Monthly Archives: September 2012

Hockey, an essential to the Vancouver lifestyle, is the biggest professional sport in Canada and the only sport in which Vancouver currently has a team excelling. Unfortunately for the us–the average fan, aspiring athletes, puck bunnies, playoff bandwagoners, or the hardcore hockey insiders like myself–we will be without the 2012-2013 season. The NHL lockout is due to the unsuccessfulness of a CBA agreement between the NHL and NHLPA; the Owners vs. Players. Unlike the NBA and NFL lockouts in 2011, the NHL experiences a different one. This difference is because of the fact that “FEW industries have worse labour relations than American professional sports,” but in particular, the NHL. The NHL has experienced 4 strikes or lockouts since 1992.

One significant outlook is the significant dichotomy between the two sides. The owners are attempting to decrease player salaries 10% from the last CBA agreement among other methods to increase revenue. One big issue is the loss of viewers who are unsatisfied with the situation, according to a poll from hockeybuzz, 56% of viewers who voted would stop caring about the players during the lockout. Similarly, this response from fans brings huge economic repercussions to not only the 30 owners who have fixed costs in contracts and maintenance, but also lose one of their strongest sources of income. The players believe that their proposals provide the grounds to a resolution that fairly views hockey as both a sport and business, however the owners and Gary Bettman are adamant on their proposal that views hockey as an entertainment industry for profit. What is professional hockey now, is it still a sport or a business? Is there a middle ground?

External Sources: 

http://www.economist.com/node/21563293

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Do-YOU-Care-About-NHL-Players-in-Europe-During-Lockout/1/46692

Gold’s Gym is an infamous health and fitness franchise within North America. However, their credibility may be questioned due to their questionable portrayal of business ethics. According to the CTV article, falsification and embellishments of the employees’ credentials were among methods that the management had forced their workers to use when dealing with new potential customers. From this article on the famed Gold’s Gym, one can question the ethics of this company. This CTV news report shows that many branches of Gold’s Gym within the Lower Mainland seemingly view the importance of generating profit very highly in contrast to reliability, honesty towards customers, and ethics.

The main ethical issue in this article is that the Gold’s Gym franchise is falsifying their credentials to lure and give their potential customers a false sense of Gold’s facilities to influence the perspective of customers considering to purchase their services. The Gold’s Gym management seemingly believes that regardless if they have the degrees to back-up what they say, they can provide the results that the customers desire. Personally, if I was a Gold’s Gym member, I would be completely against their dishonesty and the lack of integrity in their business strategies.

URL: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/credentials-pumped-up-at-famed-gym-ctv-investigation-1.714035

YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKaBhuFCcgQ