February 16, 2005, 20 years ago: National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman cancels the 2004-05 season. In so doing, he becomes the 1st boss of any of North America's "Big Four" major sports leagues to cancel an entire season.
Previously:
* 1972: Major League Baseball players went on strike. It was quickly settled, but each team had its 1st few games of the regular season canceled, between 6 and 9.
* 1973: MLB team owners locked the players out, prior to the start of Spring Training. It was quickly settled, and no games were lost, not even Spring Training exhibition games.
* 1974: National Football League players went on strike. The team owners used all-rookie teams as replacement players, and then settle the strike. No regular-season games were lost.
* 1976: MLB team owners locked the players out during Spring Training. It was settled, and no regular-season games were lost.
* 1980: MLB players went on strike. The last week of Spring Training was canceled, but the strike was quickly settled, and no regular-season games were lost.
* 1981: MLB players went on strike in mid-season. It took 2 months to settle it, and each team lost between 51 and 59 regular-season games.
* 1982: NFL players went on strike. This time, 7 regular-season games were canceled before it was settled.
* 1985: MLB players went on strike in mid-season. The strike was settled in 3 days, and all but 2 of the postponed games were made up.
* 1987: NFL players went on strike. One regular-season game was canceled, and then the team owners used replacement players, or "scabs," for 2 weeks. The fans hated it, and the strike was settled.
* 1990: MLB team owners locked the players out in Spring Training. It was soon settled, and the regular season got pushed back a week, but all games were played.
* 1992: The NHL owners began their 1st lockout, late in the regular season, which ended up canceling 30 games, but was resolved in time to have a full Stanley Cup Playoffs.
* 1994: MLB players went on strike, and Commissioner Bud Selig ended up canceling the last 1/3rd of the regular season and the entire postseason. It was settled the following April, resulting in a delay of both Spring Training and the regular season, and the cancellation of the 1st 18 regular-season games.
* 1995: Another NHL lockout, before the start of the season, not resolved until the New Year, shortening the 82-game season to 44 games.
* 1995: National Basketball Association team owners locked out the players. It was settled before any regular-season games could be postponed.
* 1996: There was another NBA lockout, but it lasted only 2 hours. The regular season was not seriously threatened.
* 1998: There was another NBA lockout. This one lasted into the New Year, and turned the usual 82-game season into a 50-game season.
None of these was as damaging as baseball's Strike of '94, which canceled the postseason. But the 2004-05 NHL lockout was worse: It ended up canceling the entire season, something that had never happened in North American sports, and hasn't happened since.
Why did it happen? The team owners wanted a salary cap, and the NHL Players Association didn't. Their alternative was revenue sharing. The owners held firm: They would rather lose all the revenue of an entire season than give up on the salary cap.
Those owners included Wayne Gretzky, who from 2000 to 2009 was a 10 percent owner of the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes; and Mario Lemieux, who, due to his contract making him the Pittsburgh Penguins' biggest creditor, was made that team's majority owner upon their bankruptcy declaration in 1999. Since Lemieux was now a team owner, he had to resign as a member of the NHLPA, due to the conflict of interest.
To their credit, both Gretzky and Lemieux -- arguably, 2 of the 5 greatest players who have ever played -- tried to settle the lockout peacefully, without looking like they were betraying the players. Gretzky didn't have his team's vote in the ownership meetings. Lemieux had his, and was willing to accept the salary cap, if it was structured like the one the NFL had adopted. In the end, though, both men gave in to the other owners. Today, Lemieux remains the Pens' majority owner. And, as far as I'm concerned, both men have a cloud over them.
The players did not lose much in the short term: Most of them went to play in the various European leagues: Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France.
The lockout was settled on July 22, 2005, allowing the 2005-06 season, both pre- and regular, to begin on time. In the end, both ideas went into effect: The players caved and allowed the salary cap, and the owners, knowing they'd won, accepted the revenue sharing.
Bettman thus cemented himself as the worst Commissioner in sports history. True, in 1994, Bud Selig canceled a postseason, 1/3rd of a regular season, 1/9th of another, a Spring Training, and screwed up an All-Star Game that was played in the ballpark he himself got built. But he didn't cancel an entire season. Bettman did.
There has since been another lockout, with the 2005 CBA having run out, resulting in a new negotiation that delayed the opening of the 2012-13 regular season until January 13, and the season shortened to 48 games.
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