while i do agree with you Mike that both sides are to blame, it's hard not to side with the owners. Yes salaries have gotten out of hand and yes the owners were the ones to pay the exorbitant salaries. However, they are bound to a large degree by the rules of the current CBA and LACK of a free market system. A free market system is not at all what we want anyways (as the players contend). Smaller markets, including all Canadian teams (with the exception of Toronto) would not be able to compete.
As far as i'm concerned, the best run sports league in NA is the NFL - because they have a salary cap. It appears to do a wonderful job of creating parity between the teams. When everyone can compete, it makes things much more interesting.
