"Hockey News 10-99: NHLFA, No Goal, Buffalo, Phoenix, audio"

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October '99
NHLFA push.. NoGoal update.. Buffalo on-line.. Free in Phoenix.. Site News.. Archive

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Show Us Your Members

Crops need rain. Kids need attention. Cars need fuel. Mars Needs Women. Yep, there's
just no getting around it: most things don't work, let alone thrive, unless they get what they need
to keep them running. The National Hockey League Fans Association is no exception. It needs
a growing supply of concerned hockey fans to continue being a vital force in pro hockey
and a living, breathing conscience for an NHL otherwise devoid of a conscience.
If you somehow haven't yet become aware of the NHLFA, or if for some unfathomable reason
you haven't yet signed on as a member, we can't urge you strongly enough to visit their website
the very second you're done here; there's a link to the NHLFA here on every page of our own site.
Membership is absolutely free, and joining takes literally less than a minute. So you have no excuse.
If you are already a member, they -- we, all of us who call ourselves fans of the greatest game
on earth -- need more of your help.
The NHLFA was conceived in the spring of 1998 by two avid, heroically committed fans from
the Ottawa area, Jim Spendlove and Jim Boone. Their eminently commendable objective was,
and remains, to create a large, vigorous organization of fans, strong enough to have a real voice
in the way the NHL is run. The two Jims, regular workin' guys like you and us, have run the whole
shebang themselves, out of pocket, and have so far signed up over 12,000 members, making the
NHLFA the biggest fan activist organization in North American sports. That's a huge achievement --
big enough to have convinced Gary Bettman to grant the Jims a face-to-face meeting last spring and
promise that if membership reached a certain NHL-mandated quota by a certain NHL-mandated
deadline, the NHLFA would be given an official voice in league business in the year ahead. Big
enough that, as membership has continued to grow through the off-season, the league has instigated
vague threats of legal action against the NHLFA in what looks to many to be an attempt to
distract the Jims and hinder the NHLFA's progress toward its membership goals.
We'll update you on that last bit of business as details become clear. For now, however,
as Boone and Spendlove fend off the league's legal challenges, the task for all of us, as fans,
and especially as NHLFA members, is to pick up the sweaty little gantlet Bettman has flung down
in the form of a membership quota, and swell our ranks to reach that number by the date indicated.
That number, incidentally, is 75,000. And that date is January 2000.
In light of that, the current total of 12,000 suddenly seems pretty thin. And considering there's
barely three months to go, it suddenly sorta feels like being down by five goals midway through the
third period. But let's all take deep breath. This is do-able. It is. C'mon, think about it. There
aren't 60,000 more hockey fans out there who'd like to tell Bettman and the owners what they
think? There are 60,000 several times over in Toronto alone. And in Montreal. And in Chicago.
And New York, and Boston, and Detroit. There's 60,000 in Ottawa, and Buffalo, and Vancouver.
We know there's an easy 60,000 in Winnipeg and Quebec. Shoot, there have to be 60,000
hockey fans in Saskatoon alone. So we're not short of fans. We're just short of fans who know
how to get on board.
This is where current members have to roll up their sleeves for just a few minutes here and there.
The season's underway, so hockey's the natural topic of conversation. Raise it yourself at work, or
at school, or wherever you happen to be. Then turn the conversation to the topic of the NHLFA.
Get your colleagues at work, your boss, your employees, your customers, to sign up. Get your
schoolmates, your teachers, your students, to sign up. Let the mailman and the milkman know.
Tell your dentist and your pizza delivery man and your barber or hairdresser about it. If they're
at your house or your office or wherever you have access to a computer, physically drag them over
to it and sit them down and have them take the less-than-a-minute it takes to sign up. And don't
be content to let yourself represent your whole family. You're an NHLFA member, but is your wife
or husband? Your kids? Your girlfriend? Your granny? Your uncle in Cleveland or Kamloops?
If they give even the slightest hoot about hockey, sign 'em up. How about your neighbours?
Alert 'em all. Seriously. Remember that TV commercial for hair colouring or something, where
some whispery model says "Tell two friends. And they'll tell two friends... and so on, and
so on..."? A recent NHLFA release to its members suggested that if each of us could sign up
five new members, the Association could quickly reach its goal. Five? Consider it done. In fact,
unless you're a hermit, ten's not too much to expect. A membership of 75,000 by January? If we
all get busy -- if each of us really knuckles down and not all assume the other guy will do it --
100,000 by the end of November ought to be easily attainable.
Familiar with the Law of Entropy? It's not in the NHL Rule Book (not that the league would
pay any attention to it even if it was) -- it's a universal law of physics that states, in a nutshell,
that a complex thing, unless it's actively maintained in a way to keep it what it is, will devolve into
something else, tending toward inertness and disintegrating homogenously into its environment.
Stagnation. Putrefaction. Liquefaction. Echh! Rust never sleeps, kids. Membership growth
is happily accelerating, but let's not allow that growth to fall short of its goal, and the NHLFA
to evapourate into a great idea that almost worked. What are you waiting for? If you haven't
yet joined, go to the NHLFA site and sign up now. If you're already a member, shoot a few
e-mails off before you walk away from your PC and urge at least a couple people you know
to join. Let's not have to look on at the NHL meetings in 2000 and be saying to ourselves,
"y'know, we coulda been involved there, if only..." -- KER / JZK

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No Goal Under Further Review

      Lacking capital but standing on principle, NHL-besieged NoGoal.com webmaster Jeff Spring 
has decided to shell out for legal counsel and fight on.  There's a good lad!  That story is detailed 
in our September news installment.  Be sure to visit NoGoal.com, and contribute your thoughts 
to the furiously contentious message board and your shekels to their meagre war-chest.  
Neat stuff for sale there.  We vouch for it;  we're wearing our spiffy NoGoal T's as we write.  
Great Christmas gift ideas for every hockey fan on your list.  Hey!  Still time to order 
for Hallowe'en, too! 
      By the way, Buffalo News hockey writer Jim Kelley, whose column forms the centerpiece 
of our September news page,  reports the Detroit crowd, 18,000 strong, hectored the Stars with 
a "No Goal!" chant when Dallas visited the Joe on October 5.  No love lost there to start with, 
but -- 'way to go Wings fans!                                                                         -- KER / JZK

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BuffSnooze.com

      We mentioned in passing in our September installment that the Buffalo News didn't have a 
website, a charge that couldn't even be made about the Kenora Miner.  That was true at the time, 
but the News has at last joined the 20th century with barely three months to go.  The lamest paper 
north of the Mason-Dixon line (again, they do have a very good sports section) is in fact 
now available on-line.  We were about to include a link to them, but then we were reminded 
how they've treated us in the past... oh, what the hell.  We're the good guys, after all.  It's 
http://www.buffnews.com                                                                           -- SIR / KER

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Phoenix freebie

Continuing expansion, more worries of franchise relocation (the latest from Vancouver),
contract hold-outs, unaffordable ticket prices, clutch-&-grab, cheap shots and mayhem, legalistic
bullying, 4-on-4 overtime, a point for a loss and three for a win -- blecch. How about some
happy news for a change!
Okay: a little late in mentioning this one, but it's worthy of recognition -- and it comes out of
Phoenix, of all places. The Coyotes played the last game of their '99 exhibition season, at home
on September 27, in front of a crowd of more than 16,000 -- all of whom got in for free. Coyotes
and Cox Communications put together a mass field trip for 16,000-plus Arizona schoolkids --
fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders -- who got to see the 'Yotes mill around with the Sharks
for the afternoon.
We're cynical enough to recognise a promotional gimmick when we see one -- but who cares?
This was great, one of the best ideas we've heard in ages. Only the Sabres' annual Open Practise
comes close. The desert-dwelling kids probably could have benefitted from Peter Puck explaining
icing and offsides, but we're sure a fine time was had by all -- including the players, who displayed
a genuine enthusiasm for the event.
"It's going to be a blast," veteran blueliner Todd Gill told the Arizona Republic. "This is what
the game's all about. It's just a game. People forget that sometimes because of the economics and
everything else. Yeah, it's a huge business, but it's still a game first, and hopefully the kids will come,
they'll cheer and enjoy and we'll put two points on the board for them."
The event was certainly a grand way to introduce hockey to kids in a region where the game's
poorly understood. But considering the way fans, especially young fans, in traditional hockey centres
across Canada and the northern US have become disaffected and disinterested, NHL teams from
Boston to Vancouver would do well to emulate the Coyotes' novel gesture. -- KER / JZK

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Site News

      We've done a lot of TV and radio in support of The Death of Hockey (the book, not the 
concept) over the past year.  It's always fun, and we're always flattered by an invitation to go 
on the air.  For the record, we thank every station from Montreal to Toronto to Ft. McMurray to 
Victoria that's given us air time.  The only drawback is that these are ephemeral things; miss the 
broadcast, and, well, you've missed the broadcast, period.  Thanks to Sports News Network, 
though, our pellucid observations and dulcet tones are now available at your convenience.  
      We talked hockey with SNN executive producer Ron Diorio for a half hour plus, earlier 
this month, and that, as well as a wealth of other intriguing conversations and free audio downloads 
(including the software you need in order to hear them), can be found at that site.  Check it out 
and give us a listen.  As usual, Jeff demonstrates his wry wit and penetrating intellect, while Karl 
demonstrates why it's a bad idea to mix antihistamines and a six-pack before going on the air. 
                                                                                                                    -- KER / JZK

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Archive

Current news    Extra!  Read all about it... 
September '99   NHL Thugs Gang Up on Hockey Fan Page 
December '98   The Village Voice:  "The Death of Hockey" 
February '98     The New York Times:  "Hockey's Proposed Cures Could Kill the Patient"

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by JEFF Z. KLEIN and KARL-ERIC REIF
published by Macmillan Canada

available at Chapters, Indigo, and other fine booksellers throughout Canada
and on-line from Chapters/Indigo and the Hockey Bookshelf

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