Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, January 28, 2005, Washington Post

NHL Is Risking a Knockout

National Hockey League players think that the lockout will continue deep into next season. So, fans probably can kiss this NHL season goodbye -- and maybe next season, too.

This development has me thinking: Professional hockey might never again be as popular as it once was. If you think that could never happen, let me tell you about some sports that have lost much of their popularity.

Boxing: Not long ago, just about every kid knew the name of the heavyweight champion of the world. Most boys could tell you the toughest contenders for the crown, too, as well as the middleweight, welterweight and light heavyweight champs. Fights were on TV and in the newspapers and sports magazines. Now, I'll bet not one kid in 10 knows that Vitali Klitschko is regarded as the heavyweight champ.

Horse racing: Okay, last year everybody got excited that Smarty Jones might win the Triple Crown -- that's the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. And the year before that, folks were pulling for Funny Cide. But did you see the movie "Seabiscuit"? That story was true. Seabiscuit was truly a national sports celebrity, like Michael Jordan, but with four legs.

Track and field: Many more fans used to watch people run, too. The world record holder for the mile was as big a sports hero as the heavyweight champ. Hey, now they don't even run the mile. It's the 1,500-meter run. And it seems that people care about track and field only every four years during the Olympics.

So, why did these sports become less popular? With boxing, the promoters got greedy. They wanted more championship title fights, so they created more titles and weight divisions. With so many "champs" and weight divisions, including strawweight, it became hard to follow the sport.

Meanwhile, horse racing and track and field became less popular when golf, tennis, pro basketball and college basketball started competing more for fans' attention -- especially on TV. The same might happen to hockey. Plenty of sports, including soccer, the WNBA and NASCAR, would love to take hockey's spot in the hearts of fans.

Maybe hockey can come back strong. After all, some people thought that baseball might fade away after the 1994 players' strike. Of course, baseball got lucky with Cal Ripken's awesome consecutive-game streak and Mark McGwire's and Barry Bonds's home run records.

Still, if the NHL owners and players aren't careful, hockey might end up just like boxing, horse racing and track and field: on the endangered sports list.