The "V" Spot: No Canada

The Las Vegas Canucks? The Houston Flames?

There are currently six NHL franchises playing in Canada. Take a good look at them because they aren't going to be around much longer.

The Canadian federal government announced a much needed subsidy package to their franchises this week. It would have paid up to $2 million based on the aid each team received from its respective city and province government.

Immediately after the announcement, Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden triumphantly announced that he had "put away the 'For Sale' sign." NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman breathed a sigh of relief. And the response from the public resounded from the banks of Newfoundland to the shores of British Columbia.

No. Not on our dime.

Three days after announcing the policy, the government had to recant. Federal Industry Minister John Manley, met the press and told them that the public response was "clear" and "negative." He added that the subsidies were "dead and we will not be pursuing this any further."

The people of Canada have sounded the death knell for the NHL in their country.

Simply put, all the Canadian teams except Montreal and Toronto need additional sources of revenue. It's simple math.

Money flows into the franchises in Canadian dollars and most expenses must be paid in more expensive American dollars. Canada has an excessive social services network which forces the teams to pay much higher taxes than their counterparts in the U.S.--one Canadian team pays more in property taxes than all 22 American franchises combined.

Under these constraints, it's near impossible for the smaller market teams to compete--and the people of the provinces will not do anything to rectify it.

This makes no sense. Hockey runs through the blood of every Canuck. The story of many a childhood in rural Canada runs the same--born with a stick in your hand, skating by age 3, winters on the frozen pond in your backyard or that of your best friend.

Their passion for pucks lies at the heart of hockey's soul and forms some of the collective spirit of the nation. If there was any cause worth fighting for, this would seem to be it. $12 million in a budget of $156 billion, doesn't seem like an undue burden, eh?

But apparently to the Canadian taxpayer, it was. While cities like Nashville--whose citizens think "slapshot" is special ammunition for a Remington--build new stadiums and grant huge tax breaks, the Canadian Taxpayers Association was encouraging the population to mail pucks to Prime Minister Jean Chretien in protest.

Maybe the popular reaction was a realization that the NHL simply isn't Canadian hockey anymore. The pond in the backyard is a good metaphor. Winter was already freezing, and it just took someone to run the garden hose a little for there to be ice.

The only sacrifice was time and a little love. It was a community event and all the neighborhood kids would come over and play.

Now, the NHL no longer is a larger version of the local neighborhood. Increasingly, the players don't hail from the Great North. The best player in the game right now, Jaromir Jagr, hails from the Czech Republic. The hottest player in the league right now, Patrik Elias, is also from there.

The international flavor has been mixed with good old American cash to further eradicate hockey's small town flavor.

ABC/ESPN signed a $600 million deal for the television rights. The New York Rangers spent $68 million over the off-season on free agents. And their centerpiece, Theoren Fleury, came from Colorado, but it only had the Oxbow, Saskatchewan native because Calgary knew it couldn't resign him.

Heck, a couple of recent captains for the Canadiens didn't even know how to speak French.

Hockey is slowly becoming an American game. The paradigm Bettman is cultivating is not the kid from the pond, but the middle class tyke from suburbia, playing ball hockey on rollerblades, and stepping onto the ice for the first time in junior high school or (gasp) high school.

The Montreal Gazette printed the following editorial in response to this trend in the Canadian sport: "The public is increasingly fed up with the mediocre NHL product, the high ticket prices, and the bloated player salaries. It would be hard to think of a more undeserving recipient of taxpayer charity"

Undeserving indeed. As the NHL prospers, the taxpayers of Canada have decided that they will settle for whatever team can survive.

The exodus has already begun. The Quebec Nordiques are now the Colorado Avalanche; the Winnipeg Jets are the Phoenix Coyotes.

When the Senators, Canucks, Oilers and Flames start to relocate, there will be a public uproar. More testimonials will be written how evil owners tore the heart out of Canada.

But in rejecting the government support, the people of Canada have already spoken. The country has invested so much love into the game, but it has calculated that its passion has gone unrequited.

Larry Brooks of the NY Post said it best in a column yesterday that, "the game of hockey has outgrown its roots."

That's a damn shame, but that is the fact of life.

Las Vegas Canucks? Start getting used to it.