The Hockey Lock-out

Term Paper # 102520

The Hockey Lock-out

This paper discusses the reasons for the bitter divide between the National Hockey Players' Association and the National Hockey League in 2004 and 2005.

1,135 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the break-down of trust between the National Hockey Players' Association and the league in 2004 and 2005. The paper argues that the unfortunate labor relations which characterized the situation were largely because both sides allowed personal considerations, past wrongs and egos to get in the way of a dispassionate treatment of the matters at hand. The paper discusses how although the issues themselves were complicated and defied easy resolution, the stubbornness of both parties made the problem worse than it needed to be.

From the Paper:

"The 2004-05 National Hockey League lock-out caused great consternation among hockey fans while simultaneously bringing into sharp relief the tensions between professional hockey players and hockey management. For example, neither side was prepared to make any concessions to the other (the players certainly were not) and thus a host of issues - minimum salaries, playoff bonuses, operation of the arbitration process, revenue sharing (something the owners were less-than-enthusiastic about), higher player fines for misbehavior, and the number of games on the regular-season schedule - were left "on the table" at a time when they should have really, conclusively, been dealt with (Staudohar, 23-29). As a long-time hockey observer, this writer is left to wonder whether or not the intransigence of the players was rooted in a deep-seated suspicion of hockey management because of the decades-long mistreatment of players by the ownership of the league."

Sample of Sources Used:

"Ex-NHL Union Head Enters Guilty Plea in Mail-Fraud Case." Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), 7 Jan. 1998: B16.
Hyman, Mark. "An Entire Season in the Penalty Box?" Business Week 1 Nov. 2004: 94-95.
Kiernan, John. "NHL might not survive a season-long lock-out." Long Island Business News 26 Nov. 2004: 11A.
LaPointe, Joe. "For the Players Union, a Resolute Hockey Man." New York Times, 12 Feb. 2005: D1-D4.
Papanek, J., and J. Brubaker. "The man who rules hockey, Alan Eagleson, union boss, friend of management, players' agent and international negotiator, has used his many conflicting roles to take conrol of the sport in the NHL and beyond." Sports Illustrated 2 Jul. 1984: 60-74.