Samples: Even hardcore hockey fans have had it with NHL negotiations
By CHUCK SAMPLES
ISL Correspondent
Hockey fans have been pretty glum lately. I know. I’m on the list.
If anything, contract negotiations between owners and players have taken enough of a step back to the point where several national experts believe the league doesn’t want a deal of any sort.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter if owners are scared of Donald Fehr or players want more money than owners want to dole out. This approach to the sport and its fans is pretty stupid.
Dumb question, but how many households did you reach with almost daily games on ESPN? How many do you reach now?
Color me weird (and many people have), but aside from the Miracle on Ice I wasn’t exposed to hockey until Omaha started a junior hockey franchise in the 1980s. The team went 0-48-1 the first year, but I fell in love with the speed, agility, power and passion of the sport. And that was before the team won the league and finished second nationally four years later.
The lockout figures to boost attendance for minor league and junior hockey teams simply because fans want their hockey fix. But when the most attention-grabbing league is shut down, does that really speak to the health of the sport? I think not.
The league has always had problems generating a fan base resembling the nation’s other major arena league, the NBA, whether it was because of the gooniness of the 1970s or the talent (read: Wayne Gretzky) was out west in the 1980s or low scoring and defensive tactics made the game tough to watch since the early 1990s or the game is generally hard to follow on TV. Or whatever reason you want to throw up against the dart board. Over the past decade, though, the casual fans have ebbed away to football and racing. This leaves the hardcore fans such as myself, but even we have had enough.
Hockey executives probably think fans will flock back to arenas once this collective bargaining agreement is finalized, whenever that will be. But then that would be what this clueless group of individuals would think. The NHL is in a worse position with both its players and fans than it has ever been, but this trend has been evidencing itself for years and won’t change at any point in the near future.
Put another way, hockey will remain a healthy scratch among most sports fans until current leadership is gone.
