I sure do wish there was more coverage of the bickering between the millionaire NHL players and the billionaire owners. And strike those players down who might consider going around their organization to try to actually be reasonable with the league. Sportscenter, Sportsnet News, Hockey Central, The Business of Sports, CBC National News, its just not enough coverage of the squabbling over money for me. I want more! I want to see these guys, paid millions to go out and play a game that I only wish I had time enough to play regularly, fight over dollar figures and "cost certainty" and "salary caps" and yadda yadda yadda. I mean, god forbid in the downtime, any attention be given to the amateur sports in Canada that we only hear about suffering at Olympic time when we underperform (at least in terms of total quantity, there were some interesting per capita figures for the last Olympics that I made but never managed to publish) as a country. Disregarding the fact that a salary cap has significantly changed the dynamics of the NBA and NFL, and made them interesting leagues to follow year to year because the teams actually change, one would think these guys (read, the NHLPA, and the NHL) could realize that at this point they are shooting each other in the foot...actually, at this point, they are starting to move their sights upward towards critical arteries in the thigh.
Every night I see the same old shit, with Nick Kypreos and company on Sportsnet and Bob Mackenzie and friends on TSN making predictions and passing on their infinite wisdom, all of which never seem to be accurate, nor productive in anything but eating up air time. Granted, noticeably more attention has been given to minor hockey (which is good in and of itself), and European football (read soccer) which I can't complain about...one still has to sit through 15 minutes of NHL speculation over a bunch of bullshit first. From another frustrated hockey fan: guys, get your shit together, or people are going to really start appreciate what other venues of entertainment are available to them, and that certainly isn't going to help maintain your millionaire lifestyles.
4 comments:
Yea, I saw something about this earlier today, and first of all see it as farfetched, I don't think the true hockey fan, and hockey city owners would go for it. By the same token though, if it gave them a means of circumventing the NHLPA and hiring NHL calibre players anyways, under new guidelines I'd be all for it. Obviously the league would be run more as a business than it already is, which might eventually see the loss of the weaker market franchises, which I for one wouldn't particularly object to. I am of the group that would love to see the league shrunk down again, and so making each team more talent based as opposed to having these 3rd and 4th line 'grind' lines and 'hitting' lines.
I agree, although that $4.9 billion estimated value surely has significantly dropped with the loss of a season. I think the idea to put pressure like that on the NHLPA is good, and I'm sure that's why Bettman encouraged it, although I don't completely fault the NHLPA either.
Yea, I agree, I wouldn't be hurt at all if I never saw NHL hockey ever again. Minor hockey leagues in Canada, along with the European leagues are enough to satisfy me. I actually prefer the open ice play in the European leagues, but that comes down to a personal preference thing.
And the lack of hockey has allowed me to become a bigger fan of soccer in the mean time.
yea...all I get on the sports networks here are Premiership games...the occasional MLS game, and occasional FA cup, Spanish and Italian games, but no German or Dutch league. I'm a ManU and PSV Eindhoven follower...ManU mostly because of VanNistelrooy and Eindhoven because that's where my grandparents are from mostly...
Soccer has similar problems to hockey though I find, with the teams who have money to spend (Arsenal, ManU, Real Madrid, etc.) and those that don't. But the upsets are more frequent and more significant than you find in other sports I find.
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