On Monday morning, there might be another small earthquake felt around the Memphis area.
Not a real earthquake but instead one that is the result of hundreds of pairs of feet shuffling quickly across North America.
The National Hockey League opens up shop to free agents for the first time in more than 310 days. With about 400 players needing new homes after the NHL lockout, phone lines will be burning and agent’s ears will be falling off.
This comes after the league and the NHL Players Association ended the longest lockout in pro sports history in July.
So it should make the off seasons in all other pro sports look boring, right?
First you have to get by the lockout part. Sure, it will be fun for hockey fans to gaze upon their favorite teams while they scramble to grab players.
But there are many fans that are still irate the league left them in the cold this past winter while rich players squabbled with rich owners about who should make more money.
So before the season stars, the NHL should get on its knees and beg for forgiveness.
(I was thinking something along the lines of that scene in Home Alone 2 where hotel workers are forced to shout, “I love you.”)
ESPN.com, TSN.ca, Fox Sports and numerous newspapers and magazines around the country have conducted numerous surveys among Americans about hockey. Did they miss the sport? Are they glad it’s back? Can someone living in Nashville name their own team’s back-up goalie?
The answer to most of these questions was an overwhelming “no.”
So what has the NHL done to win back the fans? Cancel the 2006 NHL All-Star Game, the league’s annual showcase of its best stars during a fan-friendly weekend of events that promote the league.
The reasoning for this is to allow players time to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. But even in 2002 the league still held the All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
Numerous teams are supposedly slashing ticket prices for the upcoming season, but not by much. Small-market teams such as Carolina and Nashville cannot afford to lower their already miniscule prices, even though these teams have been hurt the most in fan support.
So the teams offering the “huge” ticket discounts are the rich teams that sell out all their games. Recently, Dallas and Colorado, two teams that sell out the majority of their games, announced they would be offering discounts up to 20 percent for season ticket holders.
Off the bat, the NHL doesn’t appear to be helping out the average fan much.
Five bucks off a nosebleed seat that will still cost 50 bucks? Great. Players coming out and tossing up a robotic apology?
Thanks, guys. So what will redeem the NHL? Offense.
Watching a team like the Boston Bruins scramble to add players to their current roster of just eight may be fun, but watching the league in October will be even better.
Shootouts, enforced penalties, more ice area to play and quicker games will be enough to justify the league alone. With scores no longer 2-1 every night, the NHL hopes to return to the glory days of the 80s that featured routine 15 goal games.
But can the NHL overcome nonexistent television ratings (not to mention the lack of a TV contract) and a fan base that’s drying up? The league had a hard enough time keeping the number four spot among pro sports before the lock-out.
Now we’ll just have to see what’s higher in the fall: TV ratings or the magnitude of earthquake from this coming week’s free agent scramble. Hopefully the off-season doesn’t win.
