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What if the NHL cut salaries and ticket prices in half?

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TORONTO

Would Mike Komisarek's life be all that much different if he was paid $2.3 million a year, instead of the $4.5 million he would be getting paid were the Toronto Maple Leafs and the rest of the National Hockey League playing right now?

It isn't just Komisarek, who is easy to pick on because his salary in Toronto has never come close to matching his contribution. It's everyone.

What if you could be Gary Bettman for a day -- or in his case, considering the length of collective bargaining negotiations, a few months -- and had the opportunity to reshape all that was professional hockey. What would you do?

In a fantasy world, and that's all this is, I would cut all NHL salaries by 50%. That would take Dion Phaneuf from $6.5 million to just over $3.2 million; Phil Kessell from $5.4 million to $2.7 million. Nikolai Kulemin, the seven goal scorer, from $2.8 million to $1.4 million.

And while cutting salaries 50%, I would do exactly the same with ticket prices.

None of this will ever happen, of course, but it's my hockey fantasy and I'm sticking to it.

By my simple economics -- I did take a university course 36 years ago and barely got through it -- if salaries are cut by 50% and ticket prices are cut by 50% then profits (or losses when it comes to the majority of American NHL teams would remain somewhat similar).

And while it may not severely impact hockey players lives, who make more money in one season today than Johnny Bower managed in his entire career, it would strongly impact the relationship between the NHL and Canadian and American families.

Right now, according to the Team Marketing Report publication, the Maple Leafs have the highest average ticket prices in the NHL and very close to the highest in all of pro sports. At an average price of $123.77, the Leafs are almost double the cost of what people in Pittsburgh pay, for example, to watch a Stanley Cup contender with Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin and Kris Letang.

For a family of four to take in a Leaf game, assuming there are tickets available, the cost of the night, after including parking, drinks, a few snacks, and maybe a program, is over $600. With no guarantee of being entertained. To watch a team that hasn't played a post-season game since 2003.

By cutting ticket prices in half, it would make Toronto games more accessible to more people than ever before -- but in other places, the impact could potentially be far more significant.

The average price in Buffalo was $38.25 last season. How much demand would there be in a hockey market like Buffalo if the average price was less than $20 a seat.

It's no coincidence that the lowest priced tickets in the NHL are in Dallas, Phoenix, Anaheim and Tampa, all of them non traditional markets. Those seats range, on average, from $29.95 in Dallas to $37.73 in Tampa.

What if they ranged in the future from $15 on average to $19?

A family of four could have a night out at an NHL game for less than $100.

None of this will ever happen, of course, but you have to wonder how it is that NHL salaries have risen to a level where it is difficult to justify either the price of the game or the amount awarded to the player.

I have no problem with Sidney Crosby making $20 million a season. The same for Steven Stamkos or any of the real difference makers in hockey. It's the Brad Pitt theory. He sells the movie. The bit characters get less than average wages to do their part. And where hockey has wound up tripping over itself was in not drawing a line between stardom and fodder, between difference maker and disposable part.

This is where the NFL has it truly figured out. The average price of an NFL ticket is $78.38, or $45 more than the cost of a Leaf ticket. Closer to home, the average price of a Buffalo Bills ticket is just over $58 or $65 less than a price of a Leafs ticket. The NFL pays its stars very well. But it doesn't pay the middle to bottom of a team well. And the player contracts are not guaranteed, so if Kulemin is having a dog of a season in football, he can be let go at any time, with no cost to the team.

That doesn't exist in hockey and it never will. Nor will anything being proposed here. But at a time when no one is speaking for the fan, when owners and players aren't negotiating, you can't help but dream about a Robin Hood scenario in the NHL, where we take from the rich and provide for the fan.

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