Imagine if the players, owners and officials of the English Premier League decided to call off an entire EPL season – there would be blood in the streets! Thankfully, this would never happen. However, in the National Hockey League, it appears we are facing another cancelled season – the second in the last decade.
There are three competing forces in professional sports – the players, the team owners and the administration. Each of these groups thinks they should have the last say in their sports, and they all believe they deserve a bigger piece of the pie. I am not going to attempt to solve this problem for the NHL, but there are some other things all who are involved in this sport should consider while their pie gets colder and colder.
Mike Wilbon from ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” quoted the results of a poll conducted recently in Canada. Apparently, 58 percent of those who took part didn’t care if the NHL season was cancelled! Canadians are supposed to be as passionate about ice hockey as New Zealanders are about rugby, so this astounding statistic does not bode well for the game.
Professional sports need to remember they are controlled by the fans. I may be called naïve for this touching statement but the public has greater influence than some may think. If fans stop buying merchandise, stop going to games, switch channels and turn their children towards other interests, any sport would feel the power of the people. If this debacle in the NHL continues, the competition will suffer long-term damage. At the end of the day, supporters don’t care if a player is paid an extra few million per season, or if a billionaire owner makes less of a profit. All they care about is supporting their team and escaping their lives over a cold beer now and then.
It’s important to ensure the right conditions are in place in a professional sport, but to hold the game which pays your bills to ransom is another thing entirely. I will observe with interest where ice hockey stands in years to come. Hopefully, it will serve as a reminder to sports worldwide that we should not take the supporting public for granted.
