Blame the Fans for the Lockout

[hf101]

Hockey Fans To Blame For NHL Lockout

Among the four major team sports in North America, hockey is by far the most dependent on ticket revenue. During the 2010-11 season the typical NHL team relied on gate receipts for half of their revenue. Last year the average team in the NFL, which has the richest national television deals (divided equally among all teams), gets less than 25% of its revenue from ticket sales. The comparable figures in the NBA and MLB are 33% and 25%, respectively.

This means by simply staying away from the contests hockey fans can extract a much bigger pound of flesh than can supporters of the other three sports. It doesn’t mater if you turn off your television sets. The league’s new 10-year, $2 billion deal with NBC is such a small piece of the overall revenue pie that it is virtually inconsequential. What does matter is this number: $57, the average ticket price to see a hockey game ($9 more than basketball) because only eight teams out of 30 failed to sell at least 95% of their tickets during the 2011-12 season.

But following the 2004-05 NHL lockout, the fans came back in droves. During the 2005-06 season 25 of the 30 teams had an increase in attendance from the 2003-04 season. Moreover, the average cost (tickets, concessions, parking, etc.) for a family of four rose from $256 in 2003-04, to $283 at the start of the 2007-08 campaign. The latest figures from Team Marketing Report show the average cost at $323, a 50% increase in just seven years.

So rabid hockey fans (myself included) should not point fingers at NHL commissioner Gary Bettman or NHLPA boss Donal Fehr. We are to blame. Instead of punishing the owners and players after the last lockout we rewarded them. Why should we have expected better treatment this time around?

[Podein25]

<input name="choice[1]" type="radio" value="1" />Lindros

[sarsippius]

I understand the concept, we fans should vote with our wallets, I get it.

But statements like blame the fans, not Bettman, are just asinine

[hf101]

Here is another good read.

NHL, NHLPA relationship 50 Shades of Nasty: Cox

MONTREAL—What the NHL and NHL Players’ Association need is a quickie Vegas divorce.

So they never have to see or deal with one another again.

That’s impractical and impossible, of course. But more than two decades of watching these two organizations butt heads leads to an almost undeniable conclusion.

This is one sick, twisted, 50 Shades of Nasty relationship.

The two sides ooze disrespect for each other and have for years, and even the crossover of individuals like Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Ron Francis and Brendan Shanahan from the players side to the owners side has, somehow, failed to produce any sense of an improved relationship or greater understanding.

You can savage Gary Bettman if you want and disparage his record of three lockouts in 18 years, certainly nothing to brag about.

But can you imagine trying to cut a deal with the NHLPA, arguably the most dysfunctional union in pro sports?

This is the same union that allowed itself to be bullied and strong-armed (in different ways) for years by Alan Eagleson and Bob Goodenow, then vowed to never EVER accept a salary cap in 2004, only to quickly accept one after the season was lost.

This is the same union that forced out an executive director who was spying on player emails, then just three years ago experienced a bloody mutiny in which a group of players were duped into destroying the leadership of the very competent and trustworthy Paul Kelly.

The NHLPA hired pit bull Don Fehr from baseball, and his first order of business was not to talk to the NHL for 18 months. Fehr did get around to bringing in his brother and hiring Richard Rodier, the same fellow who delighted in antagonizing the NHL while he was working for Jim Balsillie.

Be honest. Think you could do a deal with these people, with this screwed up union?

And there’s the NHL owners, who constantly talk out of both sides of their mouths and have spent the last few weeks insulting the intelligence of the players and the public by spending tens of millions of dollars on players already under contract because one team started doing it and they always behave like lemmings.

This, at the same time they claim they are paying the players too much.

Be honest. Can you imagine being a player trying to untangle the twisted works and propaganda of this league and its owners, the same people who promised to embrace you as a “partner” just a few years ago?

Forget blaming Bettman and forget blaming the players.

Blame their poisonous relationship. There’s too much messy history here, dating all the way back to Eagleson, and there’s precious little goodwill.

Of all the union executive directors that took the job over the past 20 years, only Kelly really seemed intent on working with the owners.

For that, he was knifed in the back by the players at 4 a.m. in the morning in a Chicago hotel ballroom.

Bettman, meanwhile, has completely abandoned the slightest pretence that he is a commissioner for everyone, not just the owners, that he has a responsibility to the sport beyond simply lining the owners’ pockets.

He is tough and smart and hard-nosed and the players don’t like him for all those reasons and others. And the owners keep him in place knowing full well the players don’t like him.

Players don’t talk directly with owners when it comes to CBA stuff. Neither millionaire players nor billionaire owners want to get their hands dirty, so instead both spend millions lining up their own legal gladiators, then stand back and watch the lawyers speak on their behalf.

Heck, the NHLPA doesn’t even have a player president any more, just lots of players willing to be underdressed props for Fehr photo ops.

The owners respect the players as athletes but not their union, and want the players to just accept their exorbitant wages and benefits and otherwise mind their own business. The players, who imagine themselves as believers in capitalism and a free market, want more than half of all the revenues but little to do with the risk and believe the owners should practise a system of socialism to help the rich underwrite the poor.

There’s little or no common ground here in general, let alone with respect to the specifics of the current impasse.

The NHL and NHLPA, clearly, need to split, need to divide the CDs and furniture and call it a day.

But, of course, they can’t. So this is what we get.

[canoli]

Wow - DC exposes both sides for their clownish, stupid behavior. And he's smart enough (and experienced enough) to portray it over a long period of time. Thanks for that HF - always liked this guy - although most of the time I forget to read him.

[hf101]

Wished I would have seen this earlier. Thought I'd pass it along before any games are actually lost. It's actually a pretty good video.

http://www.change.org/petitions/gary-bettman-the-nhl-save-the-hockey-season-nolockout

[DinahMoeHumm]

@hf101: Actually, I started a thread on this last week... http://www.hockeyforums.net/index.php/topic/39890-save-the-hockey-season-nolockout-together-we-can/

Feel free to remove/move it if you like.

[DinahMoeHumm]

Lindros

That's hilarious!