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August 18, 2004
By Spector / Special to FOXSports.com
In all the coverage given the National Hockey League and it's Players Association, there's been very little written about a group whose opinion should not only have an effect on the CBA talks but also on the league in its brave new world after a new CBA is in place.
That group is none other than NHL fans.
In its ranking of the 100 most powerful and influential people in the sport by The Hockey News earlier this year, "Joe Fan" was ranked 100th in importance, due to the billions of dollars the fans contribute to the NHL every season. That would be the money the owners and the players are presently squabbling over.
The paper said it was up to the fans to make their opinions known if they want to avoid a lockout, just as the threats of baseball fans to abandon the game they loved influenced CBA talks between MLB and its player association. The anger of pro baseball fans was a contributing factor in MLB avoiding yet another work stoppage.
So how much influence are hockey fans having on these negotiations?
If we believe the media hype that both the league and the union currently remain far apart in their negotiations, fans are having no impact on the proceedings.
Apart from the results of a Decima Poll showing the majority of Canadian hockey fans not only support the league's stance against the players but would return to watch the NHL after a lockout, there's been little written about how the negotiations are impacting the fans.
That's not to suggest some fans aren't trying to make their voices heard.
The National Hockey League Fan Association, established by Ottawa natives Jim Boone and Jim Spendlove, has been around since 1998. The purpose of the NHLFA is, according to their website, "to give average hockey fans across North America an affordable (free) way to express their views on the NHL."
The NHLFA recognizes that hockey is a business first and a sport second, but while fans keep the business afloat, they're "generally at the bottom of the pecking order, while paying top dollar at the ticket office, the concession booth and the souvenir store."
The organization has the acknowledgement of League Commissioner Gary Bettman, but until they can substantially increase their membership, the league won't recognize it as truly representative of NHL fans. To date, they presently have over 21, 000 members, far short of the 75,000 they need for recognition.
Imagine the impact a fan association with the backing of hundreds of thousands of angry fans could have on the CBA talks! Sadly, it may take several years for the NHLFA to reach that level of membership, which means it'll have no voice in the current labor talks.
Some concerned fans have been circulating internet petitions against a lockout and plan to present them to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow. Honorable intentions, but it's doubtful those petitions will have much of an impact on the CBA negotiations.
Names on a piece of paper don't mean much if those names are backing their words with action.
One area where fan discontent could have an impact on the talks is ticket sales for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, but according to a recent report in the Toronto Star, those sales for the event in both North America and Europe have been strong.
The Star pointed out the final four games of the tournament, slated for Toronto's Air Canada Centre, have yet to be sold out, but that only seems a matter of time. In hockey-mad Toronto, where fans face the possibility of losing part or all of the 2004-05 NHL season to lockout, the possibility of empty seats at those games is remote. Rather than scare the pants off the league and the union by boycotting the World Cup of Hockey, it appears most hockey fans will snap up tickets or hunker down in front of their televisions for a last-minute satiation of their pro hockey fix before the expect lockout takes place.
In internet chat rooms, messages boards and sports call-in shows, NHL fans have been speaking out against a lockout, some even to the point of threatening never to return. Unfortunately, none of that talk has translated into any kind of organized protest against a work stoppage.
Perhaps it's the time of year, for it's obviously difficult to get wound up over hockey in the heat of summer. Maybe hockey fans aren't as jaded over potential work stoppages as fans in Major League Baseball have become. Maybe the majority of fans find the CBA negotiations boring, or perhaps they're not fully aware of the issues involved, or it could be just plain apathy.
Whatever the reason, the fans aren't having any impact on the CBA talks.
One has to wonder if the league and the union are really taking the fans into consideration in all of this. For all the talk about salary caps and cost certainty and UROs, we haven't heard much concern from either side about how a lockout will affect the league's fan base.
Maybe that's because both sides believe that no matter what happens, no matter how high or low salaries, payrolls and ticket prices rise or fall, no matter how bitter or protracted the work stoppage, the die-hard fans will come back whenever the next NHL season begins.
In which case, the Hockey News over-rated the impact of "Joe Fan."
At home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, he's known as Lyle Richardson. But around these parts, he's known as Spector, FOXSports.com's Prince of Pucks.
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