League Speeds
Towards Destination of Total Irrelevance
The NHL lockout of its players is almost 2 months old and we’re
not any closer to a real solution. Sure the league and the NHLPA have been back
in discussions for most of the past 10 days, but nothing concrete has come from
them. The only accomplishment might be giving the fly on the wall a headache
from the Gary Bettman – Don Fehr shouting matches.
Clearly the league is committed to whatever it is they’re
committed to, since they don’t seem to be willing to move at all in the
negotiations. Not only are they committed to whatever, but they’re committed to
it despite the obvious pain they’re inflicting on themselves. NHL owners and
league officials can’t honestly believe they can come back from this lockout,
even if it were to end before the New Year, without there being damage done to
the brand. The league and sport just isn’t popular enough to thumb their noses
at everyone and not have it bite them in the ass. The NFL they are not.
There will be less interest in the sport when it gets back
to playing (assuming it does); it’s just a matter of how much of a hit it
takes. Hockey is hugely popular in Canada and it will recover here, although I
suspect more than a few people will at least stay away from the game for a
while.
In the US it will be a different story, however. Hockey is
just one of many professional sports leagues in that country and isn’t the
cultural icon it is in Canada. Sure places like Detroit, New York (Rangers),
and Minneapolis should be fine, but there are a lot more cities that won’t be
so patient with this nonsense, assuming they even cared at all in the first
place. Exactly how interested do the owners and Mr. Bettman think cities like
Phoenix, Miami or Dallas will be after another extended period of
non-operation? The NHL’s had a difficult time enough selling itself in the
sunbelt cities without making a habit of going out of business for indefinite
periods of time. Remember, this is the second time in 7 years this has
happened, the third in 18. You can only do this so many times before the purely
casual fan will forget about you altogether.
Let’s also not assume, NHL, that your corporate ‘partners’
will want to hang around spending money sponsoring a product that’s is so
volatile. In fact, it could get to the point where there could be backlash
against a product associated with the league just out of resentment; do you
hear me Molsons? Hardly worth partnering with the league if it doesn’t help
sell your product at all. Or maybe even hinders selling your product. The NHL
might want to drive off a cliff but corporate sponsors aren’t going to want to
go along for the ride.
What it comes down to is the Gary Bettman’s ego. Bettman
wants another new deal with the union to try and make the game work in places
where it just won’t, rather than backtracking and pulling out of questionable
markets. To do that would be admitting he’d made a mistake in trying to expand
into non-traditonal hockey markets. Gary Bettman doesn’t appear to be the kind
of guy who admits to that big an error in judgement. The people running the
NHL, particularly since Bettman’s hiring, seem to have felt their league could
be as big as any in the United States and there was no way that was ever going
to happen. Many people have developed an interest in the game but it still
doesn’t have the natural, cultural following of baseball, basketball and
especially football in the United States.
The league just doesn’t seem to understand that. They
think the progress they’ve made since the last lockout is equity they’ve built
up with the general public that’s rock solid. Instead, what they have is a
crumbling highway on the road to irrelevance.
No comments:
Post a Comment