Ice Hockey Is Back!
Hockey fans are letting out a big sigh of relief knowing that they'll not be left in the cold another season. Finally after 17 months the hockey teams and players have reached an agreement. This season is going to be great because ice hockey is back!
But how did we get from here to there? What caused us fans to miss over a years worth of entertainment? The long outages was frustrating for hockey fans! Week after week we'd hear about no progress, followed by hope that the season could be saved, followed by the let down that they were no closer to a resolution.
It becomes rather difficult to stay loyal to a sport that isn't there to provide you with the entertainment you crave. Some jumped ship and picked up on other sports. Many took to watching junior hockey, world hockey, and European hockey to fill the void. After all us hockey fans needed to get our fix!
It wasn't long before the NHL junkie had placed their loyalties elsewhere and an apathy set in that wasn't beneficial to placing pressure on the team owners to settle. After all if the fans really didn't care anymore what was the rush for the team owners to sign a pricey deal.
It wasn't long before even the sports pages had replaced NHL news with other sports news to keep their readers entertained and coming back. It quickly became apparent that the players where infact playing a loosing game that would ultimately hurt their pocket books deeply!
Many of these players were use to a pretty high standard of living built upon a sport that had gained popularity and thus big paychecks for the players. And without those paychecks very quickly the lifestyle of the rich and famous becomes jeopardized.
Originally the fan support stayed fairly strong for their favorite players but soon the sympathy waned. Because no matter how much you support your favorite player, as a regular working Joe we are quick to recognize that these guys are overpaid to begin with.
I mean even with our loyalties deep within our favorite player, we still wonder how much money does a sport's star actually deserve to earn. We're not asking him to live in poverty but there are limits to his worth. After all in the end we the fan pay those salaries in the price of our tickets. When those ticket prices become too high for the average earner to buy we quickly turn our loyalties somewhere else.
And that's exactly what happened during the strike. Some fans found alternative hockey leagues to support, other turned to high action sports like NASCAR.
The end result is by the time the strike was settled fans where giving a who cares kind of shrug and continuing on their merry way. No big whoop ups or parties to welcome the NHL back. No anything. Just a shrug and that's great.
Now as the season begins and we return to our all time favorite hockey pastime our enthusiasm will most likely begin to grow again. Soon we'll be buying up season tickets and planning our lives around the next "big" game.
But even as our enthusiasm returns there is a very load message for the players here. Carefully how hard you push, you infact are replaceable like any other person on this planet. And although our fan loyalties run deep they can quickly disappear and be replaced by another action sport.
The league will survive but the changes in the rules, the management, and the players will leave us with a radically different game from the last one we watcher. With fewer teams and smaller paychecks it will be interesting to see the outcome.
Careful guys! Us hockey fans we are big boys and girls and we've learned to get along quite well without you in the past 17 months. Another stunt like the last 17 month break might find you without any fans to return to watch your games.
Us fans, we'll be okay, we'll quickly find another action sport to who9p and cheer. You player's on the other hand may find it difficult leaving that life of luxury and joining us working folks.
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