As Bryan Burwell, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated today:
“Dear players, ESPN replaced the programming of your games with a bunch of fat guys in sunglasses, chomping on cigars and playing poker, and the TV ratings for that time slot improved!!!!
Call me crazy, but I don't think you have any leverage.”
Granted, the number of articles ridiculing the NHLPA for finally accepting what they had for years adamantly refused (a salary cap) makes them look like morons. Well, no. They looked like morons even before they accepted the cap, since there was no justification for the salaries they were getting: attendance was down across the league, TV ratings were dropping or non-existant since the only TV carrying games were mostly local affiliates, endorsements were pointless since no mainstream folks cared. Bryan says it best with “the NHL is a minor-league sport with a major-league economic habit.”
The NHL needs to get creative. They need to develop a marketing plan out of this world. They need to woo back their long-time fans. They need stronger appeal to seasonal fans (ie those fans that only watch playoffs, their own team, etc). They need to make the rest of the world take notice that they even EXIST!
However, they have to stay alive and playing to do any of those things. They have to be able to “do business” while they build business. They can't do that for very long when they pay their players millions to play to NO AUDIENCE.
Personally, I'd bet that the financial situation is not quite as bleak as the team owners would lead us to believe. However, I'm one of the few people I know that actually cares what happens with this year's NHL season. Others have long quit caring. I haven't seen a sold out hockey game in ages - on TV or otherwise. How many kids do you see running around in hockey jerseys of their favorite players? Yeah. Me neither.
I love hockey. I love NHL hockey. The kicker is that I can see minor league hockey in my backyard (relatively speaking). We have the Missouri River Otters that play at the St. Charles Family Arena. They're part of the United Hockey League and they're pretty good. What these guys lack in talent/skill and experience, they make up for in excitement, desire, heart, etc. These guys WANT to play. They LOVE to play.
I'll take that over a bunch of overpaid, over rated guys that have forgotten that they actually used to play the game for free and they used to stay up at night looking for “that chance” to play at the big league. You have that chance again, boys. Don't blow it.
Later.