Give the fans a seat at the table when the talks turn to saving NHL teams
June 27, 1999
By Rick Gibbons
Ottawa Sun
They should leave one chair vacant around the conference table when Industry Minister John Manley hosts his much ballyhooed "hockey summit" on the future of the NHL in Canada tomorrow in Toronto.
The symbolism of an empty chair would be fitting. Because one interested party will be noticeably absent amidst all those blue-suited delegates who represent hockey players, team owners and federal, provincial and municipal governments.
And that's the fans. Remember them? You would think that fans might have something to say about the current state of affairs that is increasingly threatening the survival of Canadian-based NHL teams. After all, without them there'd be no teams to fret about. They shell out the bucks for tickets, buy the advertisers' beer and the teams' apparel, they drive TV hockey ratings and maybe, just maybe, they'll buy the lottery tickets and pay a portion of the taxes used to save Canadian hockey teams in future.
Yet, by all accounts, they are the forgotten element in the equation as the hockey gods search for a formula to save NHL hockey in Canada. An alliance of hockey fans is exactly what two Ottawa-based hockey nuts had in mind when they formed the NHLFA. Jim Boone and Jim Spendlove are now in the process of building their 6,000-member association into a powerhouse of hockey fandom by using the Internet to recruit 75,000 members armed with the kind of muscle that will make the NHL stand up and listen.
An e-mail is fast circulating cyberspace aimed at tapping into "the power of grassroots hockey fans." You can check out their website at nhlfa.com. NHL fans have much to say about everything from the state of the game to player salaries, ticket prices and rule changes. And they'd have much to contribute if given half a chance to enter the debate over the future of NHL teams in Canada.
Ultimately, fans just might be the missing piece of the puzzle needed to force issues ranging from player salaries to revenue sharing. So, why aren't they represented? It's a little soon to predict the outcome of the hockey summit. But if the NHL had an executive of the year award, surely it would go to Rod Bryden, the Ottawa Senators owner, who has done more than anyone to provoke a long-overdue debate on the future of NHL hockey in Canada. Without him there would be no hockey summit tomorrow and no scramble by governments at all levels to find some way to soften the financial burden of high taxes and a weak Canadian currency.
Others have tried, but it took Bryden to articulate the issues in a manner that forced governments and the public to listen.
But U.S.-based team owners may not be too quick to pat Bryden on the back when it comes down to the hard knocks of concessions. Because governments alone won't save the NHL's remaining Canadian franchises.
The feds will insist that the NHL itself dig into its own pockets to ease the financial strain facing Canadian teams before they look at relaxing taxes or handing over millions derived from lottery revenues.
The demand is legitimate since at least some of the financial problems confronting Canadians teams is rooted in the healthy subsidies enjoyed by American franchises.
A final solution will ultimately depend on greater venue sharing by teams and, quite possibly, an agreement from the NHL Players Association to do something to contain players' salaries. If they're not interested in saving NHL hockey in Canada, you can bet that our governments won't be doing the dirty work on their behalf.
|
