It's official--there will be no NHL season this year. As much as I feel the pain of my fellow sports-fan who love hockey, I can't help but be a bit relieved that they've finally done the inevitable and cancelled the season.
I love how in all this debate back and forth between the sides, there's never once been any consideration given to the fact that you are aliennating fans and by not having a season, you've cost some other poeple their livelihood. I'm thinking about downtown Nashville, where hockey games drew fans downtown on weeknights and weekends to local restaurants, bars and other estabalishments for food and beverage before and after the game. That revenue is lost...also, there may have been some hours or even positions cut for servers because there were fewer customers to serve. Add to it that there was an entire infra-structure to support a hockey game, beyond just players. What about the refs who have lost their jobs because of this? What about the vendors who had the job of selling overpriced beer, hot dogs, chips, etc? No one seems to take a second to give a damn about them.
No, instead we have two sides who are making more money playing a game than some of those poeple will see for many years of hard work, whining and moaning that they aren't making enough money.
The thing is, the Predators were gaining some momentum here in Nashville. They had huge interest after last year. It's all gone now. Instead what is left are feelings of hurt and betrayal. Should the NHL ever come back they face a long, up-hill battle to win any fans back.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 2/16/2005 01:52:00 PM |
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