Sports are more focused on money than ever before. In the past year alone, there have been three lockouts in American sports. Football players and basketball players have been locked out and now the NFL’s referees are currently watching the games from home.
Unless the owners and the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players’ Association) agree on a new collective bargaining agreement by midnight on Sunday, we can add another lockout to that list.
To sum up the labor problems, the owners want more money. They desire a lower salary cap and lower player salaries. This plan will ultimately make the owners more money while the athletes who actually play make less. Understandably, players aren’t thrilled.
The NHL season is scheduled to begin Oct. 11. However many NHL players aren’t optimistic about the possibility of having the start of the season delayed.
”I hear November, December and New Year’s,” said Boston Bruins goalie, Tuukka Rask to the Associated Press. ”But no one really knows.”
If the NHL goes on strike, they will suffer. Taking a lesson from history when, MLB went on strike in 1994-95, the NFL leapfrogged MLB as the most popular sport league in America.
Therefore if the NHL does miss a significant amount of games, its viewership could further decrease and mark the beginning of the end for the sport.