From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Subject: Re: The Fat Lady Sang ... NHL over?
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: Curious Goods (formerly Louis Vendredi Antiques)
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 20:51:27 GMT

ab870@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Eric Rickin) writes:
>gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare) says:
>>
>>Right now, it looks really grim.  A shame, after one of the best NHL
>>seasons in a long, long while ...
>
>And, I already read that Messier wnats to start a new league, and
>furthermore, Ziegler warned that that's it, totally, for the NHL
>(implying that it will just close up shop and fold)

I have my doubts about starting up any kind of new league in the next
couple of years.  For instance, the Global Hockey League has been dead
in the water for a while.  Considering that Michael Gobuty was at the
helm, I'm not very surprised at all.  He was a big talker who took his
family's successful business and ran it into the ground; his dad (a
really nice guy, I met him once) came out of retirement to rescue the
firm while Michael fled to Toronto and somehow found shelter under the
wing of Harold Ballard.  The Ballard estate is after him for repayment
of a $10 million personal loan and he's essentially on the run.  Just
to find the people to get involved is a monumental process in these
times ...

If the hockey cards issue hadn't come up, we would have games tonight.
I really think that there were some owners who wanted a strike and
would sacrifice their franchises for the fight just for the taste of
blood in their mouths and power.  People can get that way sometimes.
I think that the hockey cards issue, and the way that the last owners'
proposal was given, was a reaffirmation of bad attitude on the part of
people like Wirtz and Snyder (I'm speculating here) and the union
replied, "Enough!"

Even with free agency becoming the only legal stance, the only way for
an NHL (old or new) to survive is to RETAIN the cities they have now
... including Hartford and Winnipeg.  There are so many great hockey
players out there now that any smaller league would see a huge loss to
the game (some guy called up WFAN and suggested going back to the six
team league, and rebuilding from scratch ... probably just in cities
that he's heard of).  Empirical evidence from the Oilers and Flames,
and from the Canucks this year, is that all you need is a winner to
get butts in the seats (unless you have omnibus subscriptions like in
L.A.).  Just because Winnipeg hasn't done "so well" (i.e., has not won
a Cup, or is mired in the mighty Smythe division race) doesn't mean
that you should move them to Dallas and risk failure (and the ensuing
humiliation that the U.S. sports media would eventually heap on them
-- ABC Overnight and ESPN (the new guy who looks like a burned out
high school teacher) have taken their opportunities to dig at hockey
already).  I was very surprised that the players rejected any revenue
sharing and salary cap, as that would be necessary to effect any kind
of total free agency.

gld
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare				U.S. Elections 1992, Vote Now:
> gld@cunixB.cc.columbia.EDU		a) Elvis 50's stamp, or
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			b) Elvis 70's stamp?