NHL Players Get Blamed As Possible Season Cancelling Looms

Toronto, ON - On the heels of Commisoner Gary Bettman's official announcement today that after not being able to broker a new collective bargaining agreement with Bob Goodenow and the NHL Players' Association the NHL owners are imposing a lockout for the 2004-2005 season, a new Ipsos-Reid/CTV/TSN/The Globe and Mail survey released today shows that half of Canadians (50%) think that the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season.

If there were to be no start to the 2004-2005 NHL season, half of Canadians (52%) would put the most blame on the "players", while many fewer Canadians (21%) would assign the most blame to the "owners". And, when considering the positions of the "owners" and the "players", six in ten Canadians say the teams' "owners" (60%) are being more fair and reasonable than the "players" (20%) when it comes to the current NHL collective bargaining dispute.

But Canadians do not seem to think this dispute will have a lasting negative impact on the NHL: A majority of Canadians (63%) disagree with the statement that "this dispute will do irreparable harm to the future of the NHL from which it will never recover"; and 64% agree with the statement that "the NHL will ultimately rebound from this dispute and possibly become a better league".

Most Canadians (62%) disagree with the statement that "Canadians will never see hockey the same way again because of this dispute" - but a substantial portion of 35% agree with this statement.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/TSN/Globe and Mail survey conducted from September 10th to September 11th, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians were interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Half Of Canadians (50%) Believe The 2004-2005 NHL Season Will Be Cancelled...

Half of Canadians (50%) think that the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season, while 39% of Canadians do not think it will. The remaining 11% of Canadians "don't know" if the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season.

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• Residents of Quebec (55%) are the most likely to believe that the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season, followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (50%), Ontario (50%), Alberta (49%), British Columbia (49%), and Atlantic Canada (40%). 183
• Residents of Atlantic Canada (53%) are them most likely to not believe that the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season, followed by Alberta (45%), British Columbia (40%), Ontario (38%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (34%), and Quebec (33%). 183
• Men are more likely than women to believe that the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-2005 season (54% vs. 46%).

If NHL Hockey Does Not Start This Coming Season, Half Of Canadians (52%) Blame The Players - Only 21% Blame the Owners...

If the owners and players can't reach an agreement and the NHL hockey season does not start this year, half of Canadians (52%) believe the "players" would be most to blame. In comparison, many fewer Canadians (21%) would assign the most blame to the "owners" if there was not a start to the NHL season this year, and 19% would most blame "both" the players and the owners. The remaining 8% of Canadians would either blame "neither" the players or the owners (3%) or they "don't know" (5%) who they would blame.

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• Agreement that the "players" would be most to blame for no start to the NHL season this year is consistent across all regions of Canada: Atlantic Canada (56%) and Quebec (56%), followed closely by Ontario (52%), Alberta (51%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (48%), and British Columbia (47%). 183
• Agreement that the "owners" would be most to blame for no start to the NHL season is higher in the Western Canadian regions such as Alberta (31%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (30%) and British Columbia (27%), than in Eastern Canadian regions such as Ontario (19%), Quebec (17%) and Atlantic Canada (17%). 183
• Younger Canadians aged 18-34 are more likely than older Canadians aged 35 and over to believe that the "owners" would be most to blame for no start to the NHL season (27% vs. 19%).

And, Six In Ten Canadians (60%) Believe Owners Are Being More Fair And Reasonable Than Players In NHL Dispute...

During the survey Canadians were prompted with the information that the National Hockey League and its players association are in a dispute about their collective bargaining agreement. And that this dispute is over cost controls - with the players taking the position that their salaries should continue to be set by the free market and the team owners taking the position they need some new cost controls including a cap on players' salaries.

After being prompted with this information, Canadians were asked who in their view is being more fair and reasonable in this dispute - the players or the owners?

Six in ten Canadians (60%) believe the "owners" are the group that is being more fair and reasonable in this dispute, compared to 20% of Canadians who believe the "players" are being more fair and reasonable. A small proportion of Canadians (7%) believe that "neither" group is being more fair and reasonable, while 4% of Canadians believe they are "both" being fair and reasonable. The remaining 9% of Canadians "don't know" which group they think is being more fair and reasonable.

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• Inclination to believe that the "owners" are being more fair and reasonable is highest among residents of Quebec (68%), followed closely by Atlantic Canada (67%), Ontario (57%), Alberta (57%), and British Columbia (57%), and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (53%).

Most Canadians (63%) Disagree That Dispute Will Permanently Hurt The NHL...

A majority of Canadians (63%) disagree with the statement that "this dispute will do irreparable harm to the future of the NHL from which it will never recover" - while 35% of Canadians agree with this statement. The remaining 3% of Canadians "don't know" if they agree or disagree with this statement.

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• Disagreement with this statement is highest in Alberta (70%), followed by British Columbia (69%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (65%), Ontario (61%), Atlantic Canada (61%), and Quebec (59%). 183
• Those Canadians aged 18-34 are more likely than those aged 35 and over to disagree with this statement (67% vs. 60%). 183
• Agreement with this statement is highest in Quebec (38%), followed by Atlantic Canada (36%), Ontario (36%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (31%), and Alberta (29%) and British Columbia (29%).

And Most (64%) Agree That The NHL Will Rebound From This Dispute And Possibly Become A Better League...

Six in ten Canadians (64%) agree with the statement that "the NHL will ultimately rebound from this dispute and possibly become a better league" - while 31% of Canadians disagree with this statement. The remaining 4% of Canadians "don't know" if they agree or disagree with this statement.

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• Agreement with this statement is highest in Alberta (78%), followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (74%), Quebec (70%), British Columbia (62%), Atlantic Canada (60%), and Ontario (58%). 183
• Disagreement with this statement is highest in Ontario (37%), followed by British Columbia (36%), Atlantic Canada (35%), Quebec (27%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (22%), and Alberta (21%). 183
• Women are more likely than men to agree with this statement (68% vs. 61%).

Most Think Hockey Will Not Change In The Eyes Of Canadians...

Most Canadians (62%) disagree with the statement "Canadians will never see hockey the same way again because of this dispute", but 35% of Canadians agree with this statement.

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• Disagreement with this statement is highest in British Columbia (73%), followed by Alberta (68%), Atlantic Canada (67%), Ontario (64%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (56%), and Quebec (52%). 183
• Agreement with this statement is highest in Quebec (44%), followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (42%), Ontario (32%), Atlantic Canada (31%), Alberta (30%), and British Columbia (26%).

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Darrell Bricker
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900