NHL ... Who gives a puck?
The National Hockey League (NHL) and its players' association reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a new labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season. But the big story here is, who gives a damn?
Hockey is a niche sport few care about unless there's a USA team playing world competition somewhere or one of its NHL superstars is melting the ice with dazzling play. Oops...did I say superstars? There are none, at least none with the star power to drag the sport kicking and screaming out of its abyssmal television ratings. During last year's lost season, poll after poll illustrated that more than half the country didn't even know the NHL season was canceled.
Now mind you, I'm one of the six remaining hockey fans left in the U.S.A. so remember that as you read these comments. The brain surgeons posing as NHL executives still don't get it - the sport doesn't translate well on television and it is tedious to watch. Due to rule and officiating changes, hockey has lost its flow and no longer offers prolonged, fast-paced action without excessive, intolerable breaks in the game's rhythm. TV revenues are non-existent yet overpaid players want ever-greater amounts of cash to perform. Here's a little secret: In today's market, a major sport cannot function without a lucrative TV contract.
And don't forget the owners. Greed forced over-expansion of the league to what we have now: a conglomerate, a glut of mediocre teams. And let's not forget their insolence displayed by locking out the players and depriving what fans there were of hockey for an entire season. A ticket to a NHL game became too expensive for regular attendance long ago. Owners regularly threaten communities with moving franchises and extort local governments into building bigger and more expensive arenas so that they can once again jack up the seating, parking, and concession prices.
I suppose the NHL will eventually get back on the ice and perhaps there will be a season this year - but I wonder if there will be any fans to appreciate it.