NHL Lockout

It looks like the NHL will vote to lockout players starting tomorrow, as a new collective bargaining agreement was not reached.

This of course doesn't directly affect me. I'm just a fan, and I chipped into a season ticket pool to split some tickets for the Vancouver Canucks 2004-2005 season. If games are cancelled or the season is abandoned, we'll get a refund or have the balance applied towards future tickets. So we won't be out the money, it is more the annoyance and inconvenience of having to repick the games based on a revised schedule.

I'm not exactly sympathetic to the players. I see each sports team as a small entertainment company, where the employees are the players. I think they are paid well enough for their "work" already. As far as suffering by living under a salary cap, well cry me a river. The owners sometimes do things that bug me as well, such as dupe a city into building them an arena. I hate that too.

I've read the NHL players aren't willing to accept a salary cap. Well, other leagues have them and seem to get along just fine. I think the NHL players need to grab some reality; the sport isn't as popular and doesn't have the TV revenues and so forth of other sports.