In just the past 14 months, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL have all experienced lockouts.
The NFL had a standoff last summer that ended just weeks in time for the 2011 regular season. The NBA’s players-owners dispute lasted for five months and shortened the 2011-12 season to 66 games in contrast to the usual 82. The NHL is the latest to fall victim to the lockout plague this week and signs are pointing to the same path that canceled the 2004-05 season.
Not to mention the NFL’s referees are currently locked out as well, while NBA officials also had a brief lockout of their own in 2009.
Seriously guys, what gives?
Money is obviously an enormous factor in sports, but we’ve evolved too much as a society where cash trumps the integrity of these games. As major pro sports leagues continue to grow as corporate giants, it seems that these riffs between players and league executives are more frequent.
No matter what, the real losers are always the ones that give players and teams their huge bucks at the end of the day — fans and businesses.
Stop crying on how a couple extra million dollars is distributed and give the consumers what they deserve.
