Fans will return to hockey if history brought into perspective -NHL Update
There are two schools of thought that have arisen due to the current tense situation between the National Hockey League (NHL) and NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA) due to a deadlock over a new collective bargaining agreement.
One side proposes the idea of hockey losing a large portion of its fan base if a regular season does not come into play, while the other suggests that they will continue following the sport since history proves it to have happened before.
The NHL is on the verge of heading into a second lockout in the past 10 years and with tensions growing day-by-day, seeing the possibility of it actually happen might frighten many as the September 15th deadline of the current labour deal closes
in.
$1.2 billion was the amount of ticket revenues earned by the NHL, according to the Toronto Star, a figure which just goes to show the growing fan base of the sport and how large it really has become. It was just of the 2010-2011 NHL regular season along
and the next season is reported to be even higher.
There was a lockout back in 1994-1995, which the first in the NHL’s history, after which the league gained a minor fan base but it was after the most recent lockout in 2004-2005 that the league gained 2.4 percent in terms of attendance and saw a buildup
in anticipation of fans from around the nation.
Some sources even term the NHL being in a need to grow and expand to cities that hockey has not touched yet, at least in a professional sort of way.
“There will be a lot of people using these numbers to argue that the league would be better off with teams in Quebec City and Hamilton, Ont., rather than Columbus, Ohio, and a number of other locations where the NHL is not setting the world on fire,” said
Marc Ganis, president of a Chicago sports advisory firm.
For now, there is no telling whether a lockout will actually come into play or the league and players’ association will work things out for the better. Updates should be expected in the upcoming days.
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