The threat of an NHL lockout has some business people worried about the economic impact on Canada’s NHL cities.

Mario Lefebvre with the Conference Board of Canada tells 660News, smaller centres could suffer because they rely on the money from hockey fans to help support their economy “….like Winnipeg, and by extension Edmonton and Calgary are probably more exposed [to the impact],” he says.

However, he says families who usually spend their leisure dollars to experience a Flames game may just decide to put their money into some other kind of leisure pursuit.

Lefebvre says teams need to be careful they don’t push their luck with fans and lose them for good this time, after they suffered through the last work stoppage in 2005.