The Importance of Being Idle

NHL - Not Hockey Lovers

Man I'm pissed, in the incandescent with rage sense rather than the drunken sense, and I'm pissed because the NHL, in it's wisdom, has taken the game away from the fans again, at least fans in Europe.
See, over here in the UK, hockey has always been shown on five, a terrestrial free to view channel, and they've worked hard with it (and other North American sports) to build a fan base with quality coverage. Tonight is opening day of the 2005/2006 season, and I was well excited about it. However, on Monday the NHL awarded ALL broadcast rights throughout Europe to NASN, a subscription cable channel. So there you go, NHL hockey gone from TVs all over Europe. I'm mad about it, particularly 'cos my girl is Canadian and a massive hockey fan, so it woulda been nice to be able to share that with her, but also because I just enjoy hockey. And I'm not the only one who's annoyed about this, message boards all over seem to be alight with anger at the NHL's move, and to me it just seems to me that it is yet more prove that the NHL doesn't care about the fans. Admittedly last years strike was proof enough that the league didn't give a toss about the fans, there really isn't anything less attractive than watching two groups of rich men argue about who gets to get richer the fastest, but this year, to add insult to injury, they're now forcing (or attempting to force) fans across Europe to reach (deeper) into their pockets to see the return of their sport. Now admittedly its not just the NHL that does this, the Premiership started this shit years ago, cricket has just gone subscription only, so many sports are finding new and innovative ways to screw the fans out of what little money they have (the NFL for instance, now charges you a tenner a month to listen to games online, when a few years back you could just catch a webcast of a local radio station for free), but right now its just the NHL that are making me mad, cos I was pumped for tonights game, and now its been taken away just like that. *snaps fingers*
In other news... wow, there was something else I was gonna say here. Hmmm, I was thinking about it while I was coming back from the bank - ah, that could be it. Got another housing benefit cheque this morning, so I can back away from the pit of despair I was balancing on the edge of these past few days, as it was becoming more and more apparent that I wasn't going to be able to pay my rent this month. I still don't know what's going on at the council, and perhaps I don't want to know either. All I do know is that I don't want to be dependant on them anymore! I hate this whole situation. I want to be working again, be independant again and be able to stand, no matter how uncertainly, on my own two feet.

posted by BadMonkey @ 12:47 PM