May 2, 2005 -- Day 229 of the NHL lockout. The season was officially cancelled 75 days ago. Wait, you stopped counting already? Isn't it a little too early to give up?
It's safe to assume that there aren't too many people left counting the days of the NHL lockout. It was once a topic worthy of debate, though now too much time has passed for most to care. As Bobby Orr recently lamented, is hockey actually in danger of becoming irrelevant?
Let's put this current lockout in context. As it turns out, most professional sports have a fairly extensive history of labor-related work stoppages, in the form of both strikes and lockouts. In the four "major" sports -- baseball, basketball, football and hockey -- every league has experienced some form of labor dispute that has resulted in missed games.
Before 1966, work stoppages in pro sports occurred when small numbers of players or individual teams collectivized to hold out for more money. The modern era began when the Major League Baseball Players' Union set a collective bargaining precedent and hired Marvin Miller, of United Steelworks fame, to manage their situation with team owners.
The CBC reported that during Miller's 18-year tenure, average player salaries rose from $19,000 to $240,000. To achieve these increases, the players went on strike in '72, '73, '80 and '81, losing upwards of 800 games. These stoppages were only to be overshadowed by the '94-'95 strike that lasted 232 days and saw the cancellation of almost 1,000 games.
Baseball saw a notable decrease in popularity after the '94-'95 strike, but numbers have since stabilized and fans have returned.
The NBA experienced its only work stoppage during '98 and '99 when the owners locked out the players for 191 days because salaries were outpacing revenues. The stoppage was detrimental to the league's fan base, but it's difficult to say whether the decrease in interest was a result of alienated fans or the absence of Michael Jordan.
I've certainly never heard anyone claim they dislike the NBA "because of the lockout." People forgive and forget.
What may be harder, if not psychologically impossible, for us to recall is the NFL work stoppages of the 1980s.
For most of our generation, the thriving NFL is the example for the rest of pro sports to follow. It's a team sport, you have to play to get paid and the owners and players aren't constantly at odds.
That has not always been the case.
In 1982, the players went on a strike that forced the league to cancel seven games. Not to be fooled again in '87, the owners brought in replacement players to end a three-game stoppage. Today you here the occasional grumble about "guaranteed contracts," but few players, owners or fans are bemoaning the NFL's current situation.
Like the other leagues, hockey has its own history of stoppages. In 1992, the players held a 10-day strike over image rights and -- that's right -- trading card disputes.
In '94-'95, owners locked out the players for 104 days in a stoppage reminiscent of today's. Salary caps were the issue at the heart of the current and previous NHL lockouts. Hopefully this time the two sides will actually resolve the problem.
When the players and owners finally resolve their disputes, will the NHL return to its former place in the national esteem?
Probably, but then again, hockey was in danger of becoming somewhat irrelevant before this lockout occurred anyway. It's startling how quickly Americans have stopped caring and perhaps indicative of hockey's fading importance.
"Fringe fans" who enjoyed the sport but weren't passionate about it have moved on and will not have incentive to care when the NHL comes back. The true hockey fans will return, and the sport will continue, albeit in a smaller spotlight.
Every league has been forced to confront its labor issues in some form of stoppage. Like the others, hockey will eventually recover, though it is in serious danger of losing its "major sport" status. Pending its return, we can always "count" on NASCAR to function.
