Players don't have support
The National Hockey League's locked-out players say they'll never accept a salary cap, even if it means they won't skate again in North America for years.
The players need to wake up and smell the sizzling Canadian backbacon.
In this country, ice hockey, once considered the fourth most-popular professional sport (behind football, baseball and basketball), is a cult sport at best. Golf, tennis and especially racing (autos and horses) have surpassed hockey in fan interest.
There are those of us who love the game -- and then there are the other 99.5 percent of sports ticket purchasers.
If hockey players believe fans are going to rally to their cause and demand the return of those hard-hitting Predators-Thrashers contests (not to mention those Coyotes/Panthers tug-of-wars), they're sadly mistaken.
The proof is in the stands.
Biggies don'tmove the masses
Two weeks ago, on the same night that ESPN proclaimed the 1980 Miracle on Ice as the biggest sports story of the past 25 years, Team USA played Team Russia in a World Cup of Hockey semifinal in St. Paul, Minn.
The game didn't sell out.
Minnesota, which proclaims itself the "State of Hockey," couldn't fill its arena for Americans (Keith Tkachuk, Mike Modano, Chris Chelios, Scott Gomez, Brian Leetch) versus Russians (Alexei Kovalev, Darius Kasparaitus, Ilya Kovalchuk).
The World Cup was an Olympic-style tournament staged by the NHL and the NHL Players Association that created eight all-star teams from the league's 30 teams.
Naturally, Canada won. Unlike the NBA professionals the U.S. sent to Greece for the Summer Olympics and returned with "LeBron-ze" medals, the Canadian Dream Team (Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Jarome Iginla, Martin Brodeur) lived up to its heavy expectations. And they played for free, donating the proceeds to charity. Until the World Cup came to St. Paul, every ticket for Minnesota professional hockey game (presumably regular season and playoffs but not exhibition) had been sold since the Wild was created in 2000.
If you can't sell out USA vs. Russia in Minnesota, your sport has problems.
Players claimowners are lying
The players claim the owners are lying about the hundreds of millions of dollars they claim they are losing each year. They might be right.
But the average NHL salary is $1.8 million, not bad for a sport with many empty seats and little television revenue.
The NHL's television home -- once ABC and ESPN -- is now ESPN2 (only because there is no ESPN3). NBC has agreed to televise some games when the Stanley Cup Playoffs return, but the Peacock network will pay the league essentially nothing for carrying the games.
There's something wrong when the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr and the Avalanche's Joe Sakic are paid more per year than just about every NFL quarterback not named Manning, McNabb, McNair or Favre. Jagr and Sakic are great players, but they are overpaid.
Of course, the players aren't to blame for the financial mess swallowing up the NHL. The owners are. It's hard to believe that successful businessmen who have proven to be geniuses at amassing wealth can be such financial idiots when it comes to doling out hockey paychecks.
Does contractionring a bell?
A solution neither side wants to mention is that there are simply too many teams (and thus too many inferior players) in today's NHL. Contraction may be a nasty concept but the league would greatly benefit from whacking the six worst franchises.
Of course, the danger of contraction is that the franchise closest to our hearts -- the Pittsburgh Penguins -- would be the first to go. Pens fans are have seen some ticket prices at Mellon (nee Civic) Arena skyrocket since Lemieux and company won the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992.
A Hockey Night in Pittsburgh requires a financial commitment most casual fans aren't willing to make. Something needs to be done to make hockey once again affordable to the masses.
If it's a salary cap, bring it on.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at williams@vindy.com.