The NHL announced that there will be no bargaining with the Player’s Union, sending all signs of an upcoming lockout to the masses.The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which was agreed upon 7 years ago expires tonight at midnight–the CBA gave 57 of revenue to the players and the owners are trying to bring that figure down to 47. In other words: Same Ole Story, different sport.
If Hockey does enter a lockout it will be the 3rd pro sports lockout in a span of less than 2 years. And for the the currently fledgling NHL it will be there 4th one in 20 years. News of an impending lockout has been known since the start of last year after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said players would be locked out if a collective bargaining agreement wasn’t reached.
Training camp is set to begin in a week and so far it seems to be unlikely. As with the NBA lockout there’s nothing signaling that there won’t be regular season games cut as we are entering just the genesis of what may well be a long ordeal. The entire 2004-2005 NHL season was missed because of this same issue and take that in with hockey being the niche sport it is–nowhere near the popularity of the NFL or even NBA the clamoring of fans won’t pose as a compromising chip to get matters resolved. We are very much on the precipice of yet ANOTHER lockout from the sports world.