Well, here we are again. NHL hockey is once more upon us, and the hype from the Toronto media is already insane.
It appears that the lockout last year did not have a negative impact on professional hockey, at least not in this city. In fact, the opposite seems to have happened. Two years’ worth of pent-up hockey lust needs to be released by rabid diehards this season, whether the Leafs are a crap team or not.
The fact that all Leaf games will be sold out this year, as usual, just proves that Torontonians forgive and forget very easily. Gone is the notion that owners and players are spoiled groups of millionaires squabbling over pocket change. Gone is the memory that the Stanley Cup was last handed out in June, 2004.
It would be fitting to see every NHL arena empty on opening night. Fans should have a great deal of disgust and outrage to convey to the corporate giant that took away their entertainment for the last 12 months. But alas, tickets have been sold, no picket lines will form, and the league appears to have gotten away with murder.
The one fact that has once again been made abundantly clear is that professional sport in North America is a business: a money-making venture first, entertainment for the unfit and unskilled second, and competition among trained professionals third. The 1994 baseball strike was one glimpse of this ugly truth, and the hockey lockout pushed the envelope even further, as this was the first time a whole season was lost over a labour dispute.
So fans should be pissed off, but most aren’t. The NHL employed some wise strategies to make people forget the misery of the last year: a draft lottery, a crazy summer of free agent signings, the arrival of one Sidney Crosby, and the introduction of revolutionary new rules, like the shootout. Around here, and in other large hockey markets, excitement seems to be at an all-time high.
Some defenders of the league might argue that it was worth losing a whole season to achieve economic stability, and that small-market Canadian teams like Calgary and Edmonton will benefit in the long run. But this is hogwash-we didn’t need to waste a whole season to discover that unmonitored owners can’t control their spending habits, or that player agents demand ridiculous money for overrated third-line grinders.
But there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. It isn’t in professional sports, but at the grassroots level. University hockey is an exciting brand of the game, full of passion, and it costs nothing for students to see. There has never been a season cancelled because of a labour dispute, and players are not making multi-million-dollar salaries. Fans and players get involved for the love of the game and the camaraderie it fosters, not for endorsement deals and million-dollar NHL contracts.
So why not go watch a Blues game instead of the Leafs one Saturday night, and avoid giving your money to those corporate bastards who couldn’t care less about the fans, as long as they have padded wallets.
