Doomsday Looms For Hockey And The Blackhawks.
By Rob Winn in News on Aug 17, 2012 5:40PM
As autumn looms another professional sports labor strife has put a season in jeopardy. Barring an unforeseen breakthrough in negotiations, the NHL is threatening to lockout its players. The latest talk is the owners are seeking an immediate decrease in the salary cap while reducing the player's share of league revenue. But the current salary cap and percentage of revenue sharing is hardly the biggest problem facing a sport with dwindling popularity.
The owner's platform of expensive contracts is ignoring the obvious and they have no one to blame but themselves. Just a month ago the Minnesota Wild signed Zach Parise to a 13-year, 98 million dollar deal. That ridiculous contract was signed while the same owner complained about the flaws in the current system and helped devise a plan to reduce salaries across the board.
We can even look in our own backyard. The Blackhawks signed Marian Hossa to a 12-year deal when he was 30 years old and coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Granted he has been a solid player and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2010, but since coming to the Hawks he hasn't sniffed 40 goals and has often been injured. 12-years and 62.8 million is an absurd price to pay for a veteran with declining skills while your league struggles to maintain relevance.
Hockey occupies a weird space. It is by far the least popular of the four major professional sports, yet arguably enjoys the most die-hard fan base. It is practically a religion in Canada but few American sports fans truly understand the game, which hinders any growth now and in the future. And to top that off commissioner Gary Bettman's initiatives to bring in new fans have been ill advised and half-hearted.
The league's real problems revolve around teams in warm weather cities with half-filled arenas and microscopic TV ratings. Over the last 20 years, the league migrated south hoping to expand its reach. But simply dropping a team in a medium-sized city with zero hockey culture doesn't result in an immediate spike in attendance and viewership. It just adds another struggling franchise to a league that can barely support itself.
Another one of Bettman's initiatives was to move the league's marquee games from sports giant ESPN to Versus, now NBC Sports Network. Even NBA commissioner David Stern isn't pompous or dumb enough to ditch ESPN and take up residency with an upstart competitor. Bettman's decision has resulted in near minuscule hockey coverage on ESPN, the very place where the NHL needs to cultivate fans.
The last NHL work stoppage in 2004 resulted in a lost season, significant anger from a loyal fan base and a collective shrug from the rest of the sports viewing public. What will the second significant lockout in eight years bring? Stability for the foreseeable future or a complete decent into irrelevance? It's time for Bettman and the owners to look in the mirror when talking about the problems facing the NHL. At this point, arguing over revenue is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.