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| Hockey fans speak, but will the NHL listen?
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June 29, 1999
By Garth Woolsey
The Toronto Star
Hockey fans – make that organized hockey fans – have spoken: NHL goaltenders who roam should be fair game for marauding skaters.
Some 72 per cent of 2,881 respondents to a poll conducted by the 8,000-plus member NHL Fan Association and released yesterday said goalies who leave their crease to play the puck should be treated (including being hit, of course) like any other player on the ice.
Now, whether this or the responses to 84 other questions in the poll will have any affect upon NHL policy is another matter altogether. The NHLFA would like some day to be a voice heard and heeded by NHL owners, as well as the players. But will that day ever come?
"I personally have a huge amount of respect for Gary Bettman and the job he does as representative of the owners and I know Bob Goodenow does a great job as head of the players' association," NHLFA co-founder Jim Boone, on the phone from Ottawa, said yesterday. "But who speaks for the fans?"
Boone and Jim Spendlove, who together started the NHLFA just over a year ago, met with Bettman in late April, seeking a voice in the so-called "Fan Exhibition" at the 2000 NHL All-Star game scheduled for Toronto. Bettman issued a challenge, said Boone - get your membership up to 75,000 and you're in.
The NHLFA grew from the founding pair's complaining to each other about hockey over coffee at work. The Red Wings signing Sergei Fedorov to a four-year $28 million (U.S.) contract was the final straw – they decided to try to become the first "consumers association" for fans of a particular league.
Boone says the immediate goal is to triple the NHLFA's current membership of 8,350 to about 25,000 – "we'd be well on our way."
He notes that there may be some resistance to his organization, including from Leafs president Ken Dryden, who has not returned calls regarding the all-star game proposals. "If I were in his shoes I might do the same," said Boone "It's a dangerous first step to start to recognize us."
Could such a group really affect policy (the NHL is certainly not a democracy)? At least, it seems to be a vent for frustrations.
Some other survey results: 78 per cent of respondents feel that the NHL should impose some form of team/player salary caps; 86 per cent say the NHL has to do something about ice quality around the league; and, 66 per cent believe the-two referee system employed for part of the past season has been good for the game.
The organization can be reached on the Internet at http://www.nhlfa.com.
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