National Hockey League

[ZZbatam]

I start thread with a great news for all of us!!!:mexican:
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=288662

 

[$teauA]

Hockey is dead in the States.

 

[ZZbatam]

But not in Denver!

 

[$teauA]

But not in Denver!

or Canada but unfortunately that doesn't cover the entire demographic of the NHL. I just see this league sinking lower and lower in the next years.

 

[ZZbatam]

Bull****! They made wage limits, so everything is gonna be all right!

 

[newbie original]

In the US, the NHL is on a channel called either VERSUS or VERSES or some *** like that....losing ESPN was the beginning of the end for the NHL in the US.

And Dick Bettman still does NOT want to move the Penguins franchise north of the 49th!

Oh BTW, the consecutive sellout streak in Denver ended this season...the Avalanche aren't as good as they were and it doesn't appear that THAT will be changing anytime soon...plus they're in arguably the toughest division in hockey, which also happens to be in the tougher conference.

 

[Knightz]

Gary Bettman is the death of the NHL, the sooner hes gone the more chances we have to save the NHL.

 

[$teauA]

I say the MLS will pass the NHL in popularity in the next two years. I'm 100% serious here too. MLS will have a primetime match on ESPN every week while NHL will continue to show their games on Versus

 

[ZZbatam]

I say the MLS will pass the NHL in popularity in the next two years. I'm 100% serious here too. MLS will have a primetime match on ESPN every week while NHL will continue to show their games on Versus

Are you romanian? Then i would not criticise you for your stupidity! While there will be canadians on the world - NHL will live forever (even if they will call it WHA or WHL)

 

[$teauA]

Are you romanian? Then i would not criticise you for your stupidity! While there will be canadians on the world - NHL will live forever (even if they will call it WHA or WHL)

that'll do pig

now shhhh

 

[Ubik Valis]

Are you romanian? Then i would not criticise you for your stupidity! While there will be canadians on the world - NHL will live forever (even if they will call it WHA or WHL)

Lithuania must be boring.

 

[ZZbatam]

Lithuania must be boring.

Thank good, that I'm not lithuanian!

 

[CarlosDanger]

Actually, the NHL has equivalent TV audiences to the NBA if you look at North America. So, even though through hype and perception, the NBA is the bigger league, the numbers say something else. If the whole concept is getting people to watch and selling ads etc. (which I'm assuming it is for TV) then the NHL really needs to play that up.

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but the guy's a billionaire, I'd take his advice when it comes to marketing and money.

Cuban's message to NHL
NHL could compete with NBA in U.S.​

Jan 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Dave Feschuk

....
Less known, perhaps, is that he's of the opinion that the NHL — left for dead as a niche sport points south — should be considered a peer of the NBA's.

"The NHL has just got to give themselves more credit," he said. "They've got an inferiority complex right now, and I think they've got to overcome that."

....late last year he put in an unsuccessful bid to buy his hometown NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Having kicked a franchise's tires, he has studied the way hockey is positioned in the U.S. market. He is clearly unimpressed.

"People in the States underestimate (hockey)," he said. "More people watch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights than watch NBA basketball on Thursday night in the States. People in the U.S. don't realize that. They don't realize there are more hockey fans in a country of (32.8) million than there are NBA fans in the U.S. (population 300 million).

"I'd be out there promoting the NHL's combined TV viewership in the U.S. and Canada. But it doesn't happen."

It's an interesting point. The NBA on TNT, the league's Thursday night national broadcast, averaged a 1.1 rating last season, or about one million households in the United States. Meanwhile, Hockey Night in Canada's marquee Saturday night matchup is averaging about 1.27 million viewers in the northland. If you combine that with the typical rating for a national U.S. broadcast of an NHL game on the obscure Versus network — even if it's a pittance of about 160,000 households — it represents an impressive North American audience.

It's rough math, but it's the ballpark number that's important. Cuban's point is that people on either side of the border simply don't think of hockey as having an audience as large as basketball's. If you look at the U.S. perception of the NBA compared to that of the NHL. – "and perception," said Cuban, "is reality" – it's big league versus bush league. And even if folks in the U.S. realize the NHL is big in Canada, they probably don't realize exactly how big it really is.

Why does it matter? Cuban acknowledged you can shoot a few holes in the premise, to be sure. You could point out that the U.S. and Canada are served by different TV cable networks. But Cuban, who produces films, looked to Hollywood to draw an interesting parallel.

"People might not realize it, but when you put out a movie, the opening weekend isn't just U.S. It's not just Canada. They combine the two numbers," he said. "I would be doing the same thing if I was the NHL. And suddenly your numbers are bigger than basketball's."

Cuban said that if the NHL started citing the combined North American number it would be a productive step in changing the image of the game. It's an ever-evolving media landscape, after all, in which geography matters less and less. The NHL recently struck a deal to supply content to YouTube. And on the Web, audiences are measured in eyeballs, not necessarily nationalities.

The naysayers will chime in, "Well, TV doesn't work that way." And TV, to be sure, is a changing business, too. Challenging the conventional wisdom is Cuban's specialty. And in the delicate game of creating perceptions of value, Cuban – who sold Broadcast.com for about $5 billion – has some experience.

"The perception among regular sports fans is going to be, `Wow. I didn't realize hockey was that big.' Nobody's going to do the division and say, `Well, that's in Canada so that doesn't count.' It's just like a box office. They don't say, `Well, it was stronger in Canada.' We've had movies stronger in Canada per screen than they were in the U.S. No one cares. It's just total box office. Advertisers don't care. You guys drink beer. We drink beer. You guys play video games. We play video games. You guys wear stupid sneakers and pay too much money for 'em. We do the same."

"I think it's just a matter of educating people that it's not that far a leap from the NHL to the NBA. They're on par with each other. But you don't hear that."

 

[Hepoas]

My favourite norwegian pro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPFBu35pp9I <- Ole Kristian Tollefsen! WHAT A HIT!!!

A interview with the only two norwegians in hockey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GevGhBQe2XQ

Cheers!

 

[CarlosDanger]

Norway is about as important to hockey as Canada is to football....