NHL Lockout: Day #140 and No End in Sight

The NHL lockout has now just about hit the inevitable, the loss of an entire season. It's sad because in a sense because other than myself and the rest of my family nobody watches anyway, but this will be the first time in the history of one of the four major professional sports leagues that an entire season will be lost. The basis of the problem is that the owners and players cannot agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, in which the fundamental issue is a salary cap. NHL teams are losing money at an all-time high. For example the Edmonton Oilers sold out every game last season, however, they still finished the season in the red. The owners latest proposal was a salary cap that would set the cap somewhere between $32 and $42million(keep in mind revenue in the NHL is the lowest of the four major sports, the salary cap in the NFL is around $80m and the Yankees paid out a record $184m in the MLB last season). The players obviously turned that deal down. Well before that the players came in with an effort of their own which included a %24 rollback of their salaries accross the board for two years, the owners said that that would not solve the long term problems because the league would be right back to the problems that they have now in two years. Even though that is true it buys everybody two years to negotiate. The players aren't willing to agree to a salary cap, but they do want some sort of luxury tax or revenue sharing system, where teams would have to pay a certain tax to the league for a certain amout of specified money that they spent over the league average. NHL teams are losing money, eventhough some are selling out such as the Oilers. The league is struggling as it is and they can't afford have this go on to much longer with a dwindling fan base. Is a salary cap the answer or should revenue sharing be invoked as the players prefer.