I'm sure you recall when hockey was on television they played hockey and hockey only. Same goes for the other three major sports, namely basketball, football, and baseball.
And it's the national, even international, stage I'm thinking of, not some bantam hockey league in Taber.
I am neither a jock, nor the son of a jock. In fact, I'm even a crummy fan. I have my team favourites, but I don't follow any team, or any sport for that matter (okay, I have a few, but nothing serious). I follow the NHL the most of all the professional sports, and I suppose I am most loyal to the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL.
Whether they win or lose is no big deal to me. Whatever the outcome, I still have to get up the next day and do whatever I have to do the next day. It doesn't affect me one way or the other.
I find playing an armchair quarterback exciting, especially in hockey (though the word picture doesn't mesh). I would probably do well in a fantasy hockey opportunity. I love making trades, switching lines, and mimicking what general managers do in a real world context.
Where I am at odds with real world sports these days is how much the business side has taken over the sports side—and that's more on the part of the athletes themselves. (I'll address my concern for the entertainment side in my next column.)
As you may gather, I get caught up in all the trade rumours, as I hum, "Show me the money"—even though I don't believe it's a song. The outrageous salaries and terms are unconscionable (okay, maybe a little envy here). The decisions to shift from one team to another are often based on the money that's being thrown at the athletes.
Professional hockey is bad, but basketball and baseball are worse. I'm sure you've seen the salaries that I have, at millions of dollars a year. You must agree that they are staggering and unsustainable.
Some players are moved in, others are moved out; even franchises change cities, all because of the business side of the sport. This includes endorsements on the part of a select few players. Merchandise, such as hats, jerseys, pennants, mugs, and such, are such a big part of the team business, while the owners rake in a lot of dough.
That borders on the entertainment side of this theme, something I'll develop later.Players are toyed with and kept, so long as they can meet the business aspirations of the owners. Mind you, they are not victims: They get plenty of cash for being temporary toys, so I certainly don't feel badly when they get moved out or on to another team. Their wives and kids? Well, that's another sad story.
I am not minimizing the travel and training, the injuries and schedule, but that's a pretty small price to pay for the mega-salaries they get paid. It's not about the three-point line, blue line, scrimmage line, or foul line. It's only about the bottom line, both for the owners and the players.
I often wonder what athletes from these sports of twenty or thirty years ago feel about the direction professional sports is going these days. They never got in on the windfall that these current players get. I'm sure there are a lot of bitter former players out there.
It's just not healthy to maintain this trajectory of obscene salaries. It's not healthy for the individuals, the business, er the team, and even the fans, who have to pay increasingly high ticket prices.
And it's misleading, too. On a local level, take the 'Canes or the Tigers, as an example. How many eligible players even get drafted from these teams each year? And of those players, how many even end up the farm team? For that matter, how many even end up in the NHL?
Very, very few, that's how many.
Maybe that's why there is such an urge to get as much as you can, as often as you can.
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