Another Disappointment

The National Lacrosse League wants to be the National Hockey League so bad that they decided to cancel a season too. Due to contract negotiations breaking off without a deal in place by the deadline of 12:00 AM Tuesday October 16, 2007, the 2008 National Lacrosse Season has been shelved. This latest disaster proves that there are no athletes that care about anything, or anyone, but themselves, even the supposed blue collar athletes of the NLL.

For the past three seasons I was a season ticket holder: first for the Toronto Rock (2 years) and last year with the Buffalo Bandits. How empty the winter is going to feel without the chants of Let’s Go Bandits! every other weekend, or seeing the flashy orange shoes of Mark (Who’s House?) Steenhuis, or seeing the impact Phil Sanderson will have on the Bandits defence for an entire season. John Tavares, uncle of the young Oshawa General of the same name, will have to wait one more year to break the all-time record for goals scored in the NLL to complete the scoring record hat trick (he already has the record for most points and most assists). Will his body, which seems to defy the laws of aging, be up for more punishment? Will he even want to return to the league? Ryan Benesch, coming off a Rookie of the Year performance in 2007, will have to hope he can retain the knowledge and experience of his lone season in the NLL to come back (hopefully in 2009) and improve on his impressive rookie season.

I thought the NLL and all the other professional sports leagues would have learned from the NHL’s example that losing a season has longer lasting effects. But I guess since the best tv deal they could get was with Versus, who stopped showing the games live after the second week (or thereabouts anyhow), they didn’t really worry too much about that. Not knowing the full proposals it is hard to lay blame on one side or the other but it did not seem like either side tried too hard to get things done.

Whatever the reason for the missing season, the fans are the real losers in the end. The wait for next season will be a long one that may turn some of the already small pool of fans off the league. Hopefully the league and players can find the light soon, get back to playing in 2009 and ensure this does not happen again.

We as fans need to make it clear that we will not put up with so much as another game being cancelled due to labour disputes in any sport. It is us fans who have the power. We decide what we watch on tv (at least to an extent) and we decide what we want to spend our money on. It is time we use some of this power to change the professional sports industry’s attitudes about the way they do business. Let’s see how the athletes deal with playing in an empty venue or how the owners deal with no game day revenues. When the league resumes play, I will not be spending my hard earned money on season tickets and until the league resumes, I will not be promoting the league by wearing any team or league merchandise. The thought of writing a letter to the league has crossed my mind but due to my past history of inaction (see my Letter to GO…the letter still hasn’t been sent to anyone yet), I doubt I will ever get to it this time either. I hope someone out there will take the extra step and voice their displeasure at both the league and the PLPA for allowing a season to be cancelled and I recommend any who reads this and agrees with me, to take a similar stand, whether they communicate this to the league office or not.