How the NHL Lockout Can Make You a Better Investor

The impacted companies will find ways to easily make up the lost revenue. If hockey disappeared forever, they would create and innovate new revenue streams to offset any noticeable drag on the top line.

Hockey is in no position to do this. Without the players on the ice, it's got nothing. And, even if there was some magical formula, the bunch in charge, led by Bettman, likely does not have the capacity to crack it.

However, as fans -- as saver/investor fans -- we can respond like sharp, well-run businesses.

When I look at what I was about to spend, at minimum, on hockey, I feel like the idiot. $2,100. I don't care if you make $250,000, $25,000, $5,000 or $2,500 a month; $2100 is a nice chunk of cash.

On one hand, I spend, somewhat freely, because I like to live. I like to do things for myself and my wife. And vice versa. And we both like to provide our daughter with worthy experiences.

So, we travel frequently, but never at the meaningful expense of anything important. At least I don't think so.

But, man, looking at it another way -- I am going to Manhattan, Phoenix and Wisconsin whether they play hockey there in October and November or not. As much as I love hockey, these trips will hardly suffer without it.

That extra $2,100 could go toward travel-related upgrades, but it likely makes more sense to put it in the bank. Or in a stock.

If I had invested $2,100 in Apple (AAPL) around this time last year, I would be up approximately 84%. Using $380 as an entry price, my 5.5 shares would be worth $3,850 with AAPL at $700 a share. That calculation doesn't even take the dividend into account.

Right. So then, why would I allow a game, run by freaking Gary Bettman, to impact my future in any way, shape or form? With this time to reflect during the lockout, I really cannot come up with a suitable answer.

At the time of publication, the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this article.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Rocco Pendola is a private investor with nearly 20 years experience in various forms of media, ranging from radio to print. His work has appeared in academic journals as well as dozens of online and offline publications. He uses his broad experience to help inform his coverage of the stock market, primarily in the technology, Internet and new media spaces. He has taken a long-term approach to investing, focusing on dividend-paying stocks, since he opened his first account as a teenager. Pendola, 37, is based in Santa Monica, Calif., where he lives with his wife and child.

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