NHL Lockout: Hockey Fans Are Doomed to Be Without Sport This Season

I hate to be the harbinger of doom, but I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario in which fans get to watch NHL hockey this season.

The owners want to cut a healthy eight percent away from the players' share of the revenue pie. The players (not surprisingly) are hardly pleased by that request and are taking their talents to Europe during the lockout. 

Unless one side is ready to make a healthy concession in the negotiations—and that hardly seems likely—the chances of hockey being played in NHL arenas this season is slim to none.

Gary Bettman and the owners have hardly minded canceling a season in the past, after all. We all remember 2004-05. At least after suffering through three other lockouts in the past two decades, fans are accustomed to this nonsense.

The problem, of course, is that many fans will simply return to the game they love when this ends. For the owners, that means the repercussions of losing another season of play are pretty low.

But what of the repercussions for the people involved in the NHL outside of the owners and players? The NHL has said it will try to avoid laying off other employees of the league, but the effects of this lockout will be felt nonetheless.

From Chris Johnston of the Canadian Press (via The National Post):

"

Unlike in September 2004, when more than 50 percent of NHL employees were laid off just days into the lockout, the league is trying to avoid cutting staff. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Canadian Press over the weekend that there were no immediate plans for layoffs, although multiple sources who attended Wednesday’s meeting said employees were warned that further cuts could be coming in the future.

A number of teams, including the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers, announced layoffs earlier this week. The Senators also placed their remaining staff on a reduced work schedule.

"

You can ascribe blame all you want for the debacle. I would lean toward blaming the owners—four lockouts in two decades will happen when you keep trying to take back what you gave the players in the first place—but there are two sides to every story. 

But one thing is for certain, this story appears to be more War and Peace than some page-turner you finish in a few days. 

The players are unified and feel their stance and anger toward the owners is righteous. The owners want a bigger slice of the pie and they don't have to serve dinner at all until they get it. 

And the fans?

Well, they'll just have to be satisfied with the NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS, English Premier League, college football and college basketball, I guess. 

At least there are alternatives.

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