Heard about that NHL lockout? No? You're not the only ones:
Teams began canceling regular-season games this week, after the league granted permission to release arena dates on a 30-day rolling basis. But in terms of actual effect felt so far, only a week's worth of training camp sessions and a handful of meaningless exhibition games are all that have formally gone by the boards. ... Of course meaningless is something owners and players should soon be well-acquainted with as this dispute starts to eat into real games.
A league that was barely on the American radar screen in the first place has all but completely fallen off only a week into the lockout.
"Barely on the radar" is being mighty generous to markets like Houston, which has a decent AHL team, but otherwise couldn't care less about hockey. Before you know it, AHL (and ECHL) teams are going to be the only option for actual fans Real Soon Now.
Across North America, hockey writers are being reassigned to NFL games, Yankee and Red Sox pennant runs and college football games. Some are being asked to use up vacation time accrued during a long playoff run. Many major newspapers, even those in so-called traditional hockey markets, have allocated only a few lines of wire copy to the lockout and the sport in general. What will the coverage look like in February? March?
In February, they'll still be talking about the Super Bowl and the halftime show which, if present trends continue, will feature the Smurfs and Pat Boone as Gargamel. In March, the NCAA tourney will occupy the lion's share of the sports media's attention (along with spring training). With the exception of big hockey markets like Canada, the Northeast, and Upper Midwest, no one's going to care.
And if the Red Sox win the World Series, the Northeast will still be recovering from region-wide rioting and the ritual despoiling of Babe Ruth's grave.
The few hockey stories that will be told will come from American Hockey League rinks, NCAA campuses and the major junior leagues. There are compelling stories to be sure, stories that deserve to be told. That they have little or nothing to do with the NHL makes them somehow more intriguing.
Some NHL teams are planning to have their AHL teams play games in their buildings -- although in the case of the Chicago Blackhawks it won't be difficult for the few fans left to identify the players, given that last year's NHL squad is essentially the same team that will occupy the Norfolk dressing room this season.
It also doesn't hurt that the Blackhawks haven't been an NHL team in years. Of course, the 'Hawks appear to be one of the only teams whose web page lacks a statement regarding the lockout. Here's looking at you, Bill Wirtz.
Meanwhile, the regular season supposedly starts next week. The owners demand a salary cap, which the players refuse to consider. Players do have one other option, but one that doesn't appear to be very viable at this time:
On the ice, the Original Stars Hockey League, an upstart, four-on-four barn-storming league composed of locked-out players, was rumored to have shut down operations after a handful of exhibition games, which were hammered in the media for small crowds and sloppy play. But an announcement on league letterhead turned out to be a hoax. Instead, commissioner Grant Ledyard said Thursday that Dallas Stars Marty Turco and Brenden Morrow would join the six-team league when it starts its regular schedule on Oct. 7 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Then there's the curious notion of players who will not stand for a salary cap that would still see them paid an average of $1.3 million per season playing for a portion of the gate from a crowd of 3,000 in towns like Barrie and Sarnia.
Shit, 3,000 is still a good crowd to teams like Chicago and Carolina.
It'd be nice to have a clear point in time to which we could point and say, "If only," but both sides in this debacle have been screwing up pretty conistently since the last lockout in 1994. Players have been demanding higher and higher salaries and the owners have been paying them (player costs take up 75% of revenues), while the NHL continued to expand into markets that weren't exactly clamoring for a hockey franchise in the first place. At the same time, the league was unable to come up with a plan to effectively market their existing teams, resulting in the worst Stanley Cup TV ratings of all time. How supportive do you think fans in new markets like Nashville are going to be after several mediocre seasons followed by a year (or two) long suspension of play? I hope they didn't take their names off the waiting list for Titans season tickets.
I'm an intermittent major league hockey fan, meaning I watch a couple games a year, time (and screeching infants) permitting. I've always (since I started following the game in the early '80s) rooted for the Red Wings, and I enjoy trading barbs with my friends who support Colorado. I've only been to one NHL game (Rangers vs. Capitals), however, and that because a friend had an extra ticket he didn't charge me for. The NHL priced me out long ago, which is why it's just as well the Aeros are such a good deal. Sure, the hockey's not that great, but the crowds here are fun, and the team sure as hell seems to care about the fans more.
I won't miss the NHL - not while football season is in full swing and the Cards are in the playoffs (and having beaten L.A. 8-3 today to take Game 1 of their series) - and I'm afraid most other sports fans won't as well.
These are dark times, indeed. Baseball playoffs aren't the same without being able to ignore them due to the NHL early season non-games. So much for civilization as we know it. Just when we were making prgress....I am sure there is Cheney/Halliburton connection involved somehow.