I have been formulating this blog post for weeks in my mind. Weeks. However, out of respect for my city I chose to hold off on posting it. Little did I know that the reality of the past 48 hours would only underscore the commentary I am about to have.
I hate hockey. I hate it. For a multitude of reasons.
I find it boring. Skate to one end of the ice. Skate to the other. Skate back. Stop. Skate to the other end. Zzzzzz...
I feel that the corporation of hockey is greedy - $250 for a ticket to a game? And then another $200 to buy a jersey with your favourite players name on the back? You're wearing a jersey with the logo for gawd's sake - that's free advertising - yet you're still gauging people right in the wallet to support you? Come on. This greediness has hurt my business immensely - on game nights our revenues are down significantly. I can market til the cows come home, but when there's no money in the marketplace for the public to spend, how will I ever succeed?
But the main reason I hate hockey is that it is unbearably violent. In my previous post I mentioned my heartache regarding violence used as entertainment - I do not think there is any place that the use of violence is more prevalent, than during a major league hockey game.
I will say, I generally do not watch hockey - ever. For the reasons stated above. But due to the playoffs and my home team being involved, I thought I'd try to sit through a game two weeks ago. It lasted 10 minutes. Within that timeframe, two players started beating the absolutely crap out of one another - it was truly disgusting. There's families at home, with young children, who are learning that violence is accepted? And what did he crowd inside the arena do? They cheered - people got up and started smiling and pounding on the glass like they had won the lotto. Since when is punching someone, biting them, kicking them a tolerated way to communicate?
Next time my assistant does something to bother me, maybe I'll smack her in the face and rip out a patch of hair. Yes, that's the way to communicate.
The images in the next day's newspaper were of fighting. Everyone thought that was excellent. I think everyone needs to give their heads a shake.
We were glorifying violence in the most obvious way possible.
As we all know, after Vancouver's loss the city was filled with rioters and looters. The majority of them young men in their late teens and early twenties. While I wonder where their parents are, I can't help but think, if they don't have a solid parent to have taught them from a young age that violence is not acceptable, how would they know any different? Don't get me wrong, I think those young men were vile, disgusting, heartless idiots who all deserve to be fined, thrown in jail, sentence to community service, etc. But I am making the point, that for months on end we glorified violence and the unimportance of life.
No one seems to be talking about the hockey game these days - they're talking about the violence. For weeks those around me condemned my thoughts on fighting during hockey games - guess I wasn't so far off in the end, was I?
