NHL Notebook: Put Fans in CBA; Rating League's Best Coaches

by Christopher Botta

Filed under: Avalanche, Blue Jackets, Blues, Bruins, Devils, Ducks, Islanders, Lightning, Penguins

With thousands of empty seats in NHL arenas almost every night, perhaps the league and the Players Association will think of the fans this time before agreeing to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

They can start by writing in a minimum of 15 mandatory, annual personal appearances in the Standard Player's Contract.

You know how it has always worked: athletes and franchises only really show their love for fans when a labor-management dispute leads to a long work stoppage. Call it desperation. "We want you back so badly, we need you back so badly, we're ... we're ... uh, we're gonna sign a lot of autographs!"

No one is going to buy that line again, just like so many are not buying tickets for the first quarter of the 2010-11 NHL season. The Columbus Blue Jackets appear to be this season's easy target for the Attendance Police -- also known as the Chamber of Move 'em to Canada -- but the problem extends far beyond Ohio. It's possible I missed it, but I don't seem to recall the usual October league press release proclaiming 30 rinks sold to 99 percent capacity. This could be because one-third of the league isn't playing before anything close to standing-room-only crowds.

The NHL has become superb at the Big Idea -- the Winter Classic and vast internet platforms being the obvious examples -- but have the league and its member clubs succeeded at growing their individual businesses to strengthen the whole? There are sections of empty seats in Anaheim, Long Island, New Jersey, Atlanta, Columbus, Florida, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Phoenix and Colorado. This cannot just be about winning and losing; if it was, a 30-team league could never survive.

 

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