No sport is as important to Canadians as hockey. Though there
may be a great many things that divide the country, the love of
hockey is perhaps its single greatest unifier. Before the latest
labour unrest in the National Hockey League (NHL), however, it was
easy to forget that hockey is also a multi-million dollar business
run, not by the athletes or coaches, but by corporate boards and
businessmen. "The Lords of the Rinks" documents the early years of
hockey's professionalization and commercialization and the
emergence of a fledgling NHL, from 1875 to 1936.
As the popularity of hockey grew in Canada in the late
nineteenth century, so too did its commercial aspects, and players,
club directors, rink owners, fans, and media had developed deep
emotional, economic, and ideological interests in the sport.
Disagreement came in the ways and means of how organized hockey,
especially at the elite level, should be managed. Hence, some
coordination, by way of governing bodies, was required to maintain
a semblance of order. These early administrative bodies tried to
maintain a structure that would help to coordinate the various
interests, set up standards of behaviour, and impose mechanisms to
detect and punish violators of governance. In 1917, the NHL held
its first games and by 1936 had become the dominant governing body
in professional hockey.
Having performed extensive research in the NHL archives ?
including league meeting minutes, letters, memos, telegrams, as
well as gate receipt reports ? John Chi-Kit Wong traces the
commercial roots of hockey and argues that, in its organized form,
the sport was rarely if ever without some commercial aspects
despite labels such as amateur and professional. "The Lords of the
Rinks" is the only truly comprehensive and scholarly history of the
league and the business of hockey.
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