For several years now, the issue of NHL teams and their tax situation has been debated by NHL experts and executives.
Like the Florida Panthers are two wins away from defending their Stanley Cup championship, it has been hard to ignore that they, the Tampa Bay LightningTHE Vegas Golden Knights and even the Colorado Avalanche have won everything in recent years by having some of the lowest taxes of any NHL team.
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In January, San Jose Sharks General manager Mike Grier said he sees both sides of the tax issue, but that he would also hypothetically support a fiscal equalization plan.
Another proponent of such a plan is TNT analyst and former NHL player Paul Bissonnette, who has repeatedly said he wants the league to address the problem.
This week, Bissonnette took his complaints to the NHL commissioner himself, Gary Bettman, in an interview with NHL on TNT during the Stanley Cup Final. But Bettman skillfully counter-argued, and if we’re honest, we have to say he did a solid job opposing any kind of plan to address tax inequality across teams.
“That’s a ridiculous question.” Betman said. “When the Florida teams weren’t good, for about 17 years, nobody talked about it. For those of you who were playing, were you sitting at the tax table? No, you wanted to go to a good organization in a place where you wanted to live, where you wanted to raise your kids and send them to school. You wanted to play in a first-class arena with a first-class training facility, with an owner, an organization, a general manager and a coach that you were at comfortable. And you wanted to have good teammates to have a chance to win. That’s what motivates him.
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“Could that be a small factor if all else were equal? I suppose, but that’s not all. By the way, state taxes are high in Los Angeles, high in New York. What are we going to do? Subsidize these teams?”
Gary Bettman (Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images)
Now, let’s be clear: We believe that no-tax states have an advantage, so we’re not prepared to agree with Bettman that this question is “ridiculous.” But after interviewing NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh in Novemberand after hearing Bettman’s response to Bissonnette, our position evolved.
In this case, we must give credit to Bettman. Part of his job as commissioner is to present good arguments for the league’s decisions. And in this case, that’s exactly what he did. And as Walsh said, finding the type of mechanism to even out the league’s fiscal situation is nearly impossible.
If tax-free teams have one advantage, it’s that they’re led by very smart people
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Florida Panthers supposedly when they took Gustav Forsling off waivers five years ago because no one else wanted him.
But here’s where our philosophy has evolved: There are other scenarios in which certain teams would have an advantage, and you don’t see teams pushing for new elements of the labor agreement to accommodate them.
For example, the weak Canadian dollar could be seen as a problem for Canadian team owners, but if you really think about it, it could be used as a selling point for free agents and players considering a move to Canada.
After all, if you make money in the United States, like all players do, and you play in a Canadian market, your cost of living is much better than it would be if you were in a US market. Let’s say you get $1.33 CAN. for every US dollar – wouldn’t that be a huge win for you as a player? Your money would be improved by a third if you are in a Canadian market. So why aren’t Canadian teams selling this angle?
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We want the playing field to be as level as possible while still being fair to teams that are more successful than others. This is why we still believe a luxury tax would be a great solution for the NHLthe same way as in the NBA. But it’s clear the league prefers a strict salary cap, and that’s not expected to change, even with a new collective bargaining agreement coming next year. That’s just the reality of the situation.
Hockey and Taxes: What an NHL Player Pays in Taxes Depending on Their Team
As Walsh said THN.commany variables come into play with taxes and, as Bettman pointed out, the most important factors in players’ decisions about where to play probably have more to do with how well teams are managed and how competitive their rosters are. So you can understand why there is consensus between the league and the players in this regard.
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Bissonnette had the right to raise the topic before Bettman, but the commissioner stood his ground on that front and more or less ended the debate for now. It might come back later, but anyone holding their breath to change anytime soon needs all the luck they can get.
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