NHL Teams Want To Remind You There’s A Labor Dispute Going On

A lockout so nice, Gary Bettman wants to do it twice

In case you were spending your summer happily ignoring all news coming out of the NHL, you’re probably aware that there is a labor dispute going on. And if you’ve subjected yourself to that news, then you likely know that it isn’t going well. Well, that’s an understatemnt. The league will lock out the players September 15 if an agreement can’t be reached, the two sides are far apart on most of the important issues, and they’ve broken off talks with no plans to meet again. But just in case you were enjoying your summer of obviousness, the Ottawa Senators are here to ruin your day.

According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Sens have sent out their season-ticket packages, which seems like a cruel trick to play. But even crueler, is the letter they sent along with it, reminding season-ticket holders that there likely would be a delay in the season because of a labor stoppage. Because season-ticket holders likely aren’t up to speed on that news story.

“We hope and expect that a new CBA will be agreed upon prior to the expiry of the existing contract…However, we do have a plan for the possibility that a new agreement is not reached in time and work stoppage occurs.

“We are only providign you with tickets to the first 10 games of the season (five games for half-season seat owners) at this time…If there are no changes to the NHL schedule, the remainder of your 2012-2013 season tickets will be sent to you in the regular booklet form a few weeks after a new CBA is in place.”

So in addition to the tease of sending them the first ten games worth of tickets, the Sens are also filling season-ticket owners with the false hope that the rest of their tickets are just waiting to be shipped once the details of the CBA are hammered out in short order. That’s just mean to do to fans.

As of now, the two sides are still a giant gaping chasm apart in terms of the revenue split. Currently, players get 57 percent of league revenue. Gary Bettman would like to reduce that number to 46 percent. And with the two sides walking away from negotiations, it’s not likely they’ll magically come to an agreement while not talking to each other (though it couldn’t go much worse than it has with them speaking to each other).

In the impendingly certain case that the league does have to cancel games, the Senators have set up a few options for these fans. They can either get a full refund OR leave their money with the team with five-percent interest on the balance to be used for future games, placing their faith in the league to HAVE future games.

With the way Bettman has seemed hell-bent on killing hockey, though, the refund may be the safer bet. At least then you can re-allocate those funds on a satellite that will let you watch all the NHL players while they play in Europe.

(pic via)