Arbitration of Ilya Kovalchuk

Compared to other sports, it is very common in the NHL or any hockey league to have arbitration cases. For example, in the past year there have been as many as 20 players that have had arbitration cases. Ilya Kovalchuk's case may have been the most influential meeting that the NHL has ever seen. In the past only the best of the best (Rick Dipietro, Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa and Alexander Ovechkin) have had contracts that last over 10 years, but Kovalchuk stepped pasted the line by receiving a 17 year deal. Thats the longest contract in major sports history. The New Jersey Devils owner, Lou Lamoriello, apparently knew that the contracted he had offered to Kovalchuk, who was an un-restricted free agent at the time, was going to be rejected by the NHL. Kovalchuk was represtented by the NHLPA (players association) and they filed for an arbitration case, and the arbitrator, Richard Bloch, was a well-known one who also had worked with NFL star, Terrel Owens case in Philadelphia. The interesting thing abuot Kovalchuk's deal was that during the first 10 years Kovalchuk would be paid 95 million, but the last 7 years he would only get paid 7 million. The intention was that since Kovalchuk would be about 40 years old during the final stretch of his contract he would have retired before the minimum salary came into play. Although Kovalchuk's case was huge, he wasnt the only big arbitration case of the 2010 off-season. Vincent Jackson, wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers, had been holding out for determining how long his suspention from play is because he violated the NFL's substance abuse policy. All in all, the arbitration case was a lose-lose situation for both Jackson and Kovalchuk. The Devils were forced to give up draft picks and pay numerous fines for the ridiculous conract. About afew weeks after the NHL rejected the deal, Kovalchuk and the Devils restuctured the contract and this time the NHL favored it, but the rejection earlier was "a shot heard round the world of sports". What I wonder is, if Kovalchuk's deal was so ridiculous, and with the salary cap raising each year, where does the NHL draw the line? Kovalchuk wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last of this type of case. Even the union had to get involved in this deal, but was all of this hype and pressure for the deal to get done a sign of warning throughout the league? The real question is who lost more. Yes, maybe the Devils had a short term blow to their success with the forfeting of their draft picks, but what will stop other players to do what Kovalchuk did? Once the salary cap exceeds a certain amount the NHL will almost be forced to accept deals like Kovalchuks in the near future. The NHL had already hit rock bottom in 2006 with the lockout, will it happen again? Arbitration seems to be common in the NHL, they do know how to deal with these deals every year. Arbitration only pitted two common foes once again (NHL and the NHLPA), and this time the NHL won. If the union was forced to get involved in this ordeal, will arbitration in pro sports still be a common occurance? The answer is yes, it has to be. Without arbitration clauses, sports would be reduced to constant lockouts and such. They need arbitration to commence deals that normal contracts wouldn't solve. Anti Niemi, was awarded 2.75 million deal for it. The NHL is a business, and the Devil's organization understood that. What Kovalchuk and the Devils wanted to do was truly a Devilish Deal. Kovalchuk knew the risk of the deal before it was made as well as Lamoriello, so I completely disagree with the what the Devils organization tried to pull by creating this contract. There was absolutely no way that the NHL would have accepted this deal, and it costed the Devils draft picks, money and most importantly it was an embarassment to the organization. The NHL made the right decision by rejecting this deal, but soon enough the players will be asking for more money during a larger expansion of time. This may just be the calm before the storm.

Negotiation Situation

If you don't know already Darrelle Revis has caused the second top story of this year's NFL off-season behind Brett Favre off course. Revis who held out of training camp

and most of the preseason

wanted more than what he had. This was not only a distraction to his team but to the organization in a whole. People think that these negotiations and holding out of contracts only happen in the sports world because that's what our culture leans towards. Recently in the later months of summer of 2010 Disney and Time

Warner Cable have been working on a negotiation to get Disney's channels such as ABC and ESPN to go through Time Warner Cable networks. This deal could bring millions to both. But why isn't this negotiation as big as Darrelle Revis? Is it really a bigger deal to focus on this one man rather than a full production company? In some minds it is better business. But that business brings major distraction to teams such as the

Jets even if the players of those teams say that they are not distracted, they are. The players merely say they are not distracted so the media doesn't bombard them with more questions.

In the Time Warner Cable deal with Disney I am sure that a lot of the company focus was on this deal but it didn't distract the entire company. There business as the company was to get the deal done without any distraction. Shouldn't major sports teams such as the Jets follow the same path? The media can ask the Jets as many questions as they want but the Jets don't have to answer anything. The one negotiation with only one person wanting more has made the headlines and proven to be bigger than a whole organization. So I ask myself the question, is it really worth it to pay attention to a guy who wants more money? Or is it worth it to pay attention to something that may affect my own life?

I wish I could pay more attention to a contract that will affect me personally but the negotiation of one man consumed my thoughts. Keep this in mind, which would you rather pay more attention to? Be honest with yourself and don't just say what you want. Remember the media always has an influence in big time deals and your thoughts will be twisted by what they say.

Toyota Recall Drama

Toyota has taken a big blow this year and last year. They have had some major recalls on some of their products. My family personally has two Toyota's and one Lexus, which is a a Toyota made line. We love their cars and never had a doubt in them. We have a 2000 Toyota Sienna, a 2009 Lexus ES #350, and a 2010 Toyota Rav-4. We have a lot of faith in Toyota and that's why all of our cars are their products. When the recall first started the whole nation was concerned. Toyota was doing so well while a lot of other car manufacturers were failing. They had an edge on their competition. Efficient, reliable, and affordable cars. Once the recall was announced my family stayed true to Toyota and knew that they could fix what ever problems they were having, in this case, the accelerator getting stuck on the floor mat causing the car to never stop. We were not experiencing these problems at all but we still got a letter from Toyota telling us to send in our car for a day, take a replacement car, all for free. They just wanted to make sure all their products were safe and to make sure that they weren't putting anybody in danger.
A lot of this hype was complete nonsense. Since some people took advantage of the recall and when they got into accident and got speeding tickets. This was just their excuse of getting out of any trouble they were in. There is really no way check if the pedal did or did not get stuck in that specific car so many people got out of their tickets and sued Toyota for putting them in danger.
A lawsuit was recently settled from last year's accident near San Diego. This is the accident that started the whole recall in the first place. Since the lawsuit was settled, Toyota can now focus on trying to get rid of the recall problem.
A case that was particularly hurtful to Toyota was one where a police officer was killed. He was driving a Lexus ES and his car went out of his control. There is a recording on the police radio of police officer Mark Saylor saying "There's no brakes!" This piece of evidence is a low blow to the whole Lexus company and the Toyota company, in result.
This recall has been a major issue in the United States, and all around the world but my family and I have never lost faith in Toyota and their ability to make good cars. Even though most of the cases are fake, their still our some real ones out their but we hope that Toyota can fix them soon. The Prius seems to be the car with the most problems so I recommend not purchasing a Toyota Prius in the near future. Good luck new car buyers!