Tag: Lockout

Tomorrow Night

Well it all ends at 11:59pm tomorrow night.  That’s when the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement expires and the third lockout in Gary Bettman’s reign as commissioner begins.  Let’s be real though, Bettman announced that the lockout would happen a month ago.  Everything that’s happened from then until now is just public relations crap.  The lockout began when that announcement was made.  Their first proposal to the players union was so insulting as to guarantee no middle ground would be reached by the deadline.  The lockout was already underway.

Three lockouts.  He’s already erased about half of one season, and 100% of another.  Now we’re going to go through it again.  Can you imagine trying to work with some one like that?  It’s almost as if his only means of negotiating is cancelling games.  It’s insulting. 

And where are the fans in all of this?  Ignored.  Forgotten.  Insulted.  The millionaires and the billionaires once again fight over our money like the spoiled brats that they are, and once again we are the ones suffering for it.  Do you think Jeremy Jacobs gives a rat’s ass that his Bruins miss a few games when he is bringing in revenue from every other event that happens at the TD Garden?  I’m going to see Rush there next month, and that asshole gets a piece of my admission.  Do you think the players give a rat’s ass about missing a few games when they can all barrel off to Europe and steal jobs from other, less talented hockey players?

For the third time we have to sit here and watch as a deadline approaches while both sides make pointless proposals that they each know the other side will instantly reject and then blame the other side for not being good negotiators.  It’s as if they are following a script.  Part of that script is when the lockout eventually ends, the fans will come rushing back into the arenas buying tickets and $100 jerseys and all the hot dogs Jacobs can sell so that everyone can start rebuilding their war chests so that they can be ready for the next lockout when it comes.

Not this time.  We fans need to stand up to this.  We need to stay away in droves.  We cannot come rushing back again.  When the lockout ends the entire league needs to play the entire season in empty buildings.  We can’t give them our money anymore.  We can’t watch them on television so that they can live off of that revenue stream.  We need their sponsorships to dry up and die.  We need their broadcast contracts to never, ever be renewed.

We need to let the NHL die.  Personally, I hope the next lock out never ends.  I hope they just wither and die.

To hell with them.

There Will be No NHL Lockout for Me

I read two NHL articles on espn.com today during my lunch break.

The first, written by Katie Strang was titled No new CBA will mean lockout.  In this article NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is quoted as saying that the league will not play another season under the old labor agreement.  It says that after six weeks of negotiations there are still huge differences between what the league and players union want to do financially.  The players union has yet to enter a counter proposal to the initial league proposal which i find completely retarded.  You’ve had Six Weeks and you still haven’t responded?  I almost always side with labor in these negotiations, but in this case the waiting seems completely idiotic.  Anyway, the players have said that if no new agreement is in place when the current agreement expires on September 15th, they are willing to let the new season start while negotiations continue.

Not Bettman.  In a statement that proves without a doubt that the NHL owners and their lap dog of a puppet commissioner have zero interest in maintaining the NHL and are in fact actively trying to remove it from the face of the Earth, Gary Bettman said that if there is no new agreement in place by 9/15, the owners will lock out the players.

Now lets look at the wayback machine.  Eight years ago the NHL owners locked out the players for an entire season.  AN ENTIRE SEASON!  They cancelled a whole year while they squabbled over money.  It was disgusting.  It was vile.  It was evil.  And they didn’t give a flying leap.

The fans came back.  Much to everyone’s surprise, they came back rather quickly.  They were so happy to have their league back that they refused to punish them for their greed and lack of respect for those who actually pay for their crummy league:  The fans.

I’m just as guilty as the next idiot fan.  I came right back even though my team, the Bruins, handled the whole situation so poorly that they imploded before our very eyes and eventually traded the guy who would win the league MVP award for a bag of pucks and a broken stick blade.  It was horrible, and I came back anyway.  I did not do anything to make the league suffer for the way it insulted me the previous season.  I came back.

I will not make the same mistake twice.

The second article I read was written by Scott Burnside and it was titled, Fans should bolt if CBA halts season.  Never has a sports column resonated so deeply with me.  I agree completely.  If a single game is lost this year due to a lockout or a strike I am done with the NHL.  Not just the NHL, I will be done with hockey.  My wallet and I will carry out our sentence on all organized hockey.  No more NHL, not more AHL, no more NCAA, no Juniors, no anything.  I’m done.

I will not allow myself to be insulted again.

I have been a hockey fanatic for 20 years.  I had season tickets to an NHL team.  For years I had season tickets to an AHL team.  I used to host an NCAA hockey radio show…

And if the NHL has a work stoppage this year I will write it all off and be done.

I will not allow myself to be insulted again.