Fans speak out on NHL CBA

This was sent to me today and I think it's something we as hockey fans should think about. Here it is, word for word:

There has been alot of discussion about the online petition requesting the NHL and NHLPA start CBA talks now. I am one of the sponsors of it as well as creating the website to support it, www.noNHLstrike.com. A bit about the two guys that sponsored the petition. Both of us are in the Military. Dennis is in the ANG in St Louis and I am in the Army in Germany, in fact I just got back from Iraq. Additionally, I won the 2003 NHL 7th Man award and was able to come out of Iraq and go to NY to act as comissioner. Alot of this stuff is on the website. The point is that I am not sure what we will be able to accomplish with the petition or the website. I do know that we both don't have a lot of time to spend on developing and promoting the site. We are however very passionate about hockey. Forgive the spelling errors and whatever other nitpicking you find. We are not, after all, lawyers. The goal of this whole thing is not to tell the NHL or the NHLPA how to solve the problem BUT we want them to come to the table to start discussions now, instead of next year. If this helps so be it. If not, at least, I feel better that I spoke up and tried. If we say nothing the answer is no. As for who is to blame. I don't really like to think of it as who is right and who is wrong. I think all parties are to have contributed to the state of the NHL today. I do know that the group not coming to the table right now is the players. Gary Bettman told me this to my face during lunch. After careful consideration, why would the players come to the table? They are the ones who are going to get affected the most by this. Do i think that is fair? No, I don't. That is why I hope they work it out equitably. But in reality I don't blame them. The group that doesn't have a chance is us, the fans. Do I believe that after all is said and done th eNHL will actually lower ticket prices? Right!!! I told Mr Bettman that with the internet, the fans can be a viable force in the grand scheme of things. I am hoping that we can do something. Yes, the petition doesn't present options on how to resolve the issues facing us but the website, noNHLstrike.com, will try. For right now we are tryingto get the site up and running. We had problems with the original host server and just switched. Hopefully, by Monday, everything will be fixed. The things that we are going to propose is contacting the NHL and NHLPA's corporate sponsors. We are going to try some other things as well, although we are working on how to make it all work. I am personally working on contacting booster clubs to get a representative from each team to be able to contact a select slice of fans from each market. Will we have any affect? Chances are slim, but by god, I am going to make some noise. I am going to try and create some media scenarios and whatever else I can think of. All I ask is if you don't like this idea, fine, just don't impede those of us that want to try. I am open to all suggestions. We may have taken off out of the starting blocks a quicker than we should have but I think we are having some effect. The petition is over 1,900 strong with us working hard taking out the bogus signatures like Jenna Jamison. Ahh, ya gotta love the internet. Do petitions work? I am not sure but if you look at the main petition site you will see that both Microsoft and CNN have changed policy and issued apologies. You will also see that there are US Senators with petitions and a few others in the top 25. I take it with a grain of salt and will not know if the petition is real until it is validated. By this, the petition service takes a select slice of the signees, who have submitted their email addresses and send them a message, asking for a response. Not unlike the way some message boards do to ensure people posting are real. If we come up with a good number we will present the petition to whomever. Will Bettman read it? I doubt it, will his subordiantes get wind of it? Absolutely. And then, i don't know, but at least we tried. Take a look at the website. I have a page to vote on certain topics as well as a message board to discuss the issues. Find out about the CBA and salary caps. Take a look. Thanks, Roger Farina