Finish this statement and back it up

[Motown Beatdown]

I'd watch a bunch of walk ons bust their ass than a bunch of spoiled babies give a half assed effort night after night. It is time for the players to get their wake up call. This has nothing to do with snow. Doesn't Fox Sportsnet cover NCAA or ESPN 1,2 3,4,5 or whatever cover minor leagues? This has nothing to do with snow Sotnos.

Actually they dont. Even in so called hockeytown usa You rarely see NCAA games on TV unless it's a GLI or NCAA finals.

For me, i can easily get my hockey fix, but not everyone has the options like you or i have. I will go to more Plymouth Whaler games, i can drive a couple hours to Grand Rapids and watch the Griffins if i want. I can go to Michigan and watch them, but i would rather drive 30 minutes to the Joe or even sit on my couch and watch the NHL.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

The longer the strike goes, the __________ better for hockey fans.

Explain why you think this is the case.

Personally, I hope this goes at least 18 months, and could live with up to 3 years of no NHL hockey.... maybe even longer.

The longer the strike goes, the better for hockey fans. Because the longer it goes, the better are the chances for the owners to win. Their problem has always been this habit of bending down and taking it like a girl in pink skirt.

Like you, I could suffer through a 3-year drought.

But not if it's to see the players win.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

A lengthy work stoppage is the only way owners can continue to lose money and not ever have a chance to get it back, and then try to lure bitter fans back to the arenas after losing a year and a half of hockey and say it's all about the fans.



$300M war chest? Yeah $10M per team. Want to know how long that will last some teams? Until about Christmas.

They've been able to survive for years without making profits or even by making financial losses.

I think they have more than the ability to survive a lenghty lockout. The more important question is whether they have the will, the balls and the intelligence to do so.

(sadly, the answer to this question is probably "no")

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

I certainly agree that the NHLPA needs a wake-up call, but it's at my expense and I'm ticked off about it. It's really not my fault that there aren't other options, and it certainly doesn't mean this is not a hockey market.

That's the unfortunate side of things. I still believe it's for the better in the long run, for everybody.

 

[Winger98]

The longer the strike goes, the farther expectations will fall for hockey fans.

I'm referring to expectations of a noticeable change in the game and costs for the fan. I doubt that, regardless of how long the strike goes or what the terms are, that there will be a noticeable difference in the quality of the on-ice product or that the average fan will see a lowering in the price of tickets.

 

[rt]

They will have to lure fans back with lower ticket prices. Some franchises might not survive such a move. I say Hasta La Vista Baby!

I totally agree! Hopefully, Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo, Ottawa, Boston, Washington, and both New York teams fail. We could even hope that you go broke with them. HASTA LA VISTA BABY!

 

[Sotnos]

That's the unfortunate side of things. I still believe it's for the better in the long run, for everybody.

It had better be worth it, that's all I have to say! Like you, if we go through all this crap only to get back to square one, I won't be a happy camper.

 

[Sinurgy]

After watching most of the games of the World Cup tourney, I have to strongly disagree. Oddly enough it was under NHL rules. Could the quality of the World cup game become the standard for the NHL game? With a lengthy lockout and a few tweaks of the rules and schedule, I believe so.

World Cup is not even close to a realistic comparison. You are dealing with a handful of All-Star stacked teams that are fueled by nationalism.

 

[rwilson99]

Wipe out 6-10 teams with a lengthy lockout and then you will see the quality of each team increase.
Still have 16 teams making the playoffs, which would be 67-80% of 20-24 teams, so the games wouldn't be so critical all the time.
Scoring doesn't equal excitement, and neither does seeing a puck dumped in 1 guy going into the offensive zone, but only as far as the top of the faceoff circles while a box is formed between the blueline and redline.

Sweden and Finalnd went scoring wild and that was a good game, but so were some of the lower scoring games.

Why stop there... let's contact 24 teams, make it like the good old days say around 1967. Then the Leafs may have a chance to win a cup.

 

[Guest]

Losing teams from the current 30 team league seems like a whole other subject to me. There you are discussing the player pool depth, and that has nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

The longer the strike goes, the better for hockey fans.

Something has to change in the way the league and players were running the league. It's a joint partnership at this point with the CBA's, and if teams can't survive, they have to decide whether or not they wish to lose teams and lose jobs, or keep the existing market. That's for them to determine, and I think you can make arguements for each side.

I'd like to think there are some creative solutions to this whole mess, and I've even offered two of them with my CBA Proposal with a Developmental Exemption to a cap where only players not developed by that team could towards a cap, or the CBA Proposal of splitting the league into two groups, one with a cap and one with a salary floor -- let the spenders compete against each other, and let the economically unstable compete -- winners go to the Cup finals.

There are tons of other ideas as well, and in the meantime they aren't even talking. Seems like this should be at least a part-time job for both of them, and they should be spending 20+ hours a week in discussions and negotiations.

I think the tide will turn this winter when many of the players contracts in Europe expire and when those league cease to play for their season. Then you will see all of those higher calibre NHL players out of work once again, and they won't want to miss too many paychecks at that point. Much like the last lockout, no one even wakes up until the end of December.

As a side note, the NHL is not broken, but it needs to be fixed at the same time. If it was broken, it wouldn't have been running in the first place last season. They need to change the emphasis from can't lose games to must win games. The psychology from management and the coaches is different in the regular season than the playoffs because the playoffs have a finish, there is a winner and a loser. The regular season has that gray area where it ties. So make both teams a loser if it's a tie, scrap the point system in the standings and go with a wins-based standings instead. If you don't win the game, you lose the game. That is not true right now.

 

[thinkwild]

Imagine coming to the conclusion that the longer the strike goes, the better off we fans are. How whipped can you get?

The longer the lockout goes, the harder it will be for owners to recapture their season ticket base and maintain their prices. The harder it will be for them to renew their sponsors and advertisers. The longer it goes, the more likely their franchise values will drop to half. Maybe the owners are so spiteful they would rather shut down the league and ruin their investments instead of only spending what they can afford. With the likes of Jacobs and Wirtz leading the parade, anything is possible.

 

[Guest]

Imagine coming to the conclusion that the longer the strike goes, the better off we fans are. How whipped can you get?

The longer the lockout goes, the harder it will be for owners to recapture their season ticket base and maintain their prices. The harder it will be for them to renew their sponsors and advertisers. The longer it goes, the more likely their franchise values will drop to half. Maybe the owners are so spiteful they would rather shut down the league and ruin their investments instead of only spending what they can afford. With the likes of Jacobs and Wirtz leading the parade, anything is possible.

It will encourage the teams to make up for lost time which could also be a positive thing for the fans. I would honestly say you could easily take either side of this arguement and be correct. To point to either side and say it's totally unrealistic is not looking at the big picture and possibilities that could exist in each scenario.

Is it all good? No. Is it all bad? No. Rarely is anything that cut and dry.