Quote:
Originally Posted by guccilvr
The NHL has a history of missed opportunities. NBC carried the olympics and it's the same network that carries NHL games. The NHL is too spread out on American networks. They're on the NHL network, ESPN (big games), and NBC for the outdoor games and Stanley Cup playoffs. Baseball can get away with it because of the money and the teams, but the NHL needs a real golden boy. Crosby can't draw people like Gretzky or Yzerman. The NHL should have had promo packages all over the olympics.. coulda shoulda woulda.
The Carolina Hurricanes have had dismal ticket sales up until the game right after the olympics. They had a good turnout from people wanting to see the medals, but after that game, I'm sure the attendance will drop once again. It's a mixture of poor advertising and poor management by Bettman.
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Actually ESPN doesn't show games anymore (I don't think sportscenter spends much time on hockey anymore either), the NHL works with VS now...which is an obscure channel that a lot of people can't get (direct tv doesn't carry it for example).
Anyway, yeah I agree, its just been dismal management and very poor marketing for the most part and its really starting to hurt the NHL overall. Southern expansion for example, while very important to growing the sport and getting a national tv deal, has been handled terribly. There has been little to no quality control, leaving these teams in the hands of incompetent, greedy and sometimes crooked owners with no intention of building proper teams or building a real audience...the NHL's hands off approach, lack of marketing and proper advertising is losing these precious markets to other sports.
Here in Nashville the Predators haven't been on TV since before the Olympic break, they've missed three big games, including a huge divisional match up against Detroit last night. A growing hockey market with a ton of potential and there has been no hockey on tv in nearly 3 weeks. Everyone here, the media, local sports fans and people who don't even watch hockey are buzzing about the gold medal game last weekend and yet the local NHL team is NOWHERE to be found on television all week. If that doesn't sum up the current state of the NHL I don't know what does.