Your 2012 National Hockey Lockout Thread

[Lights Out]

Funny you mention them; the Panthers being forced to spend $55 million they could never dream of earning is a big part of why we're in this mess.

Being a fan of small market teams (Panthers, Jags, Magic, and Marlins) I am a HUGE fan of revenue sharing. Working as one makes you a stronger beast.

Revenue sharing does nothing unless the owner cares too much to just pocket the money. It's done nothing to help the Lorias of the world field competitive teams. As a Clipper fan, there wasn't a revenue sharing plan in the world that could have turned the franchise around: the turnaround only started when Mike Dumbleavy removed Sterling's head from his ass by brute force a decade or so ago.

A hard salary cap, reasonable salary floor, and franchise tags in all sports would probably be the best solution to increase parity. At least then, even the cheapest owners would have an obligation to spend SOME money.

[The_Admiral]

Funny you mention them; the Panthers being forced to spend $55 million they could never dream of earning is a big part of why we're in this mess.

Being a fan of small market teams (Panthers, Jags, Magic, and Marlins) I am a HUGE fan of revenue sharing. Working as one makes you a stronger beast.

Cool. Whose revenue are you sharing? I know the NFL gets $20 billion a year to air its games. Where's that central revenue in the NHL?

A hard salary cap, reasonable salary floor, and franchise tags in all sports would probably be the best solution to increase parity.

You can't talk about "all sports" because all sports aren't equal. The NHL cannot have competitive parity without fiscal parity. The range between Toronto/Montreal and the South is just too much to overcome by payroll mechanisms. The floor and ceiling have to be very far apart.

[Island_Style]

Funny you mention them; the Panthers being forced to spend $55 million they could never dream of earning is a big part of why we're in this mess.

Being a fan of small market teams (Panthers, Jags, Magic, and Marlins) I am a HUGE fan of revenue sharing. Working as one makes you a stronger beast.

Cool. Whose revenue are you sharing? I know the NFL gets $20 billion a year to air its games. Where's that central revenue in the NHL?

Talk to the head dingus about that. The NHL started to die when it left ESPN exposure.

[The_Admiral]

ESPN wasn't exactly backing up the money truck for the NHL. And I can't get behind the NHL "starting to die" when they're bringing in record-setting revenues on the backs of Canada, the Northeast, and the Great Lakes. Maybe it's "starting to die" as a national sport in the U.S., but that implies that it was ever alive as one in the first place, which I'm not sure it ever was.

[oddball]

I have no problem at all with revenue sharing in theory. The problem lies in how those on the bottom use the money that's being shared. If they put it back into the product (team), the arena, or the employees who work for the team, then I have no problem with it. It's just we've seen time and time again how these "bottom feeders" just pocket the money and put out a poor product.

[The_Admiral]

I bet that no-good Charles Wang is just pocketing his revenue sharing oh wait the New York Islanders don't get revenue sharing despite a small market and a decrepit arena because too many people live in New Jersey.

[Island_Style]

ESPN wasn't exactly backing up the money truck for the NHL. And I can't get behind the NHL "starting to die" when they're bringing in record-setting revenues on the backs of Canada, the Northeast, and the Great Lakes. Maybe it's "starting to die" as a national sport in the U.S., but that implies that it was ever alive as one in the first place, which I'm not sure it ever was.

Maybe, but I see it a different way. ESPN is in every cable package. VS, or OLN as it was known back then, was a hard network to find. If you did have it, you only got one game a week. With ESPN it seemed there was a game on almost every night. ESPN2 played multiple games a week. ESPN had their weekly big match up. ABC would have got in to the act if they wern't involved already. I don't remember. Sportscenter spent a lot of time on their product. When hockey wasn't their product anymore, they stopped covering it. Now they have Melrose come in and say his duhs once a month. With ESPN it was growing. ESPN is the biggest sports network in america. Sure would have been nice if the NHL was on their back, getting their pimp abilities used on them. Nope, had to go to the nobody cares network. NBC is trying harder but is it too late? Exposure sells any product. Be it a foot cream or a sports league. A lot of people outside of hockey cities stopped caring when it stopped airing.

[Island_Style]

When I was in high school (90's) homeroom would watch Sportscenter every morning. Hockey highlights caught everyone's eye. They got more "oohs" and "awes" than any other sport's highlight. People started talking about hockey in NE Florida. Sportscenter pumped out the highlights when it was on ESPN. They stopped with the highlights when the NHL bolted. Nothing to talk about anymore. Lets check out Pogs.

[The_Admiral]

There weren't a lot of people outside hockey cities who cared in the first place.

I know it's a tough argument, do you take the sure money or do you gamble on mere exposure, but there's this:

http://puckthemedia....them/#more-5549

Meanwhile, as the lockout ended, it became clear that ESPN had very little intention of being serious about the league. Led by Mark Shapiro, who notoriously disliked the league and disrespected it in the press, ESPN offered $60 million for about 40 games, all on ESPN2, with only the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final and, presumably, the All-Star Game airing on the mothership. The NHL sought other partners.

If you read Those Guys Have All The Fun, then you know that Shapiro was a micromanaging dickweed who more than anyone else envisioned the transformation of ESPN into general programming tangentially related to sports, a hole they've only recently started to get out of with the 30 for 30 series, which even the most ardent ESPN-haters can agree is as good as non-news/PBP gets. I mean, people want to craft this narrative of the NHL having full-fledged credibility until the lockout, but the truth is that ESPN was marginalizing hockey as soon as they picked up the NBA in 2002, with the early 2000s resurgence in baseball interest not helping matters, either. I was in high school at the time, and thus not yet smart enough not to rely on ESPN (and in fairness, diversified sports media ten years ago really wasn't what it is now), and even then I felt like the NHL was a bastard child on the network. Of course, it's gotten comically worse since the NHL left Bristol, with everything from MLS to goddamn arena football getting more Sportscenter minutes than the NHL, but the wheels were well in motion, and they wouldn't have been long for ESPN/ABC even if they did stay another year or two.

[colortv]

I think ultimately the NHL's problem is this: It trys to function as if it's as big as the other major sports, but hockey's just not on that level of popularity . Maybe it's not meant to be a 30 team league with guys who have $100 million dollar contracts. I mean the MLS will probably surpass it one day.

Now, if they had teams in places like Seattle, Portland, Salt lake City, Milwaukee, instead of Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Carolina etc they might be able to get around that.

[rams80]

I think ultimately the NHL's problem is this: It trys to function as if it's as big as the other major sports, but hockey's just not on that level of popularity . Maybe it's not meant to be a 30 team league with guys who have $100 million dollar contracts. I mean the MLS will probably surpass it one day.

Now, if they had teams in places like Seattle, Portland, Salt lake City, Milwaukee, instead of Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Carolina etc they might be able to get around that.

The NHL has one major structural advantage over the MLS that will exist for the forseeable future. Americans gravitate to the best athletes in a given sport and the NHL has the best hockey players in the world. The MLS cannot make that claim and will be unable to do so for decades to come.

[troy_3223]

When I was in high school (90's) homeroom would watch Sportscenter every morning. Hockey highlights caught everyone's eye. They got more "oohs" and "awes" than any other sport's highlight. People started talking about hockey in NE Florida. Sportscenter pumped out the highlights when it was on ESPN. They stopped with the highlights when the NHL bolted. Nothing to talk about anymore. Lets check out Pogs.

I graduated in 95 from a school about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. I remember the Thursday night game on ESPN - it was heavily promoted throughout the week. I got a few of my friends into hockey through the Thursday night games. No one goes to VS to get highlights. Most people I know don't get VS. The few who do either don't know how or pretend not to know how when I ask them to check to see if a game is on.

ESPN was quick to dump the NHL, but before they did, they probably grew the sport in non-traditional markets a hell of a lot more than NBC is doing. The Winter Classic is a great made-for-tv event, and every year, I have to look online to find out what time the game is on. There is less than zero prime-time promotion for the biggest game of the year. The weekly games don't start until the season is half-way through, and are practically buried on Sunday mornings.

The fact that during a two hour game you see the same three commercials over and over tells me that NBC isn't doing anything to sell the ad time necessary to keep it going, and I wouldn't be surprised if NBC drops the NHL the first chance they get after the lockout.

[The_Admiral]

NBC signed a ten-year contract last year. Not going anywhere.

[Funky Bunky]

Quite sad that the NFL ref lockout got 1000x more coverage from most American sports media companies than the NHL player lockout.

[CS85]

Quite sad that the NFL ref lockout got 1000x more coverage from most American sports media companies than the NHL player lockout.

Even if there was hockey and not a lockout it'd get the same amount of non-coverage.

Sad fact is the sport remains as unpopular as it's ever been, and this 2nd work stoppage is only further incentive for fringe fans not to give a crap.

[wildwing64]

Quite sad that the NFL ref lockout got 1000x more coverage from most American sports media companies than the NHL player lockout.

Meanwhile the NHL itself seems to be keeping very tight lipped. I swear everything on their website and Facebook page lately has been about long-retired players.

[The_Admiral]

That's because they can't use likenesses of NHLPA members. When the NBA had its lockout, the main page just had a picture of David Stern.

[HedleyLamarr]

That's because they can't use likenesses of NHLPA members. When the NBA had its lockout, the main page just had a picture of David Stern.

Bingo.

Plus, all the arenas have to take down anything that has a player's name or image that can be seen by the general populace. (In other words, in any part of the arena where non-team/venue employees have access to or can see.)

During the NBA lockout, the only images of players you saw in Philips Arena were a couple broads from the WNBA team.....

[ElwoodCuse]

Of course, it's gotten comically worse since the NHL left Bristol, with everything from MLS to goddamn arena football getting more Sportscenter minutes than the NHL, but the wheels were well in motion, and they wouldn't have been long for ESPN/ABC even if they did stay another year or two.

You don't even need to be a hockey fan to hate SportsCenter. Just look at the coverage breakdowns Deadspin does, and look at how much absolute garbage there is. And not even "why isn't it my team/my sport", stuff that's completely useless to anyone.

The clearest message I got from that ESPN book was that as a channel it went straight to hell when they went from reporting the news to creating the news.

[Funky Bunky]

That's because they can't use likenesses of NHLPA members. When the NBA had its lockout, the main page just had a picture of David Stern.

Bingo.

Plus, all the arenas have to take down anything that has a player's name or image that can be seen by the general populace. (In other words, in any part of the arena where non-team/venue employees have access to or can see.)

During the NBA lockout, the only images of players you saw in Philips Arena were a couple broads from the WNBA team.....

Are they allowed to sell player merchandise? Like if I want to go to an NHL team store and get a jersey customized, will they tell me "No"?