It all looks as if the lockout that has not permitted NHL hockey will end soon. PLayers and owners look like they have reached an agreement(at last) and it looks like the 2005-2006 season will resume professional hockey in North America. After shutting down A Two-nation multi billion dollar industry for months, we would tend to think that people will immediately flood the seats of NHL stadiums from day 1, but some recently revealed studies suggest otherwise. When players refused to play, claiming they were not being paid sufficient sums of money, thousands of fans were disgusted at how a player that had started out as a kid with a hobby, now demanded tens of millions of dollars to carry out his job.(Something similar happened when NBA star Latrell Sprewell claimed he wanted more money because he had a family to feed(he was then making over 14million$/year)). As the common view and esteem of the league plummeted, this only meant fans had to search elsewhere for hockey. Junior leagues, and 2/3 divisions experienced boosts in their profits, day after day. The quality of European Hockey has improved dramatically, as many of the jobless NHL players fled to the EU after a job offer. After realising that that are many alternatives to NHL hockey, I suspect it will take much more than good marketing departments to get people into 85dollar seats.