That's why it was so frustrating to see the game shut down for a year. It is also why Gary Bettman has to be removed from the office of commissioner. His desperate plan to re-market the game in the United States has failed...miserably.
Canada will always love hockey. Canada will always televise hockey. The US fan has too many other options, however, meaning that the NHL must do a better job of marketing itself and its American teams.
Original six teams in the States -- Boston, the Rangers, Detroit, and Chicago (the other two were Montreal and Toronto) -- all have huge fan bases. Even the Blackhawks -- for years weighed down by their old (and old-fashioned) ownership in Bill Wirtz -- have re-energized the franchise with TV deals and mainstream radio and marketing approaches. So what does the leadership of the league itself do to help return hockey to relevancy? It gives us VS.
Watching the NHL on TV is difficult enough to the casual fan. Now, during the most exciting part of the season, one can only find the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the cable channel VS. Last night, during the game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames, Gary Bettman's desperation contract proved its worth.
With the game tied in the first period...the combination of networks TSN (carrying the game) and VS (airing the feed under mutual agreement) showed an utter lack of sophistication and/or management skills. For nearly FIVE MINUTES viewers were treated to the audio from TSN coverage of the Hawks/Flames while watching VS editors work on highlights of the New York Rangers/Washington Capitols game from earlier in the evening. Five minutes of repeated highlights...cuts, repeats, etc...with audio from a different game on in the background. When the problem was finally noticed, the video portion of the feed was returned to the Chicago/Calgary game. Not only were the producers of the game unaware of the video snafu for almost five minutes...the announcers for TSN were never informed of the glitch, and so no apology or mention was ever offered on the air. Sad. Truly, utterly, sad.
As a longtime fan of the game it really disturbs me that this type of operation is supposed to be in charge of helping to market one of the greatest games in the world to some of the most rabid fans in the world. And what is even sadder is that Gary Bettman...the highest power and voice in the game...thinks this is the best he can do.
Mr. Bettman...if that's your best...then it's time to get out and give someone else a try. They couldn't do any worse than you have.
Hilary Rhoda
Damaris Lewis
Back in Time: November 20
Cavalier Girls
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First off I disagree that hockey doesn't "translate" well to television (yes, I am Canadian, lol). I truly believe that hockey will never be huge in the US, because most of the country don't grow up with skates on their feet. It's like the NBA in Canada - we do have a lot of fans here, but the NBA will never come close to the following the NHL has. I love and watch the NFL as much as the NHL, but if I want to talk hockey at work or when I'm out of the house doing something, it's much easier to find someone to talk to than if I want to talk football. It's very simple - kids in Canada (and much more in some US states today) grow up cheering for the team their dad cheers for or the team their friends talk about at school. You also play hockey when you're four years old. Now I'm not a huge fan of Bettman, but you can't blame him for his deal with VS. ESPN dropped the NHL years ago and Bettman practically had to beg to get any deal he could with a US channel. VS was the only network that would broadcast NHL games. Now I can't guarantee the truth to this, but I did hear on Ferrall on Sirius radio that NBC broadcast NHL games for free - the NHL is so greatful for the exposure to the US. I going to go a bit off topic here, but I am livid at the changing of the rules to try and "grow the game down south". The true fans of the NHL (Canada and the US) love the game the way it has always been played, so in essense the NHL is changing the game to accomodate non-hockey fans at the expense of the true fans. Who knows, maybe Avery's antics and Ovechkin's 50 goal celebration will make enough noise for ESPN to get back in the mix - it's a shame that is what it takes for the league to get attention, because that isn't the beauty of hockey. And to be truthful most Canadians could care less if there is a deal down south. We just don't want them to keep changing rules to make non-fans fans and making some fans non-fans. Anyway, nice blog. P.S. Don't tell anyone I just supported Bettman, because I certainly don't, but as far as the television deals go I don't think there is much he can do.
Vassago
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