NHL Lock-Out a Sign of Bigger Problems? The NHL is locked out. Regular season games have been cancelled, players have gone to Europe in droves to play and there seems to be no end in sight.



So, what does this mean for the NHL? Only time will tell, but we could be witnessing the first complete revamping of a professional sports league. The owners finally decided that the economics of the sport did not work. The players salaries had exploded, but the league's revenues, including the important television contract, had not. So, rather than continue to lose money, they have decided to hold out for what they want, no matter what the consequences.



When the dust clears, we could be seeing an entirely new hockey league. There could be fewer teams, a tight salary structure, including a salary cap and possibly even new rules. Could some teams be headed back to Canada, in hopes of finding fans? Will American fans return? Obviously, the longer hockey is off the ice, the more time fans have time to occupy themselves with other diversions. This could severely damage a sport that has already been threatened as part of the Big 4, with NASCAR probably taking over the fourth spot.



Hopefully, the NHL will take the break and concentrate on its largest problem: television. Hockey is a fast-paced sport, high on energy and full of things the viewing public likes: big hits, speed, and incredible talent. The problem seems to be that the sport has not been translated well to television. Why is this? One concern voiced by viewers is that it is difficult to follow the puck. The Fox innovations (blue puck anyone?) did not work. Perhaps, though, with the increase in HDTV, the puck will be seen and fans will be happy. But the league can do more than this. How about more cameras? Cameras in helmets, cameras on the ice, cameras in the ice, cameras suspended across the ice. Fans should be put in the action, made to feel the hits and understand the speed. Only then will television ratings go up, giving the NHL the revenue its needs to answer the players' demands.



Then again, maybe this is an indication of a larger problem in sports. I watched a baseball game on ESPN classic today, a game from 1985. The difference was startling. In between pitches, the batters actually stayed in the batter's box. No stepping out for crotch adjustments and thirty second routines. There was a pitch, the ball went back to the pitcher, and there was another pitch. An entire at-bat took place in the time it would take today for one pitch to occur. Why is this important? Players were playing a game. There was no self-indulgence, no "me before the team" mentality. The game went quickly because that is what it was -- a game. Today, with players making tens of millions of dollars each season, it is almost inevitable for them to have an inflated sense of self worth. Mike Piazza asked for $20,000 for thirty minutes on last week's Apprentice. In 1978, the entire starting nine of the Pittsburgh Pirates rode in a Johnstown, PA parade for free -- just to do a good thing for the community (thanks to my cousin for the story).



Maybe all of this means that salaries have destroyed the games, not just in hockey, but in all sports. And as salaries continue to grow, there is no assurance that what is happening to the NHL will not one day occur in the other professional leagues. There are only so many sources of revenue and so much the television contracts can escalate. At some point, if players salaries continue to balloon, the economics simply will not make sense. Maybe then, other sports will have to do what hockey is doing, blowing up the sport and starting over.

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