This season’s opener was played in London. On Saturday, the NHL announced its intention to play two games in Europe to open the 2024-09 season. From AP-

ATLANTA - Basking in the spotlight of its All-Star game, the NHL decided Saturday was the perfect time to unveil a big announcement for the start of next season: Four teams will get the honor of opening in Europe. Maybe the league should have made sure the players were on board.Saying there were still details to be worked out, the leader of the NHL Players’ Association objected to the league announcing two games would be played in both Prague and Stockholm to start the 2024-09 season.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said the New York Rangers are scheduled to meet the Tampa Bay Lightning at Sazka Arena in the Czech Republic, while the Ottawa Senators would face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Globe Arena in Sweden’s capital city.

The games would be played Oct. 4 and 5 — assuming the Players’ Association signs off on the plans.

That might be a problem. Paul Kelly, the NHLPA’s executive director, said he was aware of the European games but warned the league not to make a firm announcement until the two sides worked out all details.

“If they want the Players’ Association to be a true business partner, then they have to include us in discussions about these matters at the earliest stages,” Kelly said. “We shouldn’t read about it in the press and we shouldn’t find about it after the fact.”

Kelly said he was approached by league officials Friday night and asked to sign off on the European games, which would mark the second straight year the NHL has opened its season on the other side of the Atlantic.

His response: “Look guys, you know we have a lot of details to work out. Travel, promotional issues, NHLPA involvement, accommodations, the schedule, etc. So there’s still lots of details to work out, but if you want to announce it generally, that’s fine.’

From Kelly’s statements, it appears the NHLPA is unhappy because they weren’t included in the decision making process. They should have been, but that’s water under the bridge now. 

As to playing games in Europe, I don’t like it from the point of view of the Sports US fans. Both Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay will be losing one home game. If you’re a season ticket holder of either team, you have a right to complain. Why should your team have to play a home gain 1/3rd the way around the world? I didn’t like it when the Miami Dolphins agreed to play The New York Giants in London last year. Dolphin fans had more reason to be upset, considering they only get 8 home games a year, and the Giants were making a rare appearance in South Florida.

US football in Europe if it wasn’t a financial bust, was hardly a success either. As to hockey, most countries have their own hockey leagues. How many Czechs and Swedes are playing in the NHL now? Quite a few. I think local fans prefer to watch their own teams. Not ones brought in from another continent. Even if interest is generated, I’d bet it is only temporary.

All NHL teams will meet again once every season. From AP-

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - The NHL’s board of governors approved the sale of the Nashville Predators and changed the league’s scheduling format Thursday night to allow every team to face each other at least once every season.

Paul Kelly, the new executive director of the NHL Players Association, also addressed the league’s owners during a late-afternoon session to open the board’s two-day meeting at an elite resort on the Northern California coast.

After a three-year experiment in developing rivalries in hockey’s far-flung outposts, the NHL voted to go back to the scheduling format used before the 2024-05 lockout, most notably decreasing the current eight games against every team’s divisional opponents to six.

Starting next season, teams will play just 24 total games against their four divisional foes, 40 against the rest of the conference and 18 against the other conference — one game against all 15 foes, and three home-and-home series against wild-card opponents.

First let me state, my interest in hockey was only rekindled in the last year. Otherwise I had watched little of the sport since the end of the NY Islanders Dynasty in the early to mid eighties.

The arrangement where teams didn’t all meet seemed dumb to me. Fans in the west miss out on seeing players like Sidney Crosby and fans in the east miss getting to see……. well see what problem I have. LOL, make that former Florida Panther and ace goaltender Roberto Luongo. Now I can learn about the LA Kings, San Jose Sharks etc. To be honest I’m sick of Atlant. You would be too if you had to see the Thrashers and Panthers cross sticks eight times a year.

Some how I knew this was coming.

NEW YORK - A New York Jets season-ticket holder filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for “deceiving customers.”

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England’s 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.

“They violated the integrity of the game,” Mayer’s attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. “This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots.”

Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

Belichick was fined $500,000 by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and the team was fined $250,000 for violating a league rule that prohibits clubs from using a video camera on the sidelines for any purpose — including recording signals relayed to opposing players on the field. New England also must forfeit a first-round draft pick next year if it makes the playoffs or a second- and third-rounder if it doesn’t.

“They were deceiving customers,” said the 48-year-old Mayer. “You can’t deceive customers.”

But how were Jets fans Patriot customers? The Jets are who the fans bought the tickets from. If Mayer’s clients sued the Jets, the team may not want to sell them tickets any more.

I wonder if I could sue Theodore Bikel then. Some years ago, my wife and I saw the stage musical version of Fiddler on the Roof at the local playhouse. Because of a musicians strike, the only music that night was supplied by piano. Bikel had fun with the Tevye dream sequence line in the show. “There were even musicians.” I didn’t pay one hundred dollars for my wife and I to see ‘Piano on the Roof’!

Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.

Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.

Now we know these lawyers are crackpots. Anyone who can advise Ralph Nader to run for President is certifiable.

In addition to losing a 2024 home game because of it being played in London England, now League officials are requiring Dolphin fans to pick up their tickets in London the week of the game.

With the Dolphins playing the first regular-season NFL game outside North America this fall, the league is going to unusual lengths to keep fans from profiting off the game.

The NFL has created a policy to prevent season-ticket holders from reselling tickets to the Oct. 28 game against the New York Giants in London. Dolphins season-ticket holders who buy tickets must pick them up in person with photo ID in London the week of the game. They may buy the same number of tickets they have for other home games, but it is capped at 16.

“We don’t want fans re-selling these tickets,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “We had to create a system that would accommodate Dolphins season-ticket holders and U.K. and European fans. Without that there’s the potential for fans to have to pay extraordinary prices for these tickets from people in South Florida, who may be selling them.”

The first 40,000 tickets to the game were snapped up in 90 minutes when they were put on sale to U.K. and European fans last month.

As a contingent of Dolphins officials, including owner H. Wayne Huizenga, coach Cam Cameron and defensive end Jason Taylor, visit London this week promoting the game, season-ticket holders have been receiving information about purchasing tickets, ranging from approximately $92 to $183 depending on the exchange rate. Travel packages with tickets run from $1,699 to $3,749, without airfare. Those buying travel packages do not have to pick up tickets in London.

Some season-ticket holders think they should be able to decide whether to use, re-sell or give the tickets away to clients or relatives.

Florida relaxed its scalping laws last year, allowing for the re-sale of tickets at any price.

The change in Florida law took effect in 2024. Where is the NFL’s concern for ticket scalping when the Super Bowl is played. Why not enforce similar policies then? What if a season ticket holder can’t make the trip? Tough luck then I guess.

Maybe its not much of a loss. In my humble opinion, the 2024 Dolphin season won’t be any better than the 2024 season was.