[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by getbak

Blame your fellow fans for that then. As it stands, NHL fans have not really ever punished the league for its lockouts. MLB attendance plummeted after the cancelled World Series. It took a decade for attendance to return to its pre-strike numbers.

After the NHL lost a full season due to the 2004-05 lockout, attendance went up. After the lockout season, 21 teams saw their per game attendance either remain the same or increase. 8 teams had attendance increases greater than 1000 people per game. Of the 9 teams who saw attendance decreases, only 2 had drops that exceeded 1000 people per game. Also, one of the 9 teams who saw per game attendance drops was the Oilers and their drop was entirely the result of having hosted the Winter Classic in 2003, which skewed their per game attendance for that year.


If the 2012 and 1994 lockouts have shown anything, it's likely that shortened seasons are good for business. It's often said that the NHL makes its money in the playoffs because the players aren't getting paid during the playoffs, other than their per diems. By cancelling almost half the season, teams are only losing the revenue from the weaker early-season games where attendance tends to be lower and they don't have to pay the players for those cancelled games, while still being able to play a full playoff schedule, where the players are "free".




It's an NCAA rule that players can't sign pro contracts and still be eligible to play in the NCAA.

The only way the NHL could "fix" it would be to make NCAA players ineligible for the Draft, or change the rule to be like the NFL and NBA where a college player must leave college and declare himself Draft-eligible. Doing that wouldn't really "fix" the problem that people are complaining about though.

You can complain about the Flames trading away Hickey and Fox because they thought there would be issues getting them signed, but if the Flames didn't have those players' rights to include in those trades, what else would the Flames have given up?

Or change the rules regarding signing rights so that teams retain the rights to sign players who go to college for two years after those players earn their ultimate degree. The players then declare that they have finished their education and are subsequently eligible to sign an NHL contract, but only with the team that holds their rights via the draft or trade.