  I'm a San Jose Sharks season ticketholder. I've been a hockey fan since I was a little kid living in Canada, and a Sharks fan since day one of the franchise's existence in 1991. I consider hockey my favorite spectator sport over football and baseball. It's easy to since the 49ers have sucked since John York took over ownership of the team, and the SF Giants can't seem to get over the hump in the playoffs. Barry Bonds ain't getting any younger either. But I digress. As I was saying, hockey is #1 in my mind.
You can't beat the excitement or the speed of good NHL hockey. The Sharks have for about half of their existence been a pretty pathetic team. I believe they still hold the record for the worst season ever by an NHL team. Wow. We're #1! Two seasons ago, they were supposed to be a serious contender for the Stanley Cup. Instead, they crashed and burned hard. It started with several contract holdouts that dragged into the beginning of the season. Then they got off to a terrible start and never recovered.
Soon, Darryl Sutter, their coach for 6 seasons, was fired. Then general manager Dean Lombardi was fired. Some popular players were traded away. To top it all off the Sharks didn't make the playoffs. It was a brutal, nightmarish season that for the first time made me question whether or not I should renew my tickets. My wife, being the voice of reason that she is, insisted vehemently that we renew. Bless her heart, it was a wise choice because last season the Sharks had their best season ever. 104 points. Pacific division title. Eliminating the hated St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche in convincing fashion in the playoffs. The lone negative being elimination at the hands of the Calgary Flames, coached by their ex-coach Darryl Sutter, in the conference finals.
A disappointing end to a magical season, but one that was the best I've ever experienced. So against this background, the upcoming season is one to look forward to. The franchise has been rejuvinated under GM Doug Wilson and head coach Ron Wilson (no relation). The team is young, athletic, very talented, and poised to do great things. As Doug Wilson put it, the Sharks are about a year behind developmentally in comparison with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the Stanley Cup this past season.
So what's the catch? Well, the catch is that there may not be a next season. Thanks to the commissioner of the NHL, Gary Bettman, the owners and the player's union is headed for a showdown over money that could result in a player lockout. The league's collective bargaining agreement expires on September 15 and without a new one in place, there will be no hockey. Bettman talks about the league needing financial stability, which the player's union interprets as a salary cap.
And they won't accept a hard cap, like there is in football. Now, as the average fan, it's a little hard for me to sympathize with guys who make millions of dollars. I don't doubt that the owners are losing millions of dollars, as they claim. Player salaries are getting near ridiculous levels and the NHL doesn't have the benfit of a lucrative television contract. In fact, their TV deal is downright pathetic. The revenue from TV comes to about 3 million dollars per team, which is barely enough to pay for one mid-level free agent's salary.
When the lockout comes, and it WILL come, we can essentially thank one person: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. He's created this showdown by publically taking a hardline stance, overexpanding the league in the 90's, and doing a terrible job of promoting the game of hockey resulting in a TV deal that is a colossal joke. It's all about the money. It was when football and baseball went on strike. As a fan, I couldn't care less.
Talking about that much money is foreign to me. All I know is that posturing and lack of urgency is going to destroy whatever shred of goodwill exists between the league and the fans. That's what kills me. Both sides have known about this situation for well over a year, yet they've put off talks until essentially the last minute. Only in the past week or so have the two sides agreed to sit down and have substantial talks. Unbelievable.
Major league baseball went through a strike almost 10 years ago that nearly destroyed the game. It took years and a magical run by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa for the home run record to bring fans back to the game. I fear that hockey will suffer the same thing. A long protracted lockout will do nothing but destroy goodwill with the fans.
Many may not return and it'll take years to rebuild what gets ruined. All because a bunch of rich guys couldn't get their acts together to sit down and bargain in good faith for the good of the sport. I don't know how this will affect the Sharks. It's a shame that a team on the verge of great things will be stopped by something so ridiculous. The frustrating thing is that the fans are the ones who really get the shaft. We have no voice in the matter. All we can do is just sit back and hope the two sides can get a deal done. It's a real shame. The fans are what drives the league. Too bad all these rich guys can't see that. 
