I'm guessing most of you saw the situation going on with the Trashers today. If not, Trashers owner James Galante was one of 29 people indicted during a federal investigation into the trash industry. Part of the indictment details Galante allegedly paying three players $100,000 each last year and the entire team $750,000 in salary. The UHL salary cap is $275,000.
Players or their wives were sometimes allegedly paid as employees of Galante's other businesses.
This is what I've been talking about all year. I've heard of players receiving $3,000 per week, or getting a $2,500 signing bonus and $2,000 per week and things like that. Any idea now why some players might have considered signing there as opposed to other places? Think this might be why players who were released late in the season might not have wanted to report somewhere else? They had to take a massive pay cut.
This is why the UHL must adopt a hard cap for salaries. And then the owners need to give the commissioner's office the powers to enforce it.
Supposedly, the Trashers ARE going to play next year, as the team has been set up now under a different corporation. They are also going to pay one hellacious fine to the league which has been investigating them for several months.
And don't give me any crap about Richard Brosal. It took the Feds several years to crack this with hundreds of people. How's the UHL supposed to crack it with one or two people?
Comments
Hit, the major difference between this and MLB is that the extra money didnt cause Duharts head to grow 5 sizes in a year and suddenly give him a 140 KPH slap shot. Taking money at their low salaries is an excuse. It is even a valid excuse. But that doesn't make it right. Similar case, you are late for work and get pulled over speeding. You tell the cop "Im sorry I was speeding but I am afraid I will lose my job" That is a valid excuse but 90% of the time you are still getting a ticket.
I really believe their needs to be punishment but banning players may be taking it too far. Oh and from a fans point of view, having Duhart kicked out of the league would not be good for the Komets or the rest of the UHL whose fans pay good money to boo him.
Ooops. Forget where I am again at this late hour 140 KPH = 85 MPH
I have seen him with a heck of a wrist shot but never thought his slapshot was that spectacular.
Okay, hee's my question.
Were all talking that a hard salary cap needs to be put into place. What penalties will be inforced if a team exceeds the cap?
I think the "hard cap" will be a joke. The UHL is not capable of enforcing it.
That's exactly what I think. No one in the UHL has the B--ls to enforce anything so what's a hard cap going to accomplish. Those that can spend will spend and pay the cheap fines, those that can't will have bad teams and will fold.
I stated before. there is a very easy way to enforce it. Before each game teams file a roster/salary report with the league. If a team is over the cap they forfeit the game. A stiff penalty such as that is the only way to discourage cheating. Also, it has to be made clear that what happened in Danbury will not be tolerared even if that means revoking a franchise in mid season if it is discovered that cheating occured.
That's a great idea Tony. But as I said no one in the UHL has the B--ls to enforce anything. No one in the board will want to put in the risk of forfeiting a game bacause they went over the cap. They adopt some chinzy(sp) penalty and fine and teams will do the same as they always have.
I see there being different levels of "wrong" which is why the punishment isn't the same for stealing a pack of gum and killing someone. When a player is accepting extra money knowing that his take is $100,000 and he knows that the cap for the entire team is $275,000 it doesn't take great brains to figure out that there's some big time cheating going on. If he's willing to do that to his teammates and the league that he plays in when he knows the rules, he deserves whatever he gets. If its not a ban from playing, a many game suspension without pay might do the trick.
I don't blame the players at all. All player want to make as much as they can. I don't see Galante's over paying them as the players fault.
It's Galante that's responsible and there needs to be penalties that fit the infraction and we need a league with people htat have enough b--ls to enforce the penalties.
Here I go out on a limb.... I don't see Danbury being around for the 2006-2007 or finish it. With the Feds taking over all of his businesses and he having an interest in the team they will do one of the following.
A)if the team goes into the financial hole that would result in his other businesses supporting it they will shut it down.
B)If it makes money they will sell it off in a short period of time.
C)After the TRUE books are looked at the Feds may not even allow the team to continue.
A great deal depends on how the team is set up and who has what money in it and who can shore it up if the cash flow goes the wrong way.
For me I don't see it happening and if it does it will end before the end of the season.
Keep the sticks down and your head up.
Well, I think we all knew it was coming, now its official....
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2006/06/12/news/breaking/doc448db57d1f02e080323925.txt