Real Denver Sports Lock Out

 

 Management regrets to announce that due to the need for cost certainty  this blog has been locked out.  The blog owner is forced to initiate a blog-stoppage.  Effective immediately I have decided that I am no longer going to allow myself to blog.  This free blogging is an outrage!!

The NHL/PA doesn't care about Me?!?!?

I'm under no illusion that the owners and players collectively known as the NHL/PA really care one hoot about me, the fan.  Sure, in the business sense they do, we are the consumers that make their little engine go.  But really care about us?  Naw.  Nor do I really care about them.  I couldn't care less what kind of contract structures are agreed upon.  I don't care what the HRR is or isn't, today or tomorrow.  It's all business details.  I'm in it for the game.

All the business stuff has to exist for the game to exist, I get that.  Doesn't mean I have to care.  Do you need to know exactly how a plane gets off the ground to care about where it can take you?  I'm more than happy to naively root for my favorite player on the ice and let his high paid agent worry about the fine print.  Ancillary to me.

And I have a word or two for some of the smug, snarky fans of other sports out there.  Hey, your sport isn't better than mine just because we are going through this.  I can't abide this attitude from people that declare (with nose in the air) that the NHL/PA just doesn't give a rat's ass about its fans.  Your sport has had the same battles as mine.  The results have worked out different and you should be grateful for that.  Just because your sport didn't go as far down this road as mine has means they care about their fans more?  Please spare me that truck load of manure.  The NFL & NBA settled their CBA disagreements because they were worried about your five fantasy leagues?  Hilarious!  They don't concern themselves with the fact that you are going to feel lost without your team while they dicker over more money than you will ever have.  It's not about you, it's about your money.  They care about you only in so much as you are a consumer that lines their pockets with cash.

It doesn't matter if we are talking about baseball, football, or basketball.  Big business cares about big money.  So please stop with the condescending attitude and funereal words of consolation when addressing fans of the NHL.

I bet this sport cares about the fans...if it has any...

         

Save the Hockey Hall of Fame, call NOW to donate!

(In case the following is confusing to you: it's my vision of a future that could be, the vioce is a fictional character.)  
by J. Scott Moore

I can feel the cold kiss of autumn in the air, the political season is over and the 46th President of the United States has been chosen.   But I’m more interested in the state of affairs in Toronto.  The Hockey Hall of Fame is having what has become the annual “Save the Hall” drive.  Every year they saturate the airwaves across the country with pleas for donations to keep the Hall open.

It’s sad, the Hall has struggled without a high level league.  Say what you will about our national game but it needs high level play in the country to continue to live the life to which it had become accustomed.  Sure, everyone still loves the game, kids and adults play in leagues much like before.  But the game is suffering a dark malaise that permeates young boy’s dreams on the bright-white ice of the local rink.

The Trustees haven’t awarded the Stanley Cup since the lockout of 2012.  Many have argued that it should be awarded to the best team in Canada, just have a multi-league playoff system.  But we know how that has worked out in the US with college football.  So there the Cup sits, collecting dust and casting a grim shadow on the dreams of young Canadians.

Ever since a legal stranglehold was levied against any competitor setting up shop in North America, the game has suffered.  The KHL, CHL, AHL, all blocked from using arenas that used to be, still are I suppose, the property of the NHL.  Oh sure, the minors could sign a few stars, but that was quickly limited to no more than two previous NHLers per 1,000 sq miles. Some teams don’t even have one.  Can’t bring in 18,000 fans if you don’t have the seating, and you can’t pay the stars if you don’t have 18,000 seats.

The new generation?  Yeah, they’re here but now they want to play in Europe and Russia where they can have more than a goon to pass the puck to for a decent chance to score.  The minor league teams just don’t have the resources to build new arenas with sufficient capacity and no one wants to risk that the NHL will actually, finally be back and destroy the investment, too risky.

So tonight, like many nights, I’m up all night watching my son play in the Swedish Elite League.  With so many of our boys playing overseas I suppose someone was bound to get rich selling guys like me the Euro Ice cable packages.  But hey, it’s worth it.  I could record it but it isn't the same, I’ll stay up late and watch it live.  I’ll be draggin’ ass at work tomorrow but the boss knows this is gonna be a special season.  He’s cool with it.

But as I was sayin’ I’m a bit worried about the drive for the Hall this year.  Donations are down and I can’t spare any myself.  The Euro Ice package was all I could swing, c’mon, it’s my son.  I wonder if any of those billionaires and millionaires in the former NHL will make a donation?

        

NHL Lockout: Catalyst for a new League?

Imagine a situation where a North American major sports league is in a position to be challenged.  A position where, say, the players and fans are in a state of unrest.  Where perhaps even the owners themselves are wondering why they are counting their losses instead of their profits.

Is that not where the NHL is today?  Will it get worse before it gets better?  Seems likely.

So I had a thought...What if the KHL tried to take advantage of the situation?  Tries to move into cities like Seattle, Kansas City and Quebec that have or will soon have new arenas waiting for a team? Cities that want a high level pro hockey team will spend millions and millions to get one.

So why wouldn't that mean tossing in a few million for the inevitable legal battles as well?  Far fetched?  Well, what about the World Hockey Association days?  All it took was a few lawsuits and a boatload of money to get that ball rolling.  And speaking of money, want to attract players to the North American Hockey League?  Two words for you: Salary Cap.  As in there isn't one.  Don't think it's possible?  I bet that's what the owners thought when Bobby Hull signed a record setting contract, in the other league.

And what if a few disgruntled, current NHL owners jumped to the KHL?  I don't think the Jets owners signed up for this malarkey.  Small market teams playing the odds or maybe just tired of the disproportionate revenue sharing?  Never underestimate the ability of an individual or organization to swoop into the old establishment and completely change the way business is conducted.  The student becomes the master.

And then, what if ESPN signed a TV contract with them and John Buccigross was on again with his wicked wit and edgy wrap up show?  Wouldn't that just be the final push to put a new league on the map?

The NHL would be up and running in a heartbeat and very possibly would soon be begging for a merger.

Crazy?  What if...?

The NHL Lockout and my Hockey Soul

The last time the NHL locked out the players I was about to reach a new height of Avalanche fandom.  That height would be attending games.

School was finally graduated, the job was finally good and it was time to get in on the Avalanche ticket pools that I had only been a periphery member of for a couple years.  This was the height of spending decent amounts of my income on tickets.  I had signed on to the waiting list in anticipation of this day, depositing money that the Avs would hold for two years before I got my chance.  One reason I was motivated: I wanted playoff tickets, well that was hard to come by in a pool I wasn't running.  When I got the call for season tickets I struck out on my own, signed up for a full season of tickets and wrangled my pool together.  No, no, I couldn't afford a whole season on my own.  I signed up 4 or 5 other people.  Collected the money, sent it all in to the Avs and BAM!  The lockout was a reality.

As the potential for a season dwindled I got adept at dividing up the refunds for all involved.  What a giant pain in my ass!  So here we have a defining moment.  Yes of course I came back from that lockout as a fan.  Still a big fan, but something died.  I wasn't willing to run that circus that involved a full season of tickets.  I signed up for the smaller package of tickets and kept them all to myself.

And I know for sure it was the lockout.  I was pissed, but willing to forgive.

Here we are years later and I can feel the anger and the disappointment in my soul over this labor dispute.  I was unhappy last time that I was missing out on hockey, I pretty much blamed the owners but I also pretty much didn't care once it was over.  Pretty much.

At least that's what I thought.  But apparently there was a seed of antagonism left behind.  And it's been aggravated.  I know now that I will be less of a fan when this is over.  It makes me sad, but it ought to scare the two idiotic sides in this dispute.  I don't have a ticket package anymore.  Nor plans to buy one.

The owners and the players are killing a little bit more of my hockey soul.  I don't have to make hyperbole statements about refraining from buying merchandise.  I don't have to sign pointless internet petitions.

The ice is cold and painted.  It’s ready for NHL hockey.  But the lockout has begun melting away the chances of a season.  Just like it did back in 2004.

I know what's happening to me: I know that a little bit more of my hockey heart has started to melt away.