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May 26, 2004
STUPIDITY ON ICE
Having grown up in Minnesota, I have always had a fondness for hockey. The Stanley Cup finals began yesterday... and for the first time in ten years, the championship series features a Canadian team. The two cities involved, Calgary and Tampa, are small market and won't drive ratings; the league is also facing its lowest ratings ever for the regular season. Fighting baseball, basketball, and football doesn't help... and the NHL is also a victim of its own overexpansion into markets that just don't deserve or need hockey. (I've always maintained that if the ice machine inside broke, if you couldn't just go play the game outside, then the city doesn't deserve a hockey team. This means you, L.A., Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, North Carolina, and San Jose.)
So facing dire challenges, on the day when his sport takes its place on its biggest stage, what does NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman do? Does he talk about the history and tradition of Lord Stanley's cup? Does he talk about emerging superstars Jerome Iginla and Martin St. Louis playing in their first finals? Does he talk about how great it is that a Canadian team is finally back in the championship? Does he do anything to positively sell his sport? Nope. Gary Bettman threatens players and fans with a work stoppage.
"I don't doubt the players' resolve... but nobody should doubt the owners' resolve," Bettman said. "If this is a test to see if the owners really mean it, it's a shame to have to go through all the hardship that will entail to prove the point. We'd rather not have to go through that."
With an opportunity to promote his sport during the only two weeks when most American fans are paying attention, Bettman chose to toss cold water into the face of the fans, threatening a lockout. If there's one thing sports fans have proven, it's that they don't have patience for labor problems in their sports anymore. And it speaks terribly poorly for Bettman that he would prefer to jockey for bargaining position than do the promotion that his sport desperately needs. Bettman should be forced to resign.
