HOCKEY’S BACK, BUT AT WHAT COST?

NHL owners finally ratify new collective bargaining agreement and as we all know that means Hockey is back, as of January 19, 2013. It is scheduled to end on April 27, 2013, with the playoff starting in June.

However, Hockey was supposed to start October 11, 2012. What happened?

It all started back on September 13, 2012, when all 29 league ownership groups authorized commissioner, Gary Bettman, to lock out the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) upon the expiration of the NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) on September 15.

This action marked the fifth labor dispute in twenty years for the NHL, following a 1992 strike, lockouts in 1994 to 1995 and 2004 to 2005, as well as a referees lockout in 1993;. This is more than any of the other major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada during this period.

And it is not just the regular season that was shorten, the All-Star Game which was originally scheduled to take place January 27, 2013, in Columbus, Ohio, has cancelled as a result of the lockout

Gary Bettman, the commissioner, has apologizes to NHL fans for lockout, says he’s sorry. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/01/09/sp-nhl-hockey-gary-bettman-apologizes-to-fans.html
He is apologizing to hockey fans for the lockout that delayed the start of the season by three months. He says he knows the apology will not ease hard feelings that have built up over the past few months but he feels the fans deserve one.

He also wouldn’t say specifically what the league would do to make it up to the fans. Hopefully the fans that had already purchased ‘season tickets’ before the lockout had no problems getting their refunds for games NOT played.

He adds that as commissioner he is sometimes forced to make tough decisions that disappoint and occasionally anger players and fans.
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It’s going to be a little more complicated this time around.
The league is planning to have teams play three games against the 10 opponents within the same conference but outside their division. They will then have an unbalanced schedule against division rivals, with five games coming against two teams and four against the two others, according to a source.

But what started the whole disaster? Who is to blame? Owners, Players ??? Actually the blame goes to ‘money’ and with both owners and players want more of it.

It’s the same old story with all the major sports, baseball, basketball and football; everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie. The 2012- 2013 NHL lockout was considered a labor dispute that began at 11:59 pm EDT on September 15, 2012, and ended at 4:45 am EST on January 6, 2013, lasting 113 days.

At issue for the owners were desires to reduce the players’ guaranteed 57% share of hockey-related revenues (HRR), introduce term limits on contracts, eliminate salary arbitration, and change free agency rules. The union’s initial offers focused on increased revenue sharing between owners and a fixed salary cap that is not linked to league revenues.

During the lockout, many NHL players went to other leagues in North America and Europe. Many businesses in the United States and Canada located near NHL arenas lost money as a result of the games not played.

The real loser of this whole mess is the fans, we will definitely pay more to see each game, we will see less games, no all-star game this year and the worst part is that there is no guarantee that is won’t happen again!

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