Is the Lockout Worth it? -NHL Special
With the recent cancellation of all 2012-2013 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season games through November 30, 2012, it is hard to see whether the lockout is really worth it or not.
Both sides, the NHL and Players’ Association have been in a tussle for well over a month now and seem to have not made any significant progress as of yet. The 2012-2013 regular season was scheduled to start on October 11th, and was definitely
going to be one of the biggest one yet in history of the professional sport, but the ignorant attitude of both sides has made it hard for North America’s fourth largest sport to go on.
What should have happened was the regular season to continue under the terms and conditions of the previous collective bargaining agreement while representatives of both sides met to discuss a new labour deal, but that was the fault of the league, which
did not agree to have the puck drop in case a CBA was not in force.
The league, team owners and players are collectively losing millions of dollars in revenue, contracts, along with the biggest factor which is fan base. 2011-2012 was a historic hockey year in which the Los Angeles Kings won their first ever Stanley Cup championship,
boosting the rating of the sport to new levels, but with a lockout following, all that momentum has been killed off.
Both sides now, need to ask themselves one simple question. Is the lockout really worth it? With fans deciding to follow other sports to stay in the loop, ultimately, it is hockey overall which is losing out and failing to spread like it would of, had the
momentum been kept intact and built upon.
The previous lockout, which resulted in the entire 2004-2005 regular season being lost along with players share of team revenue, the fresh deadlock seems to be even worse since there seems to be no apparent losing side if similar deal is reached.
“At some point, we were sold a bill of goods,” former NHLer, Mike Modano told ESPN. “Everybody was buying it. Everybody thought, ‘Let’s not let each other down. Let’s do it for the future of the game. Blah, blah, blah.’ You’re only in the game so long.”
Players are not the only ones who will be losing out on their salaries, but team owners and ultimately the league will lose out on what could have been another record breaking season in terms of revenue generated. Team owners want to cut the players share
in revenue, but it is hard to understand why so when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, has himself, stated that these past few seasons have been the best ever for the league and continue to be.
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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