St. Louis wins the championship. Lebron so close to
winning his first championship in Miami. The Aints (New Orleans Saints) winning
the Superbowl after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. All huge story lines
from 2011 but all-3 storylines may not have had a follow up story to it due to
the upcoming Seasons being on the Brink. With all 3 major sports recently have
to reconstruct their deals between the owners and players; this past year's
major sports story has to be the whether or not sports were going to be around
period for the year. NFL, NBA, and MLB all went through the process of
negotiation with its respective companies to make it profitable with all
businesses to flourish. The main issue with all major deals from being ratified
was the percentage of money that each side will be earning in the 7-year
span.
NFL players began their campaign against its owners
during the previous season with the first regular season game in New Orleans in
which all players stepped out on the field as a sign of unity with on finger
held in the air. The NFL owners realized that the process would be a long and
taxing process. Not only did the NFL realize how there might be a lockout but
also the fans of the game realized this before the season even ended. The fans
were coming out in droves in anticipation of not being a new NFL season. Also
during the lockout there were so many different polls on what should be done to
avoid the NFL lockout and how the players and owners should be compensated
accordingly.
MLB was looking to put the negotiations away as
quickly as possible. They learned their lesson from the 1994 lockout in which
they lost lifetime fans because of the bickering over money. The event that
brought some of their fans was the home run race between Mark McGuire and Sammy
Sosa. Even after that the use of performance enhancing drugs and steroids caused
another black eye to the league again in which most fans believe all players
have used or currently using the drug. Fans want to believe that their favorite
athlete can do things that most humans can not do because of their naturally
ability. Most fans believe that if they had used the same drugs that they can
do the same. This is another key reason why MLB did not want to have a lockout
at all. They were afraid that they would all their likability with their fans
if they went through that ordeal again.
With the formation of the new Big 3 in Miami and
its biggest star not being able to win the NBA championship, it was symbolic of
the negotiation of the NBA contract between the players and owners. They came
so far but fell short of reaching the goal in time. NBA was the toughest
negotiation in which some of the regular season games were taken away. The
story lines over most the year with the lockout were everywhere. All news
channels and blog sites were either talking about the lockout itself or what the
players were doing. The players did the NBA a favor by performing in their own
events with other big name superstars sponsored by different companies. SportsCenter
was televising the games on some nights. Most players believed that the whole
season would be scrapped after this tactic was taken but in actuality put more
pressure on the two factions to get the deal done because people wanted to see
the sport.
Sports are an integral part of most households in which families come
together not to just watch the sporting event but also socialize amongst each
other. It is a momentary escape from the reality of life in which a person can
now forget about their problems and enjoy themselves for a split moment of time
without the worrying of paying bills or other common life duties. When there is
a threat of sports being taken away, it becomes a topic of discussion in all
households. Most people sit back and watch sports on a daily basis. This is why
the Seasons on the Brink were the most interesting topic of 2011.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7234180/nba-lockout-players-not-accept-deal-seek-disband-billy-hunter-says
