Rumor: Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs behind the delays to the NHL season.

Jacobs appears to once again be earning his reputation.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Rumor: Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs behind the delays to the NHL season.
Keystone Press

Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs has built a reputation over the years that has made him among the most reviled owners in the entire league. In fact the hate for Jacobs has been such that even fans outside of the Boston area are well aware of his well earned reputation, and one need not go very far back in history to find examples of why that is the case.

It was just a little over a year ago that we covered a story revolving around new seating at TD Garden that had fans in an uproar. In order to squeeze every possible dollar out of fans at the arena, the Bruins added hundreds of seats that badly restricted leg room for fans in attendance. Given the cost of concessions and ticket prices, you can see why no one was happy about the change.


Now a new blistering report from National Hockey League insider Larry Brooks has revealed that Jacobs, and a small group of owners with him, may actually be behind the most recent delays to the upcoming NHL season. As fans know the owners, via NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, have asked for more money after negotiating a new CBA just months ago and according to Brooks, Jacob and his team of owners are the ones behind it.

From Brooks:

Information we’ve gathered over the last 48 hours indicates that the owners might have reason to be angry — but not at the union. Indeed, we’ve been told by two sources that club owners were largely uninformed about the spring and summer negotiations and had little or no time to examine the CBA before it was put to a vote.

Now that the owners understand the ramifications of the deal given the challenges of playing at least a largely spectator-free 2020-21, there is a group livid at the commissioner and deputy Bill Daly. We are told that Boston’s “Mr. Jacobs” is among them.

Although he did not mention Jacobs by name, NHL player agent Allan Walsh made comments this week that would appear to lend credibility to the story being reported here by Larry Brooks.

"I think wants going on here is  that there are some owners, 4 or 5 not many, that are very upset with the way this deal is going to impact their own personal cash flow and cash flow issues for this 2021 season," said Walsh on Melnick in the Afternoon. "And I think, if I am reading the tea leaves here, that is probably the impetus for Gary coming forward and trying to change the structure of the deal for this coming season."

This certainly makes it sound like Brooks is barking up the right tree.

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