Fool Me Once...
You all know the saying.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
You fooled us once with a lockout, NHL. The betrayal? It hurt, oh so badly. Tears were shed, harsh words were muttered and walls were stared at in despair, with us just waiting for the call that you were coming back. We were so messed up we even turned to Eklund to keep us company with his oh-so-sweet lies. That’s how desperate we were.
And then when you did come back NHL, you apologized, but said all the right things.
"We will do everything in our power to be the best we can be ... This was a terrible time for everyone associated with the game. We will do everything we can to make it up to you.
Shame on you for doing that NHL, but we all knew that you had to do it. Mistakes happen when things are bad. We understand. And you apologized by not just giving us flowers, but thanking us, personally, at every rink. How could we not take you back?
Not only that, but you made sure everyone knew that we we’re the focus. You cared Gary.
"It's time our fans had some fun again and our objective is to give them all they can handle.''
“What I'm now focused on more than anything is reconnecting with our fans. Growth will come down the road. In the short term, we want to get back with our fans: Our season-ticket holders, our casual fans and the people that watch us on television. We want to make sure that they are reconnecting with the game because they've been through a difficult time and this is the opportunity to make it up to them.”
And then things were good again. For a while, we shared such happy times together.
Hit the jump for more:
You celebrated your little one, Sidney, growing up into a big boy. We watched the greatest defensemen to play the game lift the Cup. We saw great games, with great goaltending, and great goal scorers. You were happy with your revenue growth that soared to $3 billion. Hell, we even had a threesome with NBC, which was quite a lot of fun, except when Pierre kept trying to tell us about Mike Mattieu, the Barrie Colts junior defenseman’s interests outside of the game. We don’t care Pierre. We simply don’t care.
Now sure, you lost a lot of casual fans, but the hardcore fans, like us, stuck around. Hell, we even made a blog to talk all about you. To tell the world how great you are. For free! You needed us to help bring back the casual fans and we did everything we could, because, we know how great you, the NHL, can be. Even if you did cheat on us once.
We trusted you again. All this was simply because you promised that things were different now. Now that you had your precious salary cap, you’d never do the things you did to us before.
Right now, it’s looking like everything you said to us back in 2005 was a bold faced lie, right to our face. Except, that is, for one thing:
Hockey fans are the best: They are the most informed, they are the most connected and they know what is going on.
We are the best and we don’t need you to tell us that. And we damn well know what’s going on. And, Gary, right now, you’re trying to f@ck us.
You may fooled us once Gary, but you try it again and you won’t just lose the casual fans this time. Guys like Drew and I, who live and breathe the game, won’t be back this time. Not like the last time. No, we aren’t going to get fooled by you again.
Why is Gary the bad guy? Doesn't anyone agree that the revenue should be split 50-50? Right now it's 57 for the players or something like that... isn't it?
@teddywings I don't know what the answer is, but simply going 50/50 is nothing but an arbitrary number. Do I think it will end up near that? Yep. But still, why 50? The only reason people are suggesting that is because it looks nice.
Here,Here! Thank you for that post. I live for this time of year to begin the season of the greatest game with the most passionate fans on earth. If you care about Hockey then, play the game and figure out the issues on your own time. Our(The Fans) time is now and youre all on Our clock, get to work and put your supposed love for the game into action by playing the game on the ice, not the BS game off the ice.
One thing that I haven't heard talked about that is different about this lockout is the advancement in social networking. With blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, fans have a much easier time communicating and collaborating than they did in the last lockout. I think that combined with the fact that the NHL/owners demands being unrealisitc, is really going to hurt the perception of the NHL. I really believe the NHL is heading into a PR nightmare, especially if the lockout lasts past Thanksgiving or god forbid, the entire year.
All that being said, who's in for some good old fashioned protests?
@thebiglachovsky Boycott of NHL sponsors? Can sponsors even pressure the NHL into doing anything?
@TEKandthebaron @thebiglachovsky Found https://twitter.com/NHLFanBoycott on twitter when searching for ways to boycott things.
Sort of makes sense seeing as how majority of fans will go back. But a 1 day boycott? and boycotting sponsors is another pretty solid idea.
1 Like
@Tnhgeno @TEKandthebaron @thebiglachovsky I figure hitting the sponsors would do better than the NHL itself. People are still going to watch and go to games, but you have many beer choices that I'm sure Molson is well aware of.
2 Like
Sorry - everyone's probably getting sick of reading about the lockout, but I had to get that off my chest before any other sort of post.
@moorechaRight now, if we're talking about hockey, we're talking about the lockout. Not much else going on to care about, not even the impending NHL-lite (AHL) season.
