OT: Winter Classic to be cancelled on Monday?
Apparently the NHL wants to cancel it so that the players can't use it against the Owners...either way, the fans are the only ones that really lose.
https://twitter.com/Buccigross/status/261874811565899776
Apologies...I'm terrible with embedding.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:34 PM ^
Dave Brandon loses too.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:41 PM ^
He gets a $100,000 check for basically nothing (although he's losing out on $3m for actually hosting it).
October 26th, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 9:46 PM ^
It might not be a profit. I'm assuming we had contracts signed for the food suppliers and such to provide for us that day, not to mention we may have already committed to pay people to staff the event. It costs a lot of money to put on an event for 100,000 spectators. We may take a loss here.
October 26th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^
I'm fairly certain that the NHL paid a stadium rental fee and was going to do everything else on their own (or at least pay for the stuff they went through Brandon for, like stadium concessions and whatnot).
I'm about 99% sure that the only thing Brandon committed to was stadium use and parking lot use.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:37 PM ^
Someone should start up an alter ego league and circumvent the NHL in the US and screw over the owners.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:40 PM ^
If there were money in it, I'm sure Mark Cuban would have already done it.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:42 PM ^
an alter ego league - it would be an ego league
October 26th, 2012 at 3:47 PM ^
I always wondered why NBA players didnt do this. Unlike hockey, there are limitless arenas you could do for basketball. The NBA is so much about player recognition, "Kobe's team" versus "Lebron's team" would get them some real coin. Not as much as an NBA salary, but, the negotiating leverage would have been extraordinary.
NFL players really couldn't do that -- its more about the teams than the players. The only two NBA teams who have that kind of populartiy beyond the names on the jersyes are the Lakers and Celtics. (So the players could have the teams "Ponds" and "Rangers" as alternatives, right.) (Well, not the Rangers anymore, after their quadruple-relegation this year, but I digress.)
October 26th, 2012 at 9:53 PM ^
We should start our own hockey league, with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the league, and the blackjack
October 26th, 2012 at 1:43 PM ^
The realization is really starting to set in that once the Tigers are done, it's football weekends and that's it. No hockey. Nothing to get me through the long winter. (besides Michigan basketball of course)
October 26th, 2012 at 1:44 PM ^
It boggles the mind that someone could be so utterly stupid and short-sighted yet still keep their high profile, high paying job for years.
October 26th, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^
The owners voted unanimously for the lockout. Since then both the players and the owners have rejected proposals. The players and the owners are both at fault, and ones that lose the most are the people that rely on traffic to the games to make a living and the fans. I guess I'll be spending the money I had saved for the winter classic on tickets to the Yost instead.
October 26th, 2012 at 3:36 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 4:32 PM ^
are not that unanimous. This lockout is being driven by small market teams that cannot afford to compete.
Of course it was Bettman and the other owners who stupidly decided to expand into those same small markets thus creating the hard liners of today that are the whole problem.
October 26th, 2012 at 5:13 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 1:52 PM ^
According this SBNation article - (link) - the entire Hockeytown Winter Festival will be cancelled if the Winter Classic is cancelled, so in addition to being alredy 80,000 tickets deep into this, per David Brandon, the alumni game for the Wings and Leafs, as well as other events, would then be gone.
October 26th, 2012 at 2:02 PM ^
The problem is that the fans are too loyal. Blackhawks single game tickets went on sale and we still sold an incredible amount even thought a lockout was coming. That's the problem, the fans can have an impact on the outcome, but it's only negative if we keep giving them money.
October 26th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^
No winter...alright! I hate snow & ice and long dark nights!!
Oh wait, does that says winter classic? Oh...
October 26th, 2012 at 2:21 PM ^
It's hard for me to properly express how stupid this is an how much this would affect me as a fan.
Perhaps the best way is to say that the ultimate consequence of this may not make me angry at all.
I may just not care.
And I don't think I'm the only lifelong hockey fan who will stop caring about the NHL.
October 26th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
I have been a long time Capitals season ticket holder and I think I am done with the NHL. I never thought a strike or lockout would get me to stop watching a sport, but the self inflicted wounds of the NHL are more than I can take. At the same time they continue to jack up the ticket prices and get crappy TV coverage for their fans. You just have to say no more at some point, and I have reached my point. Looks like it will be a lot more trips to Ann Arbor for hockey this year.
October 26th, 2012 at 2:29 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 4:26 PM ^
Even more heartbreaking is the fact that the cranky locals would lose a golden opportunity to complain bitterly on AnnArbor.com about the traffic, crowds, and the sheer infuriating arrogance of visitors who dare to enjoy themselves in our fair city.
October 26th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
This is awesome. Way to go NHL. Fuck a 50/50 split, lets cancel the whole season and lose valuable winter sports tv market share for a tiny percentage difference. Lets also cut our noses off to spite our faces while we're at it. Everybody loses! Solid plan.
October 26th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^
Why don't we get a seat at the table man. The fans are the ones getting F'd the most. They ought to appreciate us, because without us there is nothing. No one would pay you to play hockey if no one watches it. And you can't make money off the players if the fans hate you.
I have told myself up til now, maybe naively, that they'd settle this thing by now. "The Winter Classic means too much to everyone to let it die" I thought. Now it's really sinking in that we may go another year of my life without hockey. The NHL continually shooting itself in the foot. Hockey fans are die-hards, and it's hard to get new people involved in it. The Winter Classic exposes the NHL to so many new potential hockey fans.
GOD! Can you tell I'm upset about this?! Detroit-Toronto Alumni game...GONE!
Get a deal done!!
October 26th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^
You do have a say. It's called not buying tickets and merchandise.
October 26th, 2012 at 7:23 PM ^
I know why you say that, but no fan is going to stop supporting his team just because of an inconvience. Sports fan's loyalty is just too emotional to make a rational decision like not buying tickets and merchandise. In my opinion at least...
jdon
October 26th, 2012 at 9:05 PM ^
I think his point is that your seat at the table is when you decide to buy or not to buy tickets.
I used to think the same way as you, but this one has put me over the edge. You just can't continue to support a league that continues to shoot itself in the foot. Whether it was the loss of a season before, the stupidity of not agreeing to an ESPN contract no matter how little they offered, or now going back to a lockout just when the support is starting to roll a bit.
I think hockey's big problem is that many who run it are from Canada where the sport will not get killed, but the NHL relies on the US, where the sport could easily suffer some hard consequences.
October 26th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 5:12 PM ^
Playoff hockey fan only here so I thought I'd offer an upfront disclaimer but I'm still trying to get my head around the "we're cancelling the Winter Classic so the players can't use it against us" logic. Wouldnt that be somewhat analogous to bombing your own cities in war so your enemy cant bomb them?
Isn't that strategy somewhat self-defeating or am I missing something here?
October 26th, 2012 at 7:04 PM ^
October 26th, 2012 at 10:11 PM ^
I think he is exactly right that it is like bombing your own cities so the enemy can not. And if you watch the 24/7 shows, it appears to me that the players get pretty amped for the game. They get a ton of TV exposure, they get to play in front of a huge crowd, and they usually play against a big rival. I know the Caps game two years ago had all the players pumped for it and the game is usually played at the intensity level of a playoff game. I don't think the players view this as an extra burden at all. Plus, they would have to play the game anyways, its not an extra game on the schedule.
October 26th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
October 27th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^
October 27th, 2012 at 2:05 PM ^