Hockey fans tuning into NFL during lockout
It’s starting to look more and more like there won’t be any NHL hockey this season as the lockout drags on with no new negotiating sessions planned.
The Canadian Press reported this week that the Winter Classic is next on the chopping block and that a formal cancellation is expected to be made on Friday.
This year’s Winter Classic between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings has been billed as the biggest in the event’s six-year history with organizers expecting to break the attendance record of 104,173 for a hockey game that was set at the “Big Chill” NCAA game at the University of Michigan in 2010.
Our Hockey Inside/Out poll question this week asked fans: With no NHL hockey and the World Series over, which pro sport are you most interested in?
Here’s how more than 1,200 people who voted:
National Football League: 35 per cent None: 22 per cent American Hockey League: 20 per cent
Canadian Football League: 18 per cent
National Basketball Association: 5 per cent
Here’s what fans were saying about the possible cancellation of the Winter Classic at hockeyinsideout.com: kalevine says: Why not just set the expectations. Every 7th season the league will take a year off. It’s like a sabbatical — the players can choose to spend more time with their families, play elsewhere, work toward a degree, take another job, or some combination thereof. The owners can ... I don’t really care. After that year, everyone will so want to get back to the big bucks that they will settle on something. And the fans will know what to expect too. HabFab says: No deal by next September, my money would be on replacement players. habs11s says: The fans are definitely in an abusive relationship with the NHL. They keep f---ing us over and abusing us over and over and we keep running back for more. Screw the NHL, screw the players, this “stalemate” and ego contest is just juvenile and I’m definitely sick of waiting for these babies crying about giving something up … I can only hope no one makes it out to the first game back in October 2013. Thomas Le Fan says: I’ve decided that regardless of the results of further “negotiations” I am done with the NHL this year. Will I be back for next season? You betting men Mssrs. Fehr and Bettman? I may just find I can do nicely without it. I think, at this point, this is the only logical response a fan can make.