| Dear NHL,
By Patryk Fournier Februrary 24, 2003 |
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| You had me at the opening faceoff. |
| "You made some questionable choices in the past, most notably the extra weight of expansion teams, the NHL on Fox complete with glowing puck experiment and of course that moronic in-the-crease rule. I stuck by you with all these choices and defended you to my friends by saying, "It's just a phase that you're going through." " |
Dear NHL,
Things have changed in our relationship to a point beyond repair. We've had a long and strong relationship. You captured my heart years ago and held it until now but you've changed so drastically that I hardly recognize you. I dedicated so many nights, weekends and so much time and money to you. I've been nothing but supportive of you over the years and I admit we shared some great moments. I remember the late 80's and early 90's fondly; high scoring games, competitive Canadian teams and tremendous individual talent like Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Jaromir Jagr were born. But you've definitely changed. You're no longer the same NHL I fell in love with all those years ago.
You've gotten larger and the extra weight isn't flattering. You decided to indulge in expansion teams even when I stressed how unhealthy that would be for you in the long run. Was it really necessary to put teams in Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus and Tampa? You were already at a perfect level of teams and looked great in my opinion but yet you decided to indulge in these extra teams, despite my pleas.
You've gotten so full of yourself that you make me work harder for your love. You've made seeing you more expensive with your high-ticket prices. You used to be concerned about the average fan but now the only thing that concerns you is the corporate luxury boxes and your big financial investors. I was supportive of you even when people in the US didn't think you matched up to the NFL, NBA and MLB. You made some questionable choices in the past, most notably the extra weight of expansion teams, the NHL on Fox complete with glowing puck experiment and of course that moronic in-the-crease rule. I stuck by you with all these choices and defended you to my friends by saying, "It's just a phase that you're going through."
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| You broke my heart. |
I've reached my final straw with you over the past few weeks. You have turned my favourite thing about you into a farce. You know I fell in love with you for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux. Those were the characteristics that I first noticed about you. You showed me how great those characteristics could be with the back-to-back Stanley Cup wins. You no longer support or display those characteristics. You've created an economic atmosphere that makes it virtually impossible for small market teams like the Penguins to keep their best players. A player develops into an all-star and then the free market of the NHL dictates his value and where he will go. You've turned your back on me, which ranks equivalent to Fredo turning on Michael in Godfather II: I know it was you NHL. You broke my heart. You broke my heart. NHL, you're nothing to me now. You're not my love; you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you; I don't want you near my house. When you see our friends, I want to know a day in advance, so I won't be there. You understand?
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| A bad influence |
You've dedicated your time elsewhere and in your opinion more important issues. You've gotten greedy. You used to be able to spread your time and resources so evenly, every aspect of your personality received equal attention and prosperity. Now only specific aspects receive attention like the Leafs, Avalanche, Red Wings, Flyers and of course the Rangers. The Rangers are the most embarrassing aspect of your personality. You constantly brag about the Rangers, dedicate money and time to improving them and in the end you get nothing out of it. I blame your conscience or as you like to call him, Bettman for a lot of these problems. He has manipulated your way of thinking. He has polluted your mind with ideas of cap less free spending and moving teams to the southern United States. You need a Christopher Moltisanti type intervention, so you can truly see what you've turned into. You have become poisoned by this greed and you need to break free of it. I want my old NHL back.
I think we need to break this relationship off. I'm not sure I can even be friends with you. I don't think we can recapture the type of relationship we once had. Plus I find myself attracted to other leagues, most notably the NFL. The NFL has its stuff together; it clearly knows what it wants to do and knows how to treat fans properly. The NFL is about parity and revenue sharing so even the smallest team can survive, a la the Green Bay Packers. The NFL also has that same characteristic that made you so attractive in the beginning, in the form of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The NFL is helping remind me of those great times we once shared with the Penguins.
You need to make some changes and I'm giving you until 2004. I'm giving you some time to put your life and stuff together. When we talk again in 2004 I expect to see some improvement. I want to see you work hard to lose some of that extra weight. You're at 30 teams right now. I would love to see that slim figure of 24 teams again. I want to see some form of a luxury tax/salary cap. You need to give all aspects of your personality an equal chance to compete. I also want to see improved revenue sharing and an improved TV deal. I don't want to hear that same excuse that the ratings in the US won't allow for an improved TV deal. Make it work. Make some of these changes and fans will want to see the game.
Until then I'll be counting down the days for NFL training camps to open up. Oh yeah, I have a box of your stuff at my place that I'll drop off to you next week.
Sincerely,
Patryk Fournier