NHL lockout reaction is overblown

You’d think we’d all be used to it by now.

By “we” I mean anyone following or participating in professional sports, and by “it” I’m referring to labor disputes between players and owners.

Didn’t we just go through a pair of league-instigated lockouts last year? The NBA lost the first two months of its 2011-12 season and the NFL had its own prolonged labor stoppage. Although not a single regular-season football contest was cancelled, it was still a top sports headline from spring to fall.

Yet this experience hasn’t stopped sports fans and media from hyperventilating about the damage this, the NHL’s third lockout in 18 years, will purportedly do to the league and the game of hockey.

Maybe I’m in the minority (although Yahoo! Sports’ Greg Wyshynski provides a nice counterbalance to the overreaction here), but this seems like business-as-usual for the NHL, and major professional sports on the whole.

Yes, I know that Major League Baseball has gone nearly two decades without missing a game, but MLB’s economic system is as close to true capitalism as is feasible in modern sports business. In the NFL, NBA and NHL, the market is restricted by a salary cap, thus the rules will have to be regularly redefined to keep finances in a satisfactory state for the leagues.

September 12, 2012; New York, NY, USA; NHLPA executive director Don Fehr (center) flanked by Vancouver Canucks player Manny Malhotra (left) and Winnipeg Jets player Ron Hainsey (right) during a press conference at the 2012 NHLPA summer player meetings at the Marriott Marquis. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-US PRESSWIRE

Redefining rules, especially when dealing with the allocation of billions of dollars, will understandably cause friction between the teams and the players. Since the owners have the ultimate leverage, they use it to put their facilities on lockdown until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached.

(Sorry if this seems like a lecture, but I get the feeling that some people really think labor disagreements are pointless and unnecessary. They’re not.)

To clarify, I may be rather cynical and fatalistic regarding the NHL lockout, but I’m not entirely pessimistic. According to multiple media reports, the players have no taste for eliminating the salary cap altogether, which would likely trigger an epic battle between the two sides.

The cap may be “softened” in some ways through luxury taxes and other exceptions (a la the NBA), but the primary catalyst for the lost 2004-05 season will not be discarded. Because of this, it mainly comes down to closing the monetary gap between the latest NHLPA proposal and what the NHL currently has on the table.

I realize the gap is considerable, accounting for more than a billion dollars at last glance, but since the playing field is agreed upon I think a consensus will eventually be reached. I earlier made light of the potential damage a lockout might bring to the sport, but I think we can agree that another missed season would cause significant harm.

So with that in mind, there is incentive to negotiate with a spirit of compromise, with an eye on getting back to hockey before the nationally televised games begin on NBC around Thanksgiving, to say nothing of the lucrative Winter Classic scheduled for New Year’s Day at Michigan Stadium. (Not to forget another season of HBO’s revealing 24/7 series.)

The NHL won’t miss those landmarks, I’m betting. Commissioner Gary Bettman may downplay the league’s recent revenue growth for negotiation-related reasons, but the NHL now has multiple money-makers that will continue to bear fruit, including the lengthy NBC-Universal TV deal.

Until the puck is dropped, though, I’ll be taking all lockout-related news and innuendo with a smirk and a chuckle. It’s all gamesmanship until the ink is dry on the new CBA, and NHL fans would be better served taking the long view and sparing themselves the unnecessary anguish.

Modern sports seem to have regular labor skirmishes built into their economic models, but that’s no reason to grab a weapon and join the fight. I say pass the popcorn.