Nhl Lockout

What is a Lockout?

Player and owner lockouts have dented the sports world for many years, whether it is the most recent 2012-13 NHL lockout that shortened the season from 84 to 48 games or it is the 1994 MLB players strike when players quit playing mid-season due to salary caps. Lockouts are costly to the owners and players but also costly on the fans who dedicate so much time to the games they love.

However, before explaining the effects lockouts have, we must first understand what a lockout is exactly. A lockout, by definition, is a temporary work stoppage or denial of employment during a labor dispute initiated by the management of a company1. Generally lockouts are used to enforce terms of employment upon a group of employees during a dispute. If the union, as in recent NHL events, is asking for higher wages, or improved benefits, an employer may use the threat of a lockout or an actual lockout to convince or compel the union to back down1.

September 16, 2004 was the start of what would become the longest sports lockout in professional history. A lockout, which lasted 10 months, cancelled the entire 2004-05 NHL season1. It was the first time a major professional sports league in North America canceled a complete season because of a labor dispute. Two sides were prominent during the labor dispute; the NHL owners and the NHLPA, however a third side that became the forgotten party was the NHL fans11. The fans play a crucial role in the success of the team on and off the ice. If the fans are forgotten about or they feel as if they are getting no answers from the NHL team they follow, organizations could start to notice a steady decrease in their fan base. This is where the real damage from the lockout will ultimately be felt. There are certainly many fan-bases around the NHL that will be profoundly impacted by the lockout and the length of the lockout. Many of these fan-bases will see wholesale depletion of large numbers of their fans. According to an...