As you probably know, the National Hockey League season has been cancelled. It’s not coming back this year, and may not be back ever again. Salary cap disputes, millions in losses and poor communication between owners and players are just some of its problems. Despite the sport lacking the popularity of the National Basketball Association, National Football League or Major League Baseball, it’s possible NHL owners have made too many mistakes for it to recover.
The NHL is not the MLB or the NBA when it comes to national popularity. So why are there NHL teams in Carolina, Phoenix, Tampa Bay and Miami? It’s understandable that baseball and basketball have expanded into new markets, but hockey in Nashville?
Someone let me know when NASCAR is having the Winnipeg 500. Oh wait, I’m from Minnesota so if there was such a thing, I wouldn’t care anyway. Is it any wonder, then, that these same southern teams are claiming millions and millions of dollars in losses every year?
Hey, NHL, keep it simple. If anything, contract the league down to only those cities that really love hockey: Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul (Minn.), New York, Boston (Mass.) and all those big Canadian cities. Hockey is a regional sport. It has its own rabid fans and they are in the northern parts of America and Canada.
The second big mistake the NHL has made is overpaying its players. Quick question, what’s the most popular sport in America, thus making the most money off television contracts and advertising partners? The NFL, of course. One more: What professional sport pays its average player more than the average NFL player? The NHL (if you said basketball or baseball you’d be right too). The average NFL salary is $1.5 million while the average NHL salary is $1.8 million.
It isn’t hard to see why owners are losing money on their franchises. They’re paying players way too much compared to the revenue they have coming in.
So what is the future of professional hockey? Even if the players and owners can agree on some sort of salary cap or luxury tax, it’s hard to see a possible comeback. It’s a given that after every strike, there will be some sort of fan alienation. It has taken 10 years for baseball to regain its popularity after the 1994 strike. When America’s pastime struggles for so long, how long will it take for America’s afterthought to regain its former popularity?
What baseball or football is to America, hockey is to Canada. After the baseball strike, both Canadian teams struggled mightily. The Toronto Blue Jays are still in the process of regaining their fan base, and just this year the Montreal Expos moved to Washington because lack of fan interest caused a pathetic financial situation.
It isn’t hard to see most NHL teams struggle like the Canadian baseball teams have. The same southern hockey teams reporting losses now will report even bigger losses if the NHL ever starts again.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the NHL wasn’t ever going to be America’s most popular sport. However, it had mainstream and hardcore fans. It also employed thousands of workers and boosted sales in local bars, restaurants and sports apparel stores around the arenas.
The league has been driven into strike status by both irresponsible owners and greedy players. If the NHL ever comes back, a salary cap needs to be implemented to limit players’ skyrocketing salaries. Contraction is also necessary to weed out teams that annually show up in the red. Until the NHL solves these financial problems, it will struggle to see another season.
Peterson is a sophomore chemistry major and a columnist for The Spectator.