There are MANY players who sincerely care about the fans, and some will agree ticket prices and the cost to see a friggen GAME is way too much. There are owners who agree with tha above. Then there are players (Jagr, Limpdros, McCabe and such) who could care less if you and the kids ever pay to see them, as they know they will play in front of corporate suits (tax write off) just as easily. There are owners who WILL NOT reduce ticket prices if salaries go down.
Bottom line: Choosing sides is choosing mouthpieces. This whole circus is amazing, and scary, as I have ZERO faith in Knob Goodenfatten or Ratboy Buttman being in the least bi interested in the real legs of the League: the paying fan (I say "paying" with a Nedd Beatty/Deliverance visual).
I root for the right system to come out of no where and get both sides to agree.
I just don't think the richest players & Knob Scrotumnow and the disaster ownerships and Ratfeces Bettman will agree to even look at it unless they both can get a buck out of the deal.
Players have only so many years to make millions of dollars playing a game, and then they have to work at jobs they would easily make double what anyone else would in the same role.
Owners had to spend millions of dollars to buy a team to use it as a tax write off or to HAVE TO wait until it double in value in some 10 years or so.
I have no sympathy for either side, and can guarantee that tickets will be more expensive in the coming season, or in three years, regardless of who wins.
The fans will lose no matter what. And by going to games with a ferver the past decade, watching team payrolls escalate between4 and 12 percent each and every year this past CBA, you gave a resounding approval to the way they chose to do business (BOTH the player reps and the GM's) and gave the green light telling them ALL you were WILLING and EAGER to pay more to watch the worst hockey ever played (trap.....trap......trap......sounds like my sink, and for only $80 US!).
I'm disgusted with everyone.
I will root for the players, especially the ones who hit McCabe after the resumption, or who send a flying puck into Wurtz's booth. Quinn's kidneys (if he still has kidneys). Bettman or Goodenow's faces. And so on.
I urge people to stop going to games until ticket prices are reigned in for the middle class to be able to go, once again, or to justify why tickets should be over $100 a seat.
Sorry......end of rant.