Has The Time Come For Fans to Turn The Table And Lockout The NHL?

Everybody knows about Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. But if we could hypothetically build a Mount Rushmore that is dedicated to the four commissioners in Major League Baseball. National Football League, National Hockey League, and National Basketball Associations. Would anybody go see it?

No one would want to see Bud Selig(MLB), not even the New Orleans Saints fans would see Roger Goodell(NFL)  face on the mountain; and David Stern well I don't really have to go into details about this one do I? And the last guy that would be immortalized on that infamous mountain would be Gary Bettman. Bettman makes Roger Goodell look like the best commissioner ever.

Bettman has just entered his third lockout since 1994, and this one looks like another year-long one just like 2004-2005 was. Personally in Minnesota fans hate Bettman, because he looked the other way when Norm Green moved the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas, but hey lets face it he did help bring the Wild here, but that is where the nice complements stop for Bettman.

Besides the idea for a Winter Classic, Bettman keeps on making errors, and right now the fans have had enough. Hockey was thriving, revenues were sky rocketing, and not to mention teams that are below the "Sun Belt" have been extremely competitive, so why lock-out everyone again?

Lock-outs are all about money, and they never think about the fans. There is a reason a lot of fans never forgave MLB for the 1994 lock-out, and lets face it three lock-outs in less then 20 years; fans have a right to be upset. Here is the real kicker, if Bettman thinks players are getting paid way to much; then why doesn't he take a pay cut also? Before the 2004-2005 lock-out Bettman made $3.77 million, and now he makes over $8 million a season! yet the players are making to much money, yeah that's right.

Owners, and players are fighting over money, because the owners want the players to go from 57-percent to 43-percent, but the players wont do that. Why would anyone cut there pay? The owners were the ones who came up with this idea just seven years ago, but now they think it is unfair, maybe if it was so unfair you wouldn't have came up with this idea then, and maybe we could have been able to avoid this whole dilemma then.

The die hard fans will always be there, but look around Minnesota, you almost see more North Star apparel then Wild, why? Because fans will never forget the hurt that Bettman could have avoided for Minnesotans if he just helped them out when they needed him the most. The young fans out there will have the most difficult decision to make, either continuing to watch a sport that keeps locking the fans out, or turn to another form of the sport like the WCHA(even though this will be the last year of the WCHA), where you have University of Minnesota-Duluth, and University of Minnesota both of whom have been really competitive the last few seasons.

Bettman has it ever occurred to you that maybe if you thought more about the fans then maybe you wouldn't get booed every time you hand out the Stanley Cup? Just remember Bettman THE FANS are the reason you make $8 million a year, it is because of THE FANS that your sport has increased its revenues to over 3 billion a year. THE FANS are what makes hockey so great, where else can you go, and see fans chuck squid on the ice, and have it be okay? Or where else can you go where fans are willing to throw their $30 hats onto the ice? You can only find that in the NHL, because of THE FANS, yet you keep turning your back on us. Shame on you for looking the other way when us THE FANS need your help.