The end of the NHL lockout marks the beginning of professional sports in St. Louis this year.

After four months of conflict, the owners of the NHL and the NHL Players Association have reached a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which will begin the belated regular season of professional hockey.

Under the new agreement, teams will now have a salary floor of $44 million and a cap of $60 million to spend on players with a two-year transition period that will allow team to spend up to $70.2 million in the first year, and up to a salary cap of $64.3 million in the second year.

The lockout compromised 41.5% of the 2012-2013 season, a total of 510 games. More importantly, the NHL fan base, their main source of income, has been without hockey for more than half of a year.

Math teacher Gerry Wieczorek said, “My life can finally go back to normal.”

The commissioner of the NHL, Gary Bettman, has stated that during the lockout, the league is losing between $18-20 million a day. With the lockout stretching 100 days into the regular season, the total amount of revenue lost could be anywhere from $400 million to $2 billion.

Not only were the fans without hockey, the league office employees’ pay was cut by 20%, and businesses in hockey towns had reduced sales because of fewer opportunities to sell to customers.

Even with all of the unnecessary drama the NHL is causing, fans are still staying loyal to their sport.

“Its unfortunate that the season will be so short, but the game is still the same. The players are still going to play as hard as they can,” senior Kelli Jaycox said.

The regular season will now consist of a revised 48 game schedule for each team, which began on Jan. 19 and is set to end on April 27. In addition to the 510 games that were cancelled, the 2013 All-star game was also cancelled, which was to be played on Jan. 27.