NHL Lockout 2012: There Is No Democracy Under Gary Bettman

Before I start harping on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with the lockout underway, let me first preface it by saying this: Owners always have looked out for themselves and their pocketbooks first and foremost. They always will.

That being said, you only hope they are somewhat fair.

Under Bettman, there is no semblance of democracy in the NHL, and that goes all the way back to the 1994-1995 lockout.

The first sign that Bettman was extremely greedy was the first proposal he put on the table for the players this offseason. The NHL asked the players to take a 24 percent cut to their salaries, via The Philadelphia Inquirer.

After the league realized the players weren't going to let it get away with highway robbery, it reduced that number to about 9.7 percent (still quite the pay cut).

The players understandably have yet to agree with anything Bettman has placed before them. And, under NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr, they are truly beginning to realize just how one-sided Bettman has become (or always was). 

Fehr said on Monday, via USA Today:

"

What has puzzled me about this negotiation from the beginning is when you look at their original proposal it was essentially to say we know players made enormous concessions last time (2004-2005), billions of dollars over the life of the agreement, and then they say we still have some trouble. Then they say everything is perfect except for the players' share numbers and those two don't go together.

"

Even if the NHL truly is in trouble financially, that is all on the teams and the league, not the players. The players made concessions in 2004-2005 so this wouldn't happen, yet the league frankly overspent and is now putting it on the players to help make it right.

That's not fair, and it's only logical that the owners should take more of a pay cut, because they were largely responsible for the league's demise financially since then.

The worst part of it all is that this will probably go the owners' way in the long run, despite Fehr's hard work. The fact remains that owners are better prepared financially to wait out a lockout than players in professional sports (i.e., they have more money).

The change must come from Bettman and the owners. The only problem is, they've shown no signs of accounting for their mistakes.

The NHL has become more dictatorship than democracy. The fans and players have a right to be furious.