Agreed. The anti-union sentiment here is pretty mind-boggling. I just don't see any possible reason to take the owners side in this. Our owners, as well as those in Toronto and New York, are reasonably decent for the most part. But guys like Jacobs, Leipold, Katz and the NHL in its dealings with Glendale are shmucks who milk taxpayers by threatening to move franchises. The owners, by and large, aren't benevolent philanthropists providing hockey to us plebians- they are businessmen turning profits on crappy teams run on shoe-string budgets (Wang), holding fan bases and taxpayers hostage more often than not. As I said, some of them are alright. But a lot of them aren't. And it's those that are pushing the lockout as far as it's gone.
The solution? Public ownership. Works for my beloved Packers, who will be playing their first playoff game of the season tonight, and who a blown call against forced the league to make a deal with locked-out referees. They are also the best investment value in sports in terms of advertising, can't ever leave Green Bay, and have expanded their stadium consistently without resorting to anti-democratic tax increases. Oh, and they're also really good most of the time. Go Pack Go!