Lockout Day 3 — The Power Behind it All

Lockout
picture by gary2
9.16.12

If you read Lori Schmit’s post in the Hub “theres just no point to this” She makes her usual good points, but she alludes to the interesting conundrum – Will the fans return to NHL hockey whenever the lockout ends? Lori has several good reasons why the NHL is not as poised to bring back the fans as it was after the last lockout.

In another Hub posting, Can Gary Bettman fix the glitch or is the NHL broken beyond repair? the point is made that the NHL just has lockouts to overpower the players union and get what they want every contract end. It seems to me, an acknowledged outsider, that there is also an issue of pride and power between Bettman and Fehr. Fehr in particular comes to the NHL players union  from long experience in MLB labor. Has he promised more than he can deliver with the NHL? And now he can’t back down? Is Bettman fixated on using the lockout as the end of contract tool? [aka every time a carpenter sees a nail, he grabs his hammer] I’m betting there is some of both beneath the surface of this whole thing.

So in summary, the bully [owners] are going to beat up on the littler kid [players] Because they can. The littler kid can can stand up for himself, but he gets his nose bloodied, but is it worth it? What is he going to gain? — Best idea to me is to resolve it at a 10% cost to the players and only get shoved a little. Not go toe to toe and get the sh_t beat out of you before giving up 15%.