The NHL lockout of 1994, which began on Oct. 1, lasted for 104 days, bleeding almost two weeks into the new year before an agreement was reached. The issue at hand was how to go about subsidizing teams in weaker markets. Owners proposed a payroll tax that would be used to help said teams as well as a salary cap, both of which the players were against. The NHL Players’ Association suggested revenue sharing instead, meaning that each of the top 16 revenue producers would put 5% of their profits into a pool and redistribute it to the teams that were losing money. In the end a collective-bargaining agreement was reached and salary caps were instituted for rookie players, and while players gave up some of their rights with respect to salary arbitration, the owners dropped the push for the salary cap and the payroll tax to resolve the standoff. The 1994 season didn’t begin until Jan. 20, 1995, and was shortened from 84 games to 48. The All-Star game was also canceled. But the salary-cap issue remained unresolved, a fact that laid the groundwork for the season-canceling 2004 lockout.