The main point I got out of watching both sides of the equation last night and tonight is that neither side gives a flying crap about the fans. The fans are the ones that bring in your revenue, pay the players salaries (and yes there is a direct relation with that, because without gate sales the owners wouldn't have any way of paying them), the ones who buy the merchandise, who paint their rooms in NHL colours, the ones who pay $200 a season for Centre (er) Ice, and the ones that live and breathe with their team. Win the fan is happy, Lose and the fan is miserable. The NHLPA, the owners, the league, Mr. Buttmunch, and Mr. Goodenow don't seem to get it. The fans are the reasons why the NHL has survived all these years, it's not the players. If either side gave a crap about the fans, they'd be in negotations right now, and not waiting until flipping December.
This is my letter to the Players:
To the Players of the National Hockey League:
I, as a fan, am completely disgusted by how selfish you, the players, are being through the meetings with the NHL, and now two days into the lockout. Do you realize that there are people in this world that cannot even afford to buy food? And here you all are, making millions of dollars for three quarters of the year, and you are complaining that you all need more. You are all selfish. I never realized it until the meetings began. The players of the National Hockey League, who supposedly love playing hockey, only care about making money. The words of Trevor Linden, the president of the NHLPA, on MOJO radio in Vancouver yesterday morning were unbelievable. I know he has a job to do as the NHLPA president, but when someone says that the fans have a choice to pay loads of money for a hockey ticket is an absolute joke. We as fans want to see the best players in the world, not a bunch of whiny spoiled rich babies. We do not choose to pay, sometimes, hundreds of dollars for one game of hockey, we do it so we can support our favourite team. We do pay your salaries whether you like it or not, and that is why prices of tickets are so high in the NHL; it is because of you, the players and your egotistical ways with your contracts. Even if I were in university and had no money, I would put myself in debt to see my Canucks play. Players in this league do not seem to be grateful for people that do that, not all fans have the money to pay to see you play. We are the reason why this league has survived, and you are the ones that have to change.
What I do not get, as a fan, is how you do not agree with anything to help out the league. Why is that? Are you all that dense? You have to agree to lower salaries to get this league back to a successful one, otherwise it is going to flutter and die. That happens, and you all end up with no jobs. You will not even look at what the league has proposed because you think it is a salary cap, well, you know what? The league does need one. With a salary cap the league will become economically stable again. I was watching my local news this morning, and Tom Canada of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (for those of you that do not know, that is a Canadian Football League team) was asked what he thinks of the lockout in the NHL, and he said that the players should try living on CFL player salaries. He is completely right, they have to have winter jobs just to keep food on the table; I do not hear of any NHL player that has to do that during the off-season.
It is time for the players to put their egos aside, and allow the owners of every NHL club to recover from you whom have been beyond greedy. Do not reject the NHL right away when they suggest a solution; work together with them to come to a good solution for both sides. You are the ones that are going to have to budge, because I believe that the owners will not make the same mistake they did ten years ago. You got your money the last ten years, and you are the ones that are bankrupting the league. Take pay cuts, it should not matter to you because you still make more money than eighty percent of any normal middle class citizen. You are selfish, and you are the ones that will have to change. You are the ones that will end up agreeing to what the owners want, not like 10 years ago when it was the players getting what they wanted. It is time to see the NHL thrive again financially, and the only way for that to happen is if you all take pay cuts to help the league achieve this.
It is up to you; you must make the right decision here, and you all know what the right one is.
We, as fans, should strike on the players when they come back and play. No one is thinking about us, and they damn well should be. It's not just about the financial structure of the league, it is about keeping the fans of the game.