If you haven’t noticed that the NHL has been mired in a work stoppage since last week, you are among the majority of U.S. sports fans. The NHL may consider itself one of the four major sports leagues, but reality suggests otherwise. The fact that there is no palpable outcry over the possibility of a lost season should serve as a warning to both the players and owners that this lockout is a very bad idea.

Just 10 years ago, the Rangers were on the cover of every major sports magazine, Mark Messier was kissing Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards, and hip-hop artists were wearing hockey jerseys in their videos. The NHL possessed a wonderful opportunity to introduce hockey to the American masses. So how did the league lose its momentum so quickly?

First and foremost, the NHL didn’t spend enough time worrying about the quality of play. The excitement level at regular-season games has dropped precipitously over the past decade, as the league’s less talented teams have adopted the illegal clutching and grabbing style that neutralizes offense.

The NHL’s failure to properly enforce the rules makes it increasingly difficult for the best players to showcase their considerable talents, thereby reducing the sport’s entertainment value. As a result, the league had little choice but to accept a no-money-down deal with NBC if it wanted to retain its national television presence – a deal identical to the one NBC already has with the lowly Arena Football League.

Second, with the cost of taking a family of four to a hockey game now averaging well over $250, the NHL is hardly putting itself in a position to attract new fans. You can’t fall in love with hockey by watching it on television, at least not until HDTV becomes ubiquitous. Nor can the casual sports fan appreciate the game’s dynamic combination of speed, force, and grace while sitting in the top corner of a half-filled arena.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman appeared to address fans’ needs during his speech announcing the start of the lockout last Wednesday. “I stand here today to say that we owe it to hockey’s fans to achieve an economic system that will result in affordable ticket prices,” he said.

As long as player salaries keep rising and television revenues keep shrinking, there is no way for the owners to reduce ticket prices – even if they wanted to – to attract new fans. Instead, as auditor Arthur Levitt put it, the league remains trapped on its “treadmill to obscurity,” with television ratings and fan interest shrinking every year.

Rather than just spouting rhetoric about affordable ticket prices, however, it would be nice to see Bettman actually put forth a proposal that would guarantee some much-needed kickbacks for the overextended fans. If the owners want to ensure victory in their ongoing public relations battle with the players’ union, this is where they need to start; until they do, the labor strife will only be perceived as a battle between millionaires and billionaires over the fans’ hard-earned money.

Third, the issue of violence in hockey must be addressed. The Todd Bertuzzi incident last season made it clear that the league has yet to decide what it wants to be. After a decade of cracking down on fighting, the NHL is no longer violent enough to satisfy its noisy faction of bloodthirsty fans, but it still allows an unacceptable number of cheap shots.

It is time for the NHL to alienate its blood-and-gore aficionados by eliminating both fighting and its perceived role in the game. If players believe that the league will aggressively discipline cheap-shot artists, they will no longer feel the need to exact vigilante justice on their opponents. And hockey fans will remember why a high-speed hip check is far more exciting than a sloppy fight that interrupts the game’s flow.

Fourth, the majority of NHL teams do a terrible job of marketing their star players. I saw more New Jersey Devils t-shirts depicting Martin Brodeur in one day in Toronto than I’ve seen in the past 10 years living in the New York area. As one of the finest goaltenders in NHL history, the photogenic Brodeur could be an eloquent spokesperson for a marketing program to increase both his team’s profile and his own. Instead, after backstopping the Devils to three Stanley Cup wins, he remains relatively anonymous on the New York sports scene.

Meanwhile, the NHL has outgrown itself by chasing down large American television markets while showing little regard for those regions where hockey is an intrinsic part of the local culture. When the NHL moved the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix, it argued that a successful hockey club in the desert would do more to promote the NHL’s television presence than would a similarly success ful club in the Canadian prairie.

But Arizona’s approach has been all wrong. A perennial failure on the ice and off, the Coyotes franchise looks more like the cherry on top of a gigantic real-estate deal than a meaningful business venture. And nearly 10 years after the relocation of the Jets, the number of hockey fans in Manitoba still dwarfs that of Phoenix.

Whether you think there are too many NHL teams or that the collapse of the Soviet Union provided more than enough talent to make up the difference (as I do), the fact remains that removing teams from Winnipeg, Hartford, and Quebec City eliminated three of the league’s most vibrant hockey markets.

Of those three transplanted teams, only the Colorado Avalanche have enjoyed success in their new home. But would Jeff O’Neill have captured the hearts of Denver sports fans as Joe Sakic has? Aside from a few notable exceptions, American hockey fans only support winning teams; if the Avs endure a dry spell reminiscent of the Colorado Rockies (who moved to New Jersey in 1982), fan fervor will no doubt wane.

There are many possible solutions to the mess that is the National Hockey League, but unfortunately, the players and owners are too far apart on the issue of a salary cap to discuss them. The end result is fairly predictable: The owners will get some form of “cost certainty” in the next collective bargaining agreement.

While waiting for the players to reach that inevitable conclusion, the hockey community needs to take a hard look at what the NHL’s future should look like. Are ticket prices too high? Are there too many teams? Should the less successful teams move to traditional hockey markets like Winnipeg and Hartford? Is fighting an essential part of the game?

The players and owners must realize that their work stoppage is of little consequence to most American sports fans, and that revenues will shrink with each day that the NHL remains out of action. When they finally hammer out the details of a more owner-friendly CBA, they should give some thought to the issues that really matter.

Mr.Greenstein is the editor in chief of www.insidehockey.com.