NHL Lockout: Loss of Revenue the Least of NHL's Problems as Impasse Rolls on

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players' Association head Donald Fehr are starring in a remake of a '90s classic and they don't even know it.

Welcome to the 2012 version of Clueless, where instead of attractive 20-somethings portraying high school students, we've got two curmudgeonly men who are failing their sport miserably.

The latest news is that there's no news.

Fehr and the players' association made counter-proposals to the NHL's proposed plan of a 50-50 split last week—counter-proposals that were shot down in record time by the league and followed with the promise that the 50-50 split that the league offered is going to disappear on Friday. (h/t ESPN)

As Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, the next shoe to fall will be the cancellation of the Winter Classic, scheduled for January 1 between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, an event expected to draw more than 100,000 fans to the Big House at the University of Michigan:

"

Bettman has said Nov. 15 is deadline for saving the Winter Classic. Can both sides really be stubborn enough to lose that signature event?

— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) October 25, 2012"

Yes they can, Sam, and when that game is cancelled, they might as well just wipe out the entire season.

The overwhelming thought, throughout this whole miserable experience, has been that the die-hard hockey fan will come back to the rink once the lockout ends, even if the entire 2012-13 season is lost.

It's understandable why that's the prevailing thought, as that's exactly what happened after the 2004-05 season was cancelled due to a lockout: We came back in droves.

You can be damned sure that both sides are counting on that happening once again.

But here's the thing—that's far from being a sure thing this time.

Nobody gives a damn about whether the billionaire owners or millionaire players wind up with a bigger chunk of the pie.

When the cost of taking a family of four to a game comes dangerously close to equaling the weekly paycheck of many fans, it's hard to feel sympathy for either side.

There's a reason that when people talk about the "Big Four" in terms of professional sports, that fourth spot is up for grabs on a yearly basis—a battle between the NHL, NASCAR, and now, UFC.

Leadership on both sides of the aisle has failed miserably in effectively growing and marketing the game, truly capturing what makes it the greatest spectator sport on the planet.

One of my earliest memories is of being plopped down in front of the television set in my grandparents' living room, watching the New York Islanders teams of the early '80s streak up and down the ice while my cousins tried explaining the game to me, as best they could to a four- or five-year-old.

I'm a die-hard fan, just like you. We all grew up with the sport, whether it was attending games in person or watching them on TV. We all played the sport growing up, and it didn't matter whether it was on ice or pavement.

Maybe you played in an organized league, or maybe you are like me, playing in pickup games in front of someone's house or in an empty parking lot somewhere.

But we have all gotten older, and while attending games and watching our favorite team on television is still a part of our lives, it's no longer the focal point it once was.

Our free time has become limited, as has our disposable income.

With as many options as there are that can capture our attention, coupled with the responsibilities of being an adult, hockey has become secondary—even tertiary—when it comes to our daily lives.

So keep counting on the fans to come back in droves, Don and Gary.

It's going to take far more than empty words written on the ice to get us back to the rink this time around.

We've got better things to do with our time—and money—than to share it with you.

After four work stoppages in 20 years, even the most ardent supporters of the game are fed up.

Can a league survive when nobody cares?

One day, Don and Gary will get the answer to that question.

They won't like the answer that they get.