2006 Draft to air in Prime time

TheMoose

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Jun 23, 2005
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060412.wxtruth12/BNStory/Sports/home

Its a subscriber article so here it is..

NHL moves this year's entry draft to prime time



By WILLIAM HOUSTON

The National Hockey League is moving its annual entry draft to prime time, hoping the appeal of two American stars will pull in a substantial U.S. television audience.
Defenceman Erik Johnson of the U.S. national under-18 development team and U.S. forward Phil Kessel of the University of Minnesota are expected to be among the first five selections, with Johnson perhaps going first.
The seven-round draft, which will be held Saturday, June 24, in Vancouver, will likely start at 7:30 p.m. EDT and wrap up at about midnight. In Canada, the telecast will be carried on TSN; in the United States, on OLN.
Traditionally, the NHL entry draft has been held on a Saturday afternoon, although there have been one or two occasions when the early part of the draft went in prime time.
TSN lobbied for the evening because of World Cup soccer commitments during the day. TSN has a live World Cup match scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EDT.
For years, the National Basketball Association has held its draft in prime time.
 

NYIsles1*

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Supposedly now the draft will be a one-day event, it usually takes a good two hours to do only the first round. Seems like to go seven rounds in one day this could not end until 2am-3am on a Sunday morning.

Not exactly the best way to showcase the draft.
 

Drake1588

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Rounds 2-7 will go very quickly. Say, 6pm-9pm for the first round, then the rest automated from the tables from 9pm-12am.

Not having to go to the podium and thank everyone in creation, as they do in the first round, saves a lot of time.
 

NYIsles1*

Guest
Drake1588 said:
Rounds 2-7 will go very quickly. Say, 6pm-9pm for the first round, then the rest automated from the tables from 9pm-12am.

According to the above article it begins at 7:30pm EST. If the first round runs for length as it usually does the first round takes about two hours which means were looking at 1:30 or later EST and no time for sports editors on the East Coast to get anything for the next day's paper beyond a club's top picks if they even bother with that.

Also it's asking a lot to have the teams website's writers (many not likely in Vancouver) standing by that hour EST to get quotes from scouts/players/team executives on who they selected any why and update them for the die-hards following.

Just seems like a bad idea to me. If it started a 5pm EST or earlier it would make more sense but promoting something in Vancouver as a prime-time event on a Saturday night in summer seems like a bad idea for a niche sport like hockey in the US.
 

boredmale

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NYIsles1 said:
Supposedly now the draft will be a one-day event, it usually takes a good two hours to do only the first round. Seems like to go seven rounds in one day this could not end until 2am-3am on a Sunday morning.

Not exactly the best way to showcase the draft.


It is a great way to showcase round 1 though.
 

rt

The Kinder, Gentler Version
May 13, 2004
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ScottyBowman said:
Oh my god that is geeky. Saturday night in the summer.

You gotta get so drunk on Friday night that you couldn't go out again on Saturday, even if you wanted to. Drink some alka-seltzer, pop some vicodin, and enjoy the draft. :)
 

Shootmaster_44

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Sep 10, 2005
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The one thing people have to remember is this draft is being held in Vancouver which is 3 hours behind Eastern Time. So if the draft starts at 7:30 EDT, it would actually occur at 4:30 PDT. So if the first round takes roughly 3 hours, it would end at 7:30 PDT and the rest of the rounds will likely take 3-4 hours tops and would end at 10:30-11:30 PDT. So really its not that late, however if the draft were on the East Coast this year I could see it possibly being a problem. However, I think unless this draws huge ratings in the US, which I highly doubt, this will be a one-time thing and the draft will return to the way it was in years past.

I've attended the draft in past and I liked the daytime concept for fans, once you were done watching the draft you had the rest of the day to do whatever. I must admit in person its not quite the lively event that TV makes it seem. Plus being relegated to the rafters at the ACC isn't the most conducive for watching. But it was a cool experience all around.
 

sk84fun_dc

Registered User
Nov 4, 2004
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I think the time in that article is wrong and it only says "likely" 7:30p,. The NHL website indicates the draft will start at 6pm eastern time.

http://www.nhl.com/futures/index.html

Also, in an NHL press release from late Wednesday (I believe after that article was written): "The 2006 NHL Entry Draft is Saturday, June 24 at General Motors Place in Vancouver, broadcast nationally in Canada on TSN and in the United States on OLN beginning at 6 p.m., Eastern time."

http://www.nhl.com/news/2006/04/268346.html

It makes a lot more sense to me for it to start at 6pm eastern/3pm locally in Vancouver and it looks like that is the plan.
 

The Nemesis

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I hope this year that TSN gets it and decides to air the entire draft on the NHL Network. There's not really any more pressing programming for it (NHL Network) to show in the summer, so they shouldn't worry about cutting into anything important. Even if the regular panelists leave after the 1st round and they just let the cameras run, I'd be ok with that.
 

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