"NHLFA.com is intended to give average hockey fans across North America an affordable (that is, free!) way to express their views on the NHL. Hockey is no longer just a sport, it's a business and fans keep this business afloat. But of all the interest groups involved in hockey, fans are often at the bottom of the pecking order, while paying top dollar at the ticket office."
This past week, the two Jims, Spendlove and Boone of Ottawa, sent out their non-regular eMail. In it, they announced their latest fan poll is online. They also asked their 6,538 members a favour. They have met with Gary Bettman, this past April, and one thing they both agreed on; if the NHLFA wants to be considered THE voice of the fans of the NHL, they need to get 75,000 members by January 2000, so they can take part in the NHL's All-Star game in Toronto.
Have you read some of my past articles? I think a quality example is at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/ice_... where I bash guys like Nedved, Kariya and Fedorov for holding out, and Tkachuk and Coyotes G.M. Bobby Smith for the breach of contract incident. Have you seen what NHL players are doing? Look at your ticket prices!
Gary Bettman has seen the results of the biannual fan report. 64% of the people think 27 and 30 teams are too many for a good league. 76% think that expansion is ruining the game. Here's one I like, 58% want NHL rosters to be smaller so the savings can go to lowering ticket prices.
There is inconsistency, which I helped. While 76% say expansion is bad, 81% say more teams should be based out of Canada and 77% say there should be more U.S. teams. I was part of the 76%, the 81% and the 24% of those opposed or unsure of more U.S. teams.
Other majorities: No to the shoot-out, no reducing the length of timeouts (I never realized they were 90 seconds), most players have no loyalties the the fans in the cities they play in (Ray Bourque, Steve Yzerman, Mike Modano and Tom Barrasso all excluded), 90% of fans want stricter ice quality rules and 93% said they don't mind arenas being cooler if the ice is better. 90% want fighting kept in the NHL. And 0% of people polled think ticket prices in the NHL are too low. What a surprise. That means no players took the poll.
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