A Promise to the NHL and NHLPA

Today is September 15, the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHLPA. Tonight, barring an 11th-hour miracle, the league will lock out its players and begin yet another in a seemingly endless cycle of work stoppages.

If that happens, I have a promise to both sides.

The promise is this: I will not spend so much as a dime for the rest of my life on any of the auxiliary streams of revenue the league has.

I’m not turning my back on hockey or even NHL hockey – I’m a fan and always will be. So I’ll keep going to games and buying the sports package on TV so I can watch the teams play. But that’s where it stops.

A huge portion of NHL revenue comes from merchandise and concessions. Jerseys, coffee mugs, hockey cards – when anything with a team logo is sold, the NHL gets a piece of it. The same goes for the pricey beer and nachos sold at arenas.

I’m done with it all.

Granted, I’m not the consumer of those products that I once was, even now. As writing about the Oilers has taken more and more of my time – and eventually transitioned into my full-time job – I’ve been less and less enthused about team merchandise. It’s hard to write objectively about a team while wearing their colours, and I’ve become far less a collector of team-related merchandise than I was even five years ago.

I’ve never stopped completely though, and when at the games I enjoy beer and nachos as much as the next man. But if the lockout, as expected, starts today, those days are over. I’ll Gandhi the games and the vintage Kurri jersey in my closet will be the last thing with an NHL logo on it that I ever buy.

That’s a promise.