NHL Fans Are Sick, Tired

Winnipeg Sun ^ | February 7, 2005 | Ken Fidlin

[SamAdams76]

Last week, espn.com, the Internet site for all-sports TV station ESPN, asked its American subscribers to weigh in on the NHL lockout. "Do you care that the NHL is expected to cancel the 2004-05 season?" they asked.

Of the 146,514 responses, 73% said "No."

Given what we north of the border have been surmising over the past few months, that percentage is not terribly surprising. Hockey coverage in the States is as hard to find as cricket coverage in Canada. It's a boutique sport at best.

What is surprising is that many actually responded. Were they giving away free cars?

We in Canada love and care about hockey in a way unmatched around the globe, but I'm starting to doubt if Canadians care as deeply as we think about the current labour dispute. Given his or her druthers, every hockey fan in this country obviously would choose to have the NHL back on ice and back on our TV sets. But in light of the equally obvious fact that it's not going to happen anytime soon, I am sensing little in the way of passionate outrage that you might expect of a people deprived of their game.

Lockout conversations tend to peter out after a minute or two, simply because there's not a lot to say. Once you get past "Are they coming back?" and the obligatory negative response, talk turns to more urgent matters, like the price of kids' sticks.

So, what in the name of Gordie Howe is going on here? It certainly isn't that we don't care, because down deep we do.

My own belief is that in an age of unfathomable player riches, not to mention ticket prices, the public has disconnected itself from the people who play and run the game.

Trevor Linden may expect us working stiffs to appreciate the principle behind his association's stalwart refusal to accept a cap on their salaries that would reduce the average salary from $1.8 million US to $1.3 million, but the truth is nobody I know can relate to such thinking.

If you can believe the industry numbers, there is a $2 billion pie (shrinking with each passing day) to be divided. How can such an economic reality get lost in the semantics of "salary cap" and "linkage" and "cost certainty."

For heaven's sake, at $1 million a year a middle-of-the road NHLer will gross more in two seasons than about 90% of the population earns in 40 years of working.

In the realm of professional athletics, hockey players have managed in general to maintain their image as "real" people; good guys, humble and as well-grounded as the small towns where so many are from. But in recent years, it has gotten so that the only people who can afford to go to watch them play are rich and well-connected themselves.

Because it's hockey and because it's Canada, folks will cheer for the sweater (whenever that sweater reappears). They will pine quietly for the game they love but care little for the "plight" of the millionaires who play it and the billionaires who own the teams.

As this charade of a negotiation drags on yet another week, each side rooted to the same patch of ground it occupied two years ago, the players and owners will continue to wage their little war through the media for the hearts and minds of the people in the street.

As far as we can tell, though, those hearts and minds already have moved on.

[Doohickey]

It's not Bush's fault, but if this were football or baseball you would've had federal mediators involved months ago.

[George from New England]

Oh - is there a strike or something?

Now that you mention it I can't remember clicking on one by accident this yeat.

[SamAdams76]

It's a small world!

I own that LP also and it is one of my most prized possessions. This record was pressed just three blocks from where I grew up. At the Fleetwood Recording Studio in Revere. I used to walk behind there all the time and pull "defective" pressings out of the dumpster.

My father worked at Logan Airport and some of the Bruins were semi-regulars at a bar in East Boston that he used to go to. John McKenzie, Don Awrey, Carol Vadnais, they'd often show up there after games. Sometimes even BEFORE games. Those were definitely different times.

[cripplecreek]

That game looks more exciting in a still photo than in real life.

[Damifino]

As season ticket holders in Tampa, we're really hurtin' here. I really love the game and the regular guy players. What really hacks me off now is the owners refuse to declare the season canceled so they don't have to refund our $$. If there is no hockey, I'd like that money back now!

[furball4paws]

Hockey is the only pro sport I watch. I really miss it this time of year, but something needs to be done about the incredible amounts of money in sports going to athletes and owners. When I was a kid I used to watch Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay and the Richards and that great little guy Jacques Plante. I still love the game for its beauty and speed, but I will do without if I have to.

[Kommodor]

Two words: Replacement players.

If the regular players want to play in the NHL again, they can sign new contracts and accept the salary cap. If not, they can enjoy living off their copious savings accounts.

Just like those of us in the real world, if they don't like the salary, they can get a job somewhere else.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

I grew up outside Buffalo NY and played hockey my entire young life.

No one cares about (aboot) hockey anymore. Nor for Canadians either.

[republicanequestrian]

I still get to watch hockey :) The Colorado Eagles still play, salary or no. I believe they play for the love of the game... amazing huh?

[texan75010]

Karl Rove plot!

[gathersnomoss]

I don't watch it and I'm not black.

[smonk]

NHL Fans Are Sick, Tired

BOTH of them.

[republicanequestrian]

I still get to watch hockey :) The Colorado Eagles still play, salary or no. I believe they play for the love of the game... amazing huh?

[buccaneer81]

Wow! I lived in Saugus for a couple of years after college. I went to a lot of movies at the Showcase Revere with girls from Malden and Everett (easy Everett!).

No question, those were different times. More like "Slap Shot" than today's world.

Out here in Ohio we've embraced the Jackets in a huge way, but this foolishness is killing the league.

[SamAdams76]

I think it's going to come to that. If the season is cancelled (as it almost certainly will), the owners are going to restock their teams with replacement players. By the time training camp opens in September, I think a lot of the pro players will just suck it up and come back under the new rules.

For all the talk about "unions" and "scabs", the NHL players apparently had no problem taking minor league jobs away from other players this year.

[mikrofon]

The NHL has come a long way since the days 30 years ago when I used to stand on the vendor's empty beer cases in the standing-room bleachers at the old Aud in Buffalo to catch a game -- the wrong way...

With the lockout and the recent collapse of the Empire Sports Network that used to carry most of the Sabres' home games (fallout from the Adelphia/Rigas scandal), no one around here seems to care much about pro hockey any more.

[SamAdams76]

I don't know if you remember, but the Showcase in Revere used to be a drive-in. I used to go there a lot and saw films like "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Sting" there. They had (and still have today) a huge flea market on Sunday mornings. I used to take my newspaper route money there and buy up lots of cheap records. Typical scenario would be that a kid grew up and moved out of the house and the mother would be there on Sunday morning selling off all his records for like a quarter each!

I used to date girls from Winthrop and Lynn. Those Malden and Everett girls were too high class for me!

[TheForceOfOne]

the squid are happy! lol

[Richard Kimball]

It requires skill that most of us don't have, and there are some real risks involved. That being said, 1.3 million ain't bad:

[ConservativeLawStudent]

I initially sided with the owners, thinking the players were being greedy. It is clear to me now that is not the case.

The players have made some serious consessions, and the owners have hardly blinked. They are not negotiating in good faith.

I don't want the NHL to turn into what the NFL has become with their salary cap. If it takes an entire year or two of no hockey to ensure that, then so be it. There are lots of alternative ideas to curb spending and keep ticket prices down than to institute a salary cap.