fights per game. But with a contentious year of collective bargaining behind them, players engaged in a historically-low fights per game mark of just .38 in 2005-06, and then .40 in 2006-07, before rising to the levels previously described.  



Following the missed 2004-2005 season and subsequent rule changes, fights rose after a dramatic drop off, then trended downward into the most recent lockout. 



Overall, it’s not clear what conclusions can be drawn from this theory. Maybe coaches were aware of a pacifying effect this time, and changed their direction to players accordingly. More likely, there are many variables involved with hockey fights, and the differences in the yearly data are explained by other factors. Still, any time NHL players from different teams are united together, there’s a possibility that it could have an effect when they are inevitably turned against each other. Looking at post-Olympic and post-All-Star Game data may help provide an answer.

One thing is for sure though. Fans that love to see the gloves dropped had little to be disappointed coming out of this lockout. Our guest speaker was stuck on quotes from players like Pittsburgh Penguin Tanner Glass, who said he was “firmly behind what we are doing” in expressing his NHLPA solidarity. Only a few months later Glass would be a little more hostile to union brothers like New York Ranger Aaron Asham, as evidenced below.