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After 154 days of locked-out arenas and fans without a game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman finally canceled the 2004-05 hockey season on Wednesday. With the end of hope for a shortened season, the NHL becomes the first professional sports league in North America to cancel an entire season due to labor problems.

Hockey is the smallest of the four major U.S. professional sports, and the feeling on many Internet message boards after the announcement was equal parts "Who cares?" and "We have a professional hockey league?" Yet aside from hockey fans, many individuals who depend on hockey for their livelihoods are facing a tough economic season due to the lack of games. In Pittsburgh, the lack of a season has severely hurt business at hotels, restaurants, bars and vendors in and around Mellon Arena, home of the Penguins.

On top of the pain of one canceled season, there's no guarantee the players and owners will reach an agreement in time for the 2005-06 season. Clearly, the NHL has many problems. Here are some of the biggest issues facing professional ice hockey in North America:

A Salary Cap: The lockout began Sept. 15 over owners' demands that player salaries be tied to league revenues, a model the players, led by NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, refused to accept. With professional hockey salaries skyrocketing in the 1990s, a study commissioned by the NHL owners found that 75 percent of team revenues were going to player salaries, a figure disputed by the players' union. The league also claims total losses of $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million in 2003-04.

The players' union, previously opposed to any sort of cap, made a surprise announcement Tuesday that it would accept a salary cap of $49 million. Despite this new offer, the owners had set a final offer of $42.5 million per team, and the two sides could not come to an agreement.

Overexpansion: In the 1990s the NHL underwent a period of massive expansion, going from 21 clubs in 1990-91 to the present 30 teams. Critics say the NHL's talent pool has become diluted, with many teams featuring the much-maligned "trap" defensive scheme that takes the emphasis off of high-scoring offensive battles. In addition, many teams are now located in warm-weather cities without climates naturally favorable to ice hockey. Many of these teams have had problems with attendance and lasting fan interest, with the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning only finishing 12th in attendance among NHL cities and other warmer locales, such as Phoenix, Anaheim, Atlanta and Florida, finishing in the bottom half of the league in attendance.

Lack of Big-Name Players: In the 1980s and early 1990s, the NHL featured such marquee names as Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy and Ray Borque. Since those players retired, no hockey player has been able to cross over into pop-culture standing. Hoped-for superstars such as Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr, Chris Pronger and Martin Brodeur have not been able to draw new fans to the NHL. The league's most prominent young player today, Jarome Iginla, is popular in Canada but remains unknown in the U.S.

With this season officially ended, proposals for other hockey alternatives abound. Many NHL players have taken up with European teams for time being, while others are playing in minor leagues around Canada and the U.S. A movement is even underway to separate the Stanley Cup from the NHL and award it to the best hockey team in Canada, regardless of league. Still, no matter who, if anyone, holds the Cup this year, it looks like there will be a long wait for those hoping for the return of NHL glory days.

• Patrick Stack
• NHL players and owners fail to reach an agreement, forcing the season's cancellation. What does the future hold for professional hockey?