The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
An admittedly "bored to death" Bob Clarke is anxious to see NHL hockey resume, but not until a system is in place to fix the league's financial woes. Clarke, a Flin Flon native and GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, believes a new deal between the league and the players must link revenues and salaries. "I think the owners have to get down the percentage of revenue going to salaries and the rest of it will all be taken care of," he told New Jersey's Cherry Hill Courier-Post. ". . . The players call that a salary cap. It doesn't put a cap on individual salaries. If you want to pay (Jaromir) Jagr $11 million, go ahead." There has not been an NHL game since June as the league and the players' union struggle to find common ground on a new collective bargaining agreement. The owners claim they're losing millions of dollars and want some form of "cost certainty." The union has vowed never to accept a system it perceives to include a salary cap. Clarke, who spent three seasons with his hometown Flin Flon Bombers, told the Courier-Post that the union should look at how successful the NBA and NFL have been utilizing a system that connects revenues to salaries. Asked what might happen if the lockout wipes out the entire season, he said he wasn't sure if the league would ever use replacement players. Clarke said he doesn't know what the players think they're going to get when the lockout ends, adding they should do "what's right" for the game and the fans.
