Call me a radical, but I have achieved a nirvana-like state of perfect bliss now that hockey is finally over — give or take yet another pointless riot by street maggots in hockey garb with a cell phone growing out of their ears.
I lost contact with the NHL many years ago when it continued to expand its teams and season to cover the nut on expenses such as criminally high player salaries.
The fondest dream of the NHL is acceptance as a major league sport by U.S. television networks. The big networks will pay serious money for a sport that has massive appeal like football, but hockey is not even on the radar with most American sports fans.
Record viewer numbers for hockey in the U.S. run slightly ahead of Canadian numbers during big games, with very temporary spikes during the Olympics and a handful of playoff games. Bear in mind that the U.S has a huge population base compared to us, but most Americans hate hockey.
Hockey has not been able to shake the roller derby image that it perpetuates with fighting and cheap shots in the game. To them, it is a peculiar sport favored by Canuckleheads and it will never gain the unrealistic foothold it seeks in mainstream America.
The net result is that 16 out of 30 NHL teams hemorrhaged cash last year because they are financially driven by ticket sales and corporate money. Even the Ottawa Senators were drowning in a sea of red ink.
Atlanta has become the birthplace of Canadian NHL hockey teams because it has lost (and ignored) two separate NHL teams. How many more dead franchises will be foisted upon new cities before the math really doesn’t add up for prospective owners?
The cold reality of the NHL is that it is a very damaged brand that owes most of its success to a hockey-mad country like Canada. It is a regional sport with pockets of international interest in colder European countries.
The NHL has long since distanced itself from the average hockey fan by its sheer cost. A lack of a real TV contract means that season tickets are well beyond the reach of an average income fan. The NHL has to feed the mercenaries on skates that demand too much money for their services.
These guys honestly believe that they are worth the money that is delivered in large wheel- barrows during their careers.
Empty hockey arenas mean little to them even though the golden goose is dying in over half of the NHL cities. In most cities, that goose has already been cooked to a crisp.
The insanely unrealistic salary demands of the players mean that fans have been asked to spend well beyond the real value of the on-ice product. That really poor choice is up to them, but I do not want to see any public funding for bigger arenas.
The spin-doctors always throw out mystical figures about millions of dollars that are generated by pro sports in a city. That is absolute nonsense because entertainment dollars will always go somewhere in a city — hockey team or no hockey team.
And what about that final tab for damages in Vancouver?
I would suggest that the last noble place for hockey is found in its amateur players: the young guys chasing a hockey dream and the guys that just love the game. This element of hockey still deserves our respect and support.
Jim Sutherland may be reached at jim@mystarcollectorcar.com