a completely unrealistic and impossible way to save the NHL

[bluef0x]

[ QUOTE ]
When i find out the truth? What? The NHL is not on TV, except for Bruins games, since I live in MA. Im just done arguing with a bunch of hockey fans about the state of the NHL.

[/ QUOTE ]

Explain how I was able to watch 2 games today. Explain how the Penguins/Wild game was on the other night. Explain how you are getting Bruins games when the NHL isn't on TV. Explain how the Stanley Cup Finals "weren't" televised.

[daman123]

[ QUOTE ]
They dont even put the Stanley Cup finals on TV anymore.

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you don't get NBC?

[Pudge714]

The NHL is fixed and with the writers strike coming up soon it will no longer be televised.
I love people suggesting moving teams to market's that have already failed (Quebec City, Winnipeg), with the new dollar they could probably succeed right now, but I don't know for how long.
Also IIRC MicroBob made a post awhile ago about how the Oklahoma City AHL time was drawing really good crowds. So moving a Nashville or Carolina to Oklahoma City would make more sense. Also Canadian markets aren't doing that great Ottawa and Edmonton needed to get bailed out whenthe dollar was weaker, Ottawa has struggled with attendance in the past. A lot of the cities like Halifax would need to build a NHL caliber rink.
A lot of hockey's lack of success is due to the fact it isn't part of American culture. People watch/play baseball and football from an early age and they want to continue doing so.

Edit: Triumph nice work in this thread

[bluef0x]

Wow, Pats/Colts game isn't even on basic cable... the NFL is dead. Can't even televise the biggest game of the year.

NHL televises the SC, NFL doesn't televise their biggest game = NHL AUTOMATICALLY WINS BEST SPORT IN AMERICA!!~

[MicroBob]

pudge - just to be accurate, OKC is in the lowly CHL, not the AHL.

They draw in the 11k+ range in their very nice arena for a little while. They go nuts for that team there. They were drawing almost 10k fans per game and leading the country in attendance BEFORE they got their new arena. They had a 13.5k seat place in Myriad Arena and would frequently sell it out.

Attendance had fallen a tad the past couple of years. Last year they drew almost 8.9k per game which still led all of minor league hockey.
I attribute the slight drop-off to the excitement of the NBA team they briefly had.

Also, Tulsa just 1.5 hours away drew 5k per game and Wichita just 2+ hours away drew over 6k per game. Hockey does pretty decently in that region.

I'm not sure how badly they want a bigger NHL franchicse though now. They were more actively pursuing it before but got passed up by the NHL in the last expansion wave. They were a finalist but lost out to Columbus and Nashville partly due to their market-size. Small markets mean less TV coverage.
If the NHL had it to do over again now I think they would have taken a chance on OKC because it is obviously a sports-market with a ton of potential as evidenced by the NBA's success there.

The Penguins were looking at possibly moving there too but OKC backed out of talks and said they just couldn't compete with what was being offered by Pennsylvania and Kansas City which is where the Penguins were more seriously considering moving.

OKC seems very much more interested in landing an NBA team now that their experience with the Hornets has given them basketball-fever. Since the NBA essentially got there first that league now has the upper-hand in OKC I think.
They went from being just 'some other city that would like a major league team' that nobody was really looking at to being at the very top of the NBA's list to get a team thanks to their crazy support for the Hornets when they had them.

Really not sure that market can support BOTH the NBA and the NHL.

The biggest point though is that they would support the NHL if they got there now before the NBA comes back. They already have the quality of arena necessary which is kind of an important point too.
All this talk of, "move such-and-such team here" is kind of silly if they don't even have a half-decent arena for them to play in.

[MicroBob]

Also - if the NBA leaves Seattle I suspect the NHL might consider giving it a shot there too.

There are some northern U.S. markets that I think should be considered for big-league hockey and that is a big one.
Arena is as sucky as the Sonics say it is most likely. But it would be fine for an NHL team I suspect. Beggars can't be choosers and I think the NHL should want to get into that nice-sized TV market.

Houston also was a finalist in the last expansion consideration and would probably be considered again. I think the NHL has already done enough experimenting in the south and they would probably be about as popular as ATL or NSH or CAR there. So my guess is that the NHL would pass them by again now.

The NHL should be trying to get into the best non-NBA markets that they can imo.


Also - areyoudrizzle may need to be banned.
His insistence that the NHL games aren't on TV when they actually are is pretty silly.
I watched the Stanley Cup on NBC last year.
If you want to argue that they have a pretty low-level TV contract which gives them crap exposure in the U.S. and that losing ESPN was a terrible blow then I won't disagree.
But to just out-and-out say that the NHL isn't on TV at all is silly.

The even better news for hockey fans is that it appears 'versus' is a stronger network now and has better U.S. penetration. Still isn't going to go crazy with NHL ratings. But at least you have fewer fans who are completely left out in the cold from not getting the network at all.

[bluef0x]

The ECHL ("Double-A" farm league) doubled the attendance of the MLS. However, hockey is such a horrible sport.

I went to an ECHL game on Friday night. The fans in Stockton are really amazing (population of ~250k) and have drawn 245k people 2 seasons in a row and that trend is continuing. There were 8,200 people at the game I went to and they all stayed until the final second in a 4-0 game.

[Triumph36]

The Seattle arena was designed specifically to be BAD for hockey. It's definitely a market the NHL should be interested in, but alas.

OKC would've been good too but it cannot possibly support both NBA and NHL. The key is to find decent sized markets where the NHL will get a solid gate. The problem is a lot of these are bad TV markets.

[MicroBob]

"The ECHL ("Double-A" farm league) doubled the attendance of the MLS."


This is an incrdibly misleading stat if you are just going by total attendance which I assume you are.

The NFL had 22 million total fans last year.
MLB had 10 teams that drew 3 million or more each this year.
OMG....it only took 10 MLB teams to crush all of the NFL in attendance!!!!!


MLS only has 13 teams and they play 30 games each. Only 15 home-games each.
ECHL bounces around from 25-30 teams typically and they play 72 total games, 36 at home.

Don't get me wrong. I think minor-league hockey is one of the great unknowns for much of this country and many people are missing out on some really awesome sports entertainment. Glad you enjoy the Stockton games so much. your experience is not unusual for that league where fans just go crazy and have an awesome time all over the country.

But comparing their total attendance to the MLS is just ridiculous.
Most of the MLS teams draw in the 15k range per game and some of those teams intentionally built smallish stadiums so 15k/gm means they are at 80% capacity.

Also, the MLS is a truly 'national' league in that their games are televised and they really do have fans who follow the top players and debate who the best player is and watch the standings and playoffs, etc.
Even though the ECHL now is on both coasts it is still a 'minor' league. You enjoy going to the games but you probably don't follow the standings or playoff race very much and probably have very little idea who is leading the league in scoring or even who won the championship the previous year and stuff like that.

It's still a great league though. But the ECHL and MLS are completely different animals and really shouldn't be compared.

[bluef0x]

Please Micro, this isn't a place for arguments. It's a place to spam one-liners that don't need backing..