If a league falls and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?
There is no bigger fan than me. I go to every game, a few away games, read about it, listen to NHL Radio, hit the boards every day, and talk it up amongst friends. As Thanksgiving approaches with no games and no end in sight, I’ve become disinterested. I don’t express outrage because it isn’t worth it.
If/when it comes back, I’m not one of those vengeance guys. I’ll come back and probably get back into the swing of everything. I don’t have a dog in the hunt and would just like them to settle it so we can play.
What’s most telling about our current state of affairs is the disconnected fan base on this board and the Pred’s site. It’s not a knock, I’m part of it. I visit both sites about once a week to see if there’s anything interesting going on. There hasn’t been. Crickets. What should alarm the NHL and it’s players is how we’ve all moved on so quietly. NHL fans are easily the most loyal, rapid fans going. We don’t just follow the sport, we act like we’re invested. We care big time. So to sit here in mid-November with “still boards” and little outrage is creepy, but understandable.
The length of the lock out and the loss of the Winter classic has forever tarnished the goodwill built up over the last 7 years. The league can’t carve up $3.3b so now it’s not $3.3b anymore. Even if either side gets what they want, everyone is worse off than if they met in the middle in Sept and had a full season. Donald Fehr doesn’t realize the NHL is not the MLB. The NHL is more fragile and he’s willing to break it to win. The owners don’t want to share revenue much because most of the NHL money is made locally, not thru national TV contracts. These are differentiators for the NHL versus the other sports but the negotiators don’t seem to get it.
Players are losing games they will never get back. The league is losing respect it may never get back. Fans have noticed they have more money in their pocket from not going to games and may keep it that way when this is over. It’s like the government arrogantly raising your tax rates, assuming they’ll get the increase and we’ll just keep taking the same risks and working that much harder to make the same money even though we don’t get to keep it. It doesn’t work that way. They end up with a higher percentage of less money, and therefore the increased revenues don’t get produced. Same with fighting over the projected 5% annual increase in revenues using $3.3b as a base. Fat chance. Players and owners will end up with less when the pie shrinks. We control the pie and they don’t seem to remember that. Fine. Assume the great unwashed will grow the league because you paint the “Thank you fans” on every ice surface post-lockout.
There are no official winners of this mess. It’s now just the degree by which everyone loses. They are burning the village to save it. I’d feel really bad if I cared, but I don’t.
I read more now. I like it. I never “lose” when I read, and it hardly costs anything.
I totally agree with everything you said. No doubt, I'll be there too when and if the games start again but its just ridiculous that it has gone this far. I will say one thing though...I'm not buying one more piece of clothing or gear until after this dispute is settled. For the time being, the money is staying in my pocket and you never know, I might just get used to having more savings and less or no hockey.
I know the fans will come back, but one group that I doubt is ever going to forgive the NHLPA is the young players. I pay $1000 per year to play high school hockey, and these idiots are holding out for more?
Agree with OP. Sadly, despite this whole debacle, my interest has not waned in the slightest; if anything, my need for hockey has been treated with radioactive waste and grown to Godzilla-esque proportions. Fix it!
The loss of momentum is the killer to me though. The Winter Classic this year would have been un-freaking-believable even if the Leafs lost 24-3. The entire province of Ontario was ready to roll into Michigan. I miss when hockey was more popular than basketball...
During the last lockout I listened to all the Milwaukee games, followed our prospects, kept up with Preds players in Europe.
This time, I couldn't even tell you which Preds are in Europe except for Klein and Rinne. I couldn't even tell you if Milwaukee is playing or who is on the team.
I'm also mad because the Preds had a chance to be on the 24/7 show this year. We were set to play at Toronto on Thurs. Dec 13 and a Saturday night home game Dec. 15 against Detroit. How awesome would that have been to have a Saturday night home game vs Detroit on 24/7!
I know the fans will come back, but one group that I doubt is ever going to forgive the NHLPA is the young players. I pay $1000 per year to play high school hockey, and these idiots are holding out for more?
the whole problem is the people who are already rich and can afford to miss out on a year of income are calling the shots.
its a shame a few journeymen who live contract to contract but are well respected (like maybe Fiddler, Smithson type guys) cant organize all the players currently on ELC's or deals making less than 1.5 million per year, or contracts about to expire and outvote the Crosby's and Webers of the league who will never want for money even if they never play again and tell Don Fehr to make the best deal possible but no matter what have a deal done by Dec 1 or they are going to decertify.
I guess I'm just the rare breed of "I don't care." Lockout? yeah, I miss hockey, but I don't care. Come back? fine. I'll watch again. In the end it's just millionaires arguing with billionaires.
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"I do my best work while chock full of whiskey & cheese" --Beef Invictus
Hockey is not the NHL, and the NHL is not the only hockey. This is a golden opportunity to grow and learn their hockey knowledge. Go to a youth game, go to a UAH game, go to other sorts of games. I have already gone to an ECHL game, an AHL game, and plan on going to a youth game, a Cornell game, a DIV III game, and more.
This is a chance to go from Nashville Predators fans to hockey fans. Grow.
Oh I've been to plenty of games.... UAH... Alabama club...Auburn Club.. I used to be an ECHL Birmingham Bulls season ticket holder. I just really don't care about this lockout
This is a chance to go from Nashville Predators fans to hockey fans. Grow.
I used to follow all hockey. Other teams, different leagues, prospect games, overseas games...the works...hockey is a great game. Occasionally now I'll check out a Milwaukee game but my heart isn't into it because I'm somewhat in mourning. I'm watching a great league, a great game, be disassembled over money and stubbornness.
The last lockout was, I guess, a necessary evil. The game did come back healthier and better. So why not tweak over the 7 years and discuss the main issues instead of trying to completely rewrite the thing once August of 2012 arrived? Instead, both sides chose to ignore the whole thing and then play chicken instead of being adults. To allow even one preseason game to be cancelled shows a patent disrespect for the fans (particularly those who endured the cancellation of 2004-05), all the supporting team staff, referees, and everyone who makes their living off NHL games from ticket reps to the bar down the street to Doc Emrick. It screws the younger players and the journeymen out of a year of play at critical points in their careers. It is detrimental to small market programs trying to make headway when their public image is reduced to a millionaire vs billionaire contest not once but twice in less than a decade. It pushes youth programs back because this year's 8 year olds have no NHL heroes to watch and emulate. I think the entire league--both the owners and the players sides--have been shamelessly self serving and I don't know how much longer I'll continue to reward them.
I've gotten more done this past 2 months than I have in the past 10 falls. I haven't paid a monthly amount for tickets, parking, etc. I haven't gone to any radio shows or Preds parties. I have been able to step in and help my daughter when she was faced with daycare time constraints. I've gotten to know my granddaughter better. Every day that hockey doesn't happen, I realize how much of my life I've devoted to a league and players who don't give a damn about me.
"patent disrespect for the fans". That pretty much sums it up. There is nothing more frustrating then being taken-for-granted. Bad enough we get it politically all the time "we need more revenue so lets tax them more". As if I'm going to bend over and pay more versus work less, take it slower, and deprive you of your needed extra tax money.
I cringe every time Fehr or Daly is quoted using negotiation speak. "The other side needs to make the next move or there's no point in meeting". REALLY! How about you both take that stance, and we'll close up shop permanently. That's a plan.
You deprive the revenue-generators of the game that causes them to generate the revenues, while fighting over your portion of the revenue that you're choking off by depriving us of the game.
Lets face it, getting the right deal, for either side, is more important than respecting the fans who create the revenue. If holding out for the right deal means depriving the revenue-generators of the game they pay for and love, so be it.
I want to hear the truth from both sides: OUR (players & owners) DEAL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU (fans). WE WILL DEFY YOU UNTIL WE GET WHAT WE WANT, REGARDLESS OF THE DAMAGE IT CAUSES. THE GAME IS ABOUT US. YOU ARE SECONDARY TO OUR NEEDS. PERIOD.
I guess I'm just the rare breed of "I don't care." Lockout? yeah, I miss hockey, but I don't care. Come back? fine. I'll watch again. In the end it's just millionaires arguing with billionaires.
I agree, I really don't care. I will watch hockey when it comes back. It's still going to be hockey. They're not going to suddenly start playing it upside down on floating islands made of solid gold.
This whole "waning fan passion" spiel is just a bunch of butthurt that will go away once the players are back on the ice. That's what happened in 1994, that's what happened in 2005, that's what happened with the NFL and the NBA, that's what will happen this time. And if it doesn't, then it's better seats and prices for me and anyone else who stays.
I hadn't cared until this past week. I'm starting to really miss it now. I guess it was because I saw on FSN a replay of the 8-0 spanking that the Preds laid on the Wings. That really got me revved up. Last night I watched a little bit of college hockey on nbc sports. I've been to 1 echl game this year but I was bored with players I didn't know and didn't care to know. I'm ready for my Preds to get back on the ice dammit.
Wow, it's been a long time since I've checked these Boards. I used to a an every-dayer. After the December fall-out occurred just as it looked like they'd settled this thing, I, along with most of Pred Nation, checked out almost completely. I now immediately delete Pred season ticket holder emails and have lost any sympathy for either side, including our management and ownership.
They have all screwed-the-pooch.
Games are now canceled thru Jan. 14th. The stage is set for the final d*** measuring contest, using a canceled full season as the ultimate trigger. Each side believes they are right, the other side will cave, and if so, each is willing to sacrifice the remainder of the season.
If anyone is going to cave, it will be the players. However, Fehr has no affinity for hockey and is used to winning. This means the players will not cave.
For most of the owners, they lose money anyway, so not playing only hurts the the big money makers like the Leafs or Rangers.
I wonder how long it will take for Daly and Bettman and Fehr and all the other owners and players to realize what they've done to their Golden Goose. They've burned the village to save it.
I still check these forums, TSN, Twitter, etc. every day; really wish I didn't. Driving me absolutely crazy. I miss getting into arguments with 101st and GDT threads
I don't know if Nashville will have a hockey team 3 years from now if they don't play at all this season, and that scares me.
All the casual fans I know were pumped after last season, and keeping Weber, now no one cares. People stopped asking about the lockout, and the Preds in general.
I don't know if Nashville will have a hockey team 3 years from now if they don't play at all this season, and that scares me.
All the casual fans I know were pumped after last season, and keeping Weber, now no one cares. People stopped asking about the lockout, and the Preds in general.
Here's my counter theory on that. Since Nashville has less full-fledged hockey fans than the core markets, and attendance historically increases after college football ends, a Jan. 15th start would probably work here. The casual sports fan who goes to games in the 2nd half of the season because it's the only game in town and they've enjoyed it in past seasons will come back. They are less emotional. The rapid fans like us will also come back because we need it. The season would instantly turn into a "playoff run" so the games will mean more. And finally, peeps will have more disposable income because they didn't spend it on the first half of the season.
I don't think Nashville is hurt more than other cities. We will survive this if we make the playoffs in the shortened season.
I will say one thing though...I'm not buying one more piece of clothing or gear until after this dispute is settled. For the time being, the money is staying in my pocket and you never know, I might just get used to having more savings and less or no hockey.
