[quote name='sendme']I would be willing to watch a bunch of beer league players as long as tickets were not the same price for NHL level players. Hell bring in some of the AHL or CHL players. If the St. Charles Chill were to start up this year I would say the hell with the NHL and just got watch some CHL games.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but the prices can't solely be based on the talent level of the players. The team still has to pay for the arena, pay for travel, hotel, etc. I'm sure they could scale it back some...but what you'd basically be left with IS the AHL. That's what the NHL needs to figure out. Can it function with stability at such a high level...because that's just going to be expensive...no matter how you divvy up the pie.
Though, honestly, at the end of the day, the players are likely going to have to buckle. If you're making $10 million playing in the NHL...and the next best offer you could get playing overseas is $6 million, what's to stop them from cutting your salary to $7 million? They're the boss...and it's still better than you could do anywhere else. So, what are you going to do? It doesn't make it right, but if that's what they feel like doing, you're kind of screwed. Unless you're willing to play for even less just out of principle, you're just going to have to bend over and say "ah" like the rest of us, lol.