2008 Woodie Awards
"From the Bleacher Seats"
NHL Lockout Casts Dark Shadow on the Sport's Future
Daniel Goodman
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Sports
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Columnists have spilled much ink over the past few weeks on the "travesty" that is the cancellation of the 2004-05 hockey season. They call it "a shame," "a black eye," "disgraceful," and whatever other words you can find for "shame" in a thesaurus.
Conventional wisdom has said that since the NHL has been suffering in popularity and financially trailing the other three major sports that to cancel the season would be a deathblow to the league. This notion is correct, but not the entire story. Yes, the NHL only makes a third of the revenues that even the NBA makes, and its TV ratings are so bad that ESPN, which prides itself on now carrying all four major sports, is threatening to not renew its deal.
But the fact is that the lockout will not severely harm the league's core fans- they won't go away, just like baseball's core fans did not ten years ago. The notion that the opportunity to "save hockey" was lost by the failure between the sides to reach a deal is ridiculous. Hockey has long been suffering, and to have had a season would have been equivalent to patching up a leaky roof while hoping a bigger hole doesn't open up.
Instead, hockey needs to tear the entire structure apart and rebuild. The sports term of "rebuilding" not only applies to mere franchises but occasionally to an entire league. This is the perfect opportunity for the NHL to reevaluate the game and make it more fan-friendly. The clutching and holding, checking and fighting, and general defensive, conservative mentality of the way North American hockey is played must be done away with, and the more open, high scoring hockey that we saw in the 2002 Winter Games must be instituted.
When the NBA was suffering in the '70's and on the verge of becoming a minor sports league, like hockey is now, it realized it had to make some changes. It made the game exciting and fan-friendly by incorporating several run-and-gun ABA franchises, like Julius Erving's Nets and George Gervin's Spurs. It also fundamentally changed the game by incorporating an ABA invention, the three-point field goal, in 1979. It opened up the game by having shooters spaced over the floor in what had been a previously interior-oriented style of play. Also, the NBA reemphasized the slam dunk by adding another ABA invention, the slam dunk contest, to the 1984 All-Star game. Indeed, the dunk and three point shot are two of the most exciting elements in basketball today, and it's hard to imagine the game now without them.
Conventional wisdom has said that since the NHL has been suffering in popularity and financially trailing the other three major sports that to cancel the season would be a deathblow to the league. This notion is correct, but not the entire story. Yes, the NHL only makes a third of the revenues that even the NBA makes, and its TV ratings are so bad that ESPN, which prides itself on now carrying all four major sports, is threatening to not renew its deal.
But the fact is that the lockout will not severely harm the league's core fans- they won't go away, just like baseball's core fans did not ten years ago. The notion that the opportunity to "save hockey" was lost by the failure between the sides to reach a deal is ridiculous. Hockey has long been suffering, and to have had a season would have been equivalent to patching up a leaky roof while hoping a bigger hole doesn't open up.
Instead, hockey needs to tear the entire structure apart and rebuild. The sports term of "rebuilding" not only applies to mere franchises but occasionally to an entire league. This is the perfect opportunity for the NHL to reevaluate the game and make it more fan-friendly. The clutching and holding, checking and fighting, and general defensive, conservative mentality of the way North American hockey is played must be done away with, and the more open, high scoring hockey that we saw in the 2002 Winter Games must be instituted.
When the NBA was suffering in the '70's and on the verge of becoming a minor sports league, like hockey is now, it realized it had to make some changes. It made the game exciting and fan-friendly by incorporating several run-and-gun ABA franchises, like Julius Erving's Nets and George Gervin's Spurs. It also fundamentally changed the game by incorporating an ABA invention, the three-point field goal, in 1979. It opened up the game by having shooters spaced over the floor in what had been a previously interior-oriented style of play. Also, the NBA reemphasized the slam dunk by adding another ABA invention, the slam dunk contest, to the 1984 All-Star game. Indeed, the dunk and three point shot are two of the most exciting elements in basketball today, and it's hard to imagine the game now without them.