Yes, it is perhaps one of the biggest cliches in the history of mankind, but there is a fantastic saying that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I don’t know exactly why so many people use it. A lot of people will play devil’s advocate and claim that it is often better to be proactive than reactive, to fix things before they break. But in reality, being ‘proactive’ isn’t prudent in a lot of scenarios that this cliche can apply to.
The prime example of this is the NHL lockout. The third one in my lifetime. This would be a great place to put an analogy to compare the labor instability of the NHL to something that’s well … unstable, but I’m a little too sickened by the developments of this latest work stoppage to make it seem in any way comical.
Unlike the lockout of 2004-05, there is absolutely no logical reason for this one to be happening. Back then, there was no salary cap in the league, causing player salaries to skyrocket to the point that nearly every team was losing money.
It was a lockout that needed to happen. Everyone involved with the league needed a reality check that hockey was not, and still is not, on the level of popularity that baseball, football or basketball are on in America. Therefore, the league has to be much more conservative with its finances and much more aggressive with its marketing strategy.
In light of that lost season, a great thing happened: they fixed the league. Commissioner Gary Bettman made the best out of a bad situation, getting hockey into a TV deal with NBC after ESPN would not offer the league the type of exposure it was looking for. The salary cap significantly cut spending and that aggressive marketing strategy helped grow the game to record revenues.
Fast forward to now, the league’s owners are trying to go back to square one.
They claim that league salaries are too high, despite the fact that they’re the ones moronic enough to throw around 13-year, $98 million contracts like they’re nothing.
This isn’t a lockout of necessity. It’s a lockout of greed and hypocrisy by the owners of the league.
Unlike 2004, when it was easy to sympathize with the owners, it is much easier to sympathize with the players this go-around.
How, you ask, is it easy to sympathize with guys who make more money in a year than most of us will see in our lifetimes? Put yourself in their shoes. Say the company you work for is making record profits, all thanks to the hard work of you and your coworkers. Your boss comes in and tells you, despite this, he wants you to take a 20 percent pay cut because he is “losing money” despite it being rather clear that he is not.
You would be outraged, no?
That is what this is. The players aren’t asking the owners for more money. They’re fighting to keep what they rightfully have earned.
In all, I don’t care who gets what in this labor negotiation. My future isn’t at stake in these negotiations. And, as a poor college student, I’m not going to be spending a significant amount of money going to games any time soon.
But the biggest mistake the league is making in this lockout is what appears to be a blatant disregard for the fans. Nothing makes me more upset than hearing Bettman so cockily claim that the fans will just come frolicking back whenever the league starts up again.
Is he wrong in that assertion? Not necessarily. But if he continues to take the game away from fans every seven years, he’s making it a lot easier for fans to walk away.