Hockey Fans losing hope in Sport with Unforgiving Lockout -NHL Special
The lockout is beginning to take its toll for everyone associated in whichever way possible with the sport of hockey. But for the fans, it is probably the worst thing that could happen to them as they are slowly beginning to lose hope and may just stop following
it altogether.
It has been two months now since the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end, forcing the National Hockey League (NHL) to officially announce the beginning of the lockout, the second one they have seen in less than a decade.
For the older fan base, it is not the first time, but the league and team owners must realise that there is a much younger group of fans as well and changes their views on the sport would not take that much time seeing how competitive each sport is in North
America.
Despite being one of the most thrilling sports of them all, hockey is till number four when it comes to the continent as baseball, football and basketball have a much bigger following and changing on to them would not be an issue for a lot of hockey fans.
Nevertheless, dedicated fans are still hopeful of the puck dropping soon despite have had the entire preseason cancelled, a major chunk of the 2012-2013 NHL regular season already gone out the window along with the highly anticipated Winter Classic also
cancelled out. It was tough enough for Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs fans to realise that they would not be seeing their favourite teams go head-to-head in the legendary Michigan Stadium, but now feeling that there might not be a regular season
at all is just harsh.
It is fourth work stoppage in just 20 years and all three of the previous ones had lost a major chunk of the regular season, if not the entire hockey year like we saw in 2004-2005. Those wounds are still fresh in the minds of fans and hurting, but seeing
the attitude of both the league and Players’ Association, it does not help in the healing process, but just makes them even worse.
A lot of players have already chosen to continue playing abroad, with a number of others contemplating to do the same, which would just dishearten fans even more as it is tough following their favourite NHLers in games that are not even telecasted in North
America.
No one can tell for sure whether fans will be seeing some hockey action this time around or not, but one thing is for sure and that is they are not about to leave the sport just yet, but might if things go beyond the brink of no return.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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