March 4, 2008
I think it would be fair to say that during the National Lacrosse League's labor strife last fall we here at LMO were not exactly sympathetic to the sides involved in the battle.
In fact, in the wake of the off-again, on-again pronouncements by the league, each couched in dramatically finite terms, we had one of our editors submit his resignation from the sport, assumably to some sort of Native American deity.
It was easy to be frustrated with how the entire Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations were handled. What made it nauseating was both sides were using doomsday rhetoric as they wrangled for some sort of public relations higher ground when in actuality they were bilaterally disemboweling the league. Meanwhile, everyone else - the fans and media, in particular - had to helplessly watch the imminent train wreck.
When the whole thing was going down I was tempted to dish out the blame, but opted to avoid that tack, viewing it as counterproductive at the time. Revisiting the scenario months later, I'm more willing to assign blame. However, even in with the clarity of hindsight, it is clear this debacle was a joint effort.
When it became clear there would be an impasse, both sides felt like they had the hammer in the negotiations. The union felt the league would have to bend to their will because there was no threat of replacements. Commissioner Jim Jennings and the owners felt they had the upper hand because they had a marquee product that would prove irresistible, eventually breaking the player's solidarity. Or so they thought.
So when the zero barrier was broken for the cancellation of the season and each side realized the other wasn't about to blink, they were left with the realization that they had both completely misread the situation. As a result, each side leaped at the chance to return to the bargaining table and salvage a part of the season.
It looked pathetic, and probably all involved would admit to that now. Jennings certainly did do himself any favors by unequivocally stating there was no salvaging the season. But to their credit, both sides bit the bullet and made it work for this season. If this campaign had gone down the toilet bowl, I'm not sure whether the NLL could have made it back, and the two parties likely used this possibility as another catalyst to speak with each other.
And here they are.
And with the exception of a couple of hibernating franchises, the NLL appears none the worse for the wear. The NLL certainly has managed to put a good product on the field. The unbalanced divisions - the West has five teams, the East seven - haven't even been a problem. In fact, the race in the East is shaping up to be one of the best in league history with five of the seven teams having a realistic shot at the postseason.
Most importantly, the fans have stuck with the league. Comparing the attendance figures of the five games this past weekend to a five-game snapshot of the same weekend last year, the numbers are almost identical. Last year an average of 10,886 fans showed up while this winter it was an average of 10,552. No harm done.
The NLL has navigated the rocky shoals of labor strife and has made it to safe harbor. There is still work to do, such as somehow reenergizing and reincorporating teams in Arizona and Boston, but the league has the brain power and business acumen to figure that out.
Personally, I am both glad the league is back and impressed they were able to do it with apparently very little blowback. The league executives, the owners and the player's union should be applauded for realizing their peril.
Let's just hope they don't paint themselves into the same corner again.
Contact Jac Coyne at jcoyne@uslacrosse.org.
