Tom Lupton's Blog

So true man, SO TRUE!!!

Great blog!

Good Read, keep it up!

Thought I would check in to see what kind of bloger wins a contest :D

enjoyed your blog, i never really thought of it that way, but you do have a point! :D

good read ! :lol:

lol funny

Good read! This is something I've never thought of...I've always thought hockey players were sometimes too rich!

Thanks for the feedback everyone. In my business, which is education, we talk a lot about types of intelligence, and athletic intelligence is one of them. What these guys can do on the ice makes them pretty much geniuses in my mind

Umm nice try. The league minimum is $450,000 for one year, more than what an average person makes in ten years. Underpaid? Yeah right.

Especially when the average salary is 2-3 million

I think everyone should be paid a good wage, not just athletes. As Don Cherry said, "Remember the guys across the pond giving their lives". I think they should have just as good a wage. They are the ones really fighting in the corners.

Umm nice try. The league minimum is $450,000 for one year, more than what an average person makes in ten years. Underpaid? Yeah right.

Especially when the average salary is 2-3 million

But isn't that the point alain? These players are not average people. They are incredibly gifted, talented, and dedicated people. They deserve to be paid a premium because the work they do is the best in the world.

Can we compare them to doctors and soldiers? well, we can, but we shouldnt. Hockey players are paid to entertain, and in the field of entertainment they are worth every cent that they earn.

But isn't that the point alain? These players are not average people. They are incredibly gifted, talented, and dedicated people. They deserve to be paid a premium because the work they do is the best in the world.

Can we compare them to doctors and soldiers? well, we can, but we shouldnt. Hockey players are paid to entertain, and in the field of entertainment they are worth every cent that they earn.

alot of people in other parts of the world work harder and sacrifice just as much for $1 a day.

I don't doubt that, but we must compare like with like. Hockey players, as athletes and entertainers, are fairly paid for their services and, when compared to baseball and basketball, are probably underpaid.

And that's clearly due to the fact that Hockey isn't half as big as baseball or basketball. Less viewers, smaller salaries. Isn't this common sense?

Umm nice try. The league minimum is $450,000 for one year, more than what an average person makes in ten years. Underpaid? Yeah right.

Especially when the average salary is 2-3 million

In the future it is good practice to read the blog prior to making a comment (a small detail the rest of us would appreciate you taking to heart).

What he is saying (and I will try to use small words for you in the hope that you might actually read and understand the point) is that the Players you see in the NHL are the the tiny elite percentile of all the people who may have chosen hockey as a profession. The "average" guy, as you describe, is not on your TV every Saturday night.

There are roughly 750 NHL roster spots with Players mostly represented from about 5-6 countries. What do you think the average income of the top 750 Lawyers is from those Nations? The Heart Surgeons? How about business owners and other professionals? Don't look at it as the average of all NHL Players but rather the average of all hockey players in general.... they make squat!

As you hover over your fryer tonight on the graveyard shift you likely think of your position as a potato browning technician as being underpaid. Somewhere in the world an artist in a chef hat is creating a potato Florentine that patrons will pay through the nose for and the Restaurant is adequately compensating him in order to retain his services.

That guy is Sidney Crosby. You are the plywood cut-out that teams with one Goalie hang out at practice. You think you should be paid the same?

Thank you Nordic05, that was very well put!

(a little harsh perhaps, but a few pretty good zingers in there!)

Thank you Nordic05, that was very well put!

(a little harsh perhaps, but a few pretty good zingers in there!)

My apologies to Alain for the harshness.

I just feel that if someone is going to take the time and care to write a blog then the people who respond should at least read before responding.

NO ONE, NO ONE DESERVES TO MAKE THE KIND OF $$$$ THAT PROFESSIONAL SPORTS PLAYERS DO OR FOR THAT MATTER PROFESSIONAL ANYTHING. AS LONG AS THERE ARE STARVING PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET, ATHLETES, ACTORS, AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS DO NOT REQUIRE WAGES THAT ARE COMPARABLE TO THE INCOMES OF SOME SMALL COUNTRIES. GIVE THEM AN ABOVE AVERAGE WAGE (AS THEY ARE ABOVE AVERAGE) AND THE REST SHOULD GO TO ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS CANUCKS FOR KIDS (FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE) OR THE STARVING & HOMELESS ALL OVER THE WORLD (EVEN MORE UNFORTUNATE). SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY EVERYONE SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN THE DEFINITION OF CONTENTMENT, IT IS NO LONGER WHAT DO THEY NEED, BUT HOW MUCH CAN THEY GET. (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PLAYING FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME)? I TOO ENJOY PROFESSIONAL SPORTS (ON TV) AS THE PLAYERS WAGES HAVE SENT TICKET PRICES UP SO HIGH THAT IF YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY TO SEE A GAME YOU HAD BETTER BE ABOVE AVERAGE, MAKING A HIGHER WAGE THAN MOST. I AM A LABOURER AND FEEL THAT THE EFFORTS I PUT INTO THIS WORLD ARE EASILY AS IMPORTANT TO MAKING THIS PLANET GO ROUND' AS A PROFESSIONAL SPORTS PLAYER, BUT MOST OF THEM WILL MAKE IN A YEAR WHAT I HAVE HAD TO RAISE MY FAMILY ON FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS OR MORE. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO CAN'T SEE THIS IS WRONG, SHAME ON YOU. NO ONE, NO ONE DESERVES OR REQUIRES THAT KIND OF INCOME.

I find it hard to believe that someone's making that kind of money just for bringing a football over to the other side of the field. I could do that all the time, but will you see me making millions of dollars? No.

How can you possibly justify someone to make that kind of money for doing what they do? What risk is there to take when people join sports? Oh no, broken arm, oh no, sprained ankle. To think that athletes who get paid the way do, have the audacity to ask for more money, when there are several billions of people doing jobs that contribute much more to society than sports ever will, and risk way more than "rare" sport injuries to get the job done.

I would never in my life pay a man 5 million dollars to shoot a basketball in a hoop, or hit a golfball into a hole, or hit a baseball out of the field. I would definitely, instead, pay the doctor/surgeon who saves my life from critical condition, or the fire fighter who risks his life to save mine, or the teachers of today who are trying to teach the next generation how to survive in the world. Sports doesn't save people's lives, nor does it contribute to any socialistic progression in any shape or form.

I think it's good for everyone here to remember that professional sports players' careers are short. Due to age or lingering injuries, many retire between the ages of 35 and 40. The fact that they have to dedicate most of their time in their developing years to improving their game means that a large percentage of them don't get a post-secondary education. In the USA, this seems to be different, with many attending college to get noticed, but a number of these players drop out before the completion of their degrees once they achieve their ultimate goal: getting a shot to play professionally, even in the minor leagues (ie Cory Schneider and Jack Johnson, to name a couple of them).

Personally, I do think some NHL players are overpaid, but they have to make more than the rest of us, because their careers don't last as long, and many of them have nothing to fall back on. I think the guys in the ECHL, who play for... I think about $2000 a month, should be the ones getting paid more. That's less than an average person in many professions that they can work in until they are 65 years old. If you're putting in the time and effort of a professional hockey player, you should get a decent wage for it. There are women in the WWHL putting in several hours every day training and skating, then traveling and playing games on top of it, who get paid peanuts, if anything at all. Players in the ECHL and WWHL still put in as much, if not more, time and effort as the NHLers do, so it makes it difficult to have other work on the side, especially considering their tendency to be out of town. Most employers that offer that kind of flexibility also offer crapty hamburgers and/or coffee to their customers, and a minimum wage to the employees.

So basically, while I think some of the NHLers could afford to take a pay cut (although a number of them are already doing the right thing by offering some of it to charity), people have to realize that it's their life's work. Most of them won't have another thriving career once their hockey days are over, and they need something to live on. And really, if you think NHL players are underpaid, look at the ones who are toiling just as hard in the lower leagues, who simply haven't been blessed which as much talent. They play for the love of the game and the hope that better days will come, and I think that the players who have made it, and keep demanding more money, need to remember why they played in the first place. They are certainly very elite, and they need to make more then the rest of us because of the longevity of their careers, but there's no need to be greedy. Shouldn't they be better people than the CEO's PB mentioned, who fill their pockets by exploiting others?