ESPN wants the NHL?

[jkrdevil]

To hear Mr Bettman when he was interviewed by Bob McCowan a couple of days ago, he seems to be quite thrilled at the growth(he said it, not me)on Vs. He said Versus is opening up in "8 million more homes", ect. If I heard right, he also implied that even if he wanted to talk to ESPN, he couldn't because he's currently under contract to Versus.

I too am curious as to why ESPN wants back in again. Is it because of the traffic for the NHL on the website? Are they seeing stuff with the Nascar trend they don't like? Or is it, as was posted earlier, simply that they have a huge hole in their schedule(although when they ESPN was talking about all the programming that was garnering more ratings than the NHL, it shouldn't be that hard, should it )?

You answered your question when talking about about Versus going into 8 million more homes. As long as the NHL is on Versus it's homes are probably going to increase. If the homes VS is in increases then there is more of a chance they can get a contract for another major league or major College Conference when they come up. Then ESPN has a full out competitor.

 

[JustJoe2k5]

probably afraid their new nascar show is gonna tank, i mean why give so much coverage for the Non Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks and make the commentator a former 6'10 nba player

Yeah, they certainly want to trade in NASCAR for the NHL.

NASCAR, the sport that draws 100,000+ crowds every weekend. NHL, struggles to fill 20,000 seat arenas nightly.

NASCAR, a sport that scored an 8.8 rating for the Daytona 500. NHL, drew 0.7 for it's all-star game.

Yeah, ESPN is idiotic if they think there is more money to be made in NASCAR than the NHL.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Yeah, they certainly want to trade in NASCAR for the NHL.

NASCAR, the sport that draws 100,000+ crowds every weekend. NHL, struggles to fill 20,000 seat arenas nightly.

NASCAR, a sport that scored an 8.8 rating for the Daytona 500. NHL, drew 0.7 for it's all-star game.

Yeah, ESPN is idiotic if they think there is more money to be made in NASCAR than the NHL.

but ESPN HAD NO Choice but to leave NASCAR in 2000.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

I heard a radio interview yesterday morning between Bob Costas and Gary Bettman. Various topics were discussed including ESPN. Bettman supported Versus and mentioned that ESPN would cut away from hockey as soon as the game concluded while Versus stays with the product, in the playoffs, deep into post-game showing the coach's press conferences.

He also said that ESPN's SportsCenter shows as much hockey highlights now than when it had the broadcast rights.

At one point, Bettman prasied NBC's coverage and said he would be thrilled if Costas got involved. Later, Costas mentioned how big markets like "two New York teams, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the MIGHTY Ducks of Anaheim all may not make the playoffs...." Bettman gently said "I'll disagree with you about the Ducks."

The subject of fighting came up, too, and Bettman said he gets as many opinions detractors of fighting as those who advocate its necessity.

 

[ARS]

I wish the NHL would go back to FOX.

 

[jkrdevil]

I heard a radio interview yesterday morning between Bob Costas and Gary Bettman. Various topics were discussed including ESPN. Bettman supported Versus and mentioned that ESPN would cut away from hockey as soon as the game concluded while Versus stays with the product, in the playoffs, deep into post-game showing the coach's press conferences.

He also said that ESPN's SportsCenter shows as much hockey highlights now than when it had the broadcast rights.

At one point, Bettman prasied NBC's coverage and said he would be thrilled if Costas got involved. Later, Costas mentioned how big markets like "two New York teams, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the MIGHTY Ducks of Anaheim all may not make the playoffs...." Bettman gently said "I'll disagree with you about the Ducks."

The subject of fighting came up, too, and Bettman said he gets as many opinions detractors of fighting as those who advocate its necessity.

I hope he disagreed about the Ducks, they are 6 points ahead for First place in their division.

Yeah, they certainly want to trade in NASCAR for the NHL.

NASCAR, the sport that draws 100,000+ crowds every weekend. NHL, struggles to fill 20,000 seat arenas nightly.

NASCAR, a sport that scored an 8.8 rating for the Daytona 500. NHL, drew 0.7 for it's all-star game.

Yeah, ESPN is idiotic if they think there is more money to be made in NASCAR than the NHL.

Of course if you made the NHL once a week and put all the teams in one place to play each week the NHL would probably get similar numbers. It's comparing apples to oranges. There are many NHL games each week, there is only 1 NASCAR (at least top level) race each week.

 

[OG6ix]

Of course if you made the NHL once a week and put all the teams in one place to play each week the NHL would probably get similar numbers. It's comparing apples to oranges. There are many NHL games each week, there is only 1 NASCAR (at least top level) race each week.

The All Star Game drawing so poorly makes me doubt that if the NHL had one game a week that they would actually draw decent numbers.

 

[jkrdevil]

The All Star Game drawing so poorly makes me doubt that if the NHL had one game a week that they would actually draw decent numbers.

The All-Star Game is also garbage hockey with the players not even trying. I'm not going to take that as of gauge of interest. Secondly the NHL actually can't have a set up like Nascar (unless you can figure out a way 30 teams can all play each other at once). Still I think the numbers would be comparable if the NHL would be a once a week thing (and had been for years). Especially if you consider the Daytona 500, which is like the equivalent of the Cup Finals, only got an 8. I would like to know what the other races without the casual interest get.

 

[OG6ix]

The All-Star Game is also garbage hockey with the players not even trying. I'm not going to take that as of gauge of interest. Secondly the NHL actually can't have a set up like Nascar (unless you can figure out a way 30 teams can all play each other at once). Still I think the numbers would be comparable if the NHL would be a once a week thing (and had been for years). Especially if you consider the Daytona 500, which is like the equivalent of the Cup Finals, only got an 8. I would like to know what the other races without the casual interest get.

An 8.8 for the Daytona 500 is miles ahead of what the Stanley Cup finals got last season.

 

[GSC2k2*]

Secondly the NHL actually can't have a set up like Nascar (unless you can figure out a way 30 teams can all play each other at once).

Holy smokes, would that rule? 150 guys fighting over one puck, with 30 nets set up around the arena. Heck, it would even be better with multiple pucks. Throw a whole bag of 'em out there.

We might be on to something here.

 

[Happy Pony]

Why can't we have both networks plus NBC? The more channels the NHL is on the better because it means more exposure.

How about, when the current contract with Versus is up the NHL were to sign a contract with ESPN/ABC similar to their current one with NBC where ESPN/ABC agrees to show games one or two nights a week. Also re-up with Versus. Versus can keep Monday/Tuesday, give Thursday and one other night (except Monday Tuesday/Sunday) to ESPN/ABC with a stipulation that a certain percentage of games must be shown on ABC (because not everyone has cable/satellite). In exchange for not paying up-front rights fees ESPN will air a half-hour nightly NHL broadcast (NHL 2nite). NBC stays with Sundays. The playoffs can be broken up with the first round on ESPN/ABC. Second round and first two/three games of the Conference Finals go to Versus and the rest of the Conference Finals goes to NBC along with all of the Stanley Cup Finals.

NBC is rewarded for what I feel has been excellent coverage.

ESPN/ABC only gets some games and none of the Conference Finals and the Finals because of the way they treated us (the league and fans) post-lockout.

Versus is rewarded for their good coverage and support of the NHL by giving them some playoffs and what they already have. However by giving some games to ESPN/ABC it puts pressure on Versus to expand quicker than they have been.

The bottom line is the NHL would now be on tv 4-5 nights a week in America with NHL2nite on every night. The more exposure the league gets the better.

 

[jkrdevil]

Why can't we have both networks plus NBC? The more channels the NHL is on the better because it means more exposure.

How about, when the current contract with Versus is up the NHL were to sign a contract with ESPN/ABC similar to their current one with NBC where ESPN/ABC agrees to show games one or two nights a week. Also re-up with Versus. Versus can keep Monday/Tuesday, give Thursday and one other night (except Monday Tuesday/Sunday) to ESPN/ABC with a stipulation that a certain percentage of games must be shown on ABC (because not everyone has cable/satellite). In exchange for not paying up-front rights fees ESPN will air a half-hour nightly NHL broadcast (NHL 2nite). NBC stays with Sundays. The playoffs can be broken up with the first round on ESPN/ABC. Second round and first two/three games of the Conference Finals go to Versus and the rest of the Conference Finals goes to NBC along with all of the Stanley Cup Finals.

NBC is rewarded for what I feel has been excellent coverage.

ESPN/ABC only gets some games and none of the Conference Finals and the Finals because of the way they treated us (the league and fans) post-lockout.

Versus is rewarded for their good coverage and support of the NHL by giving them some playoffs and what they already have. However by giving some games to ESPN/ABC it puts pressure on Versus to expand quicker than they have been.

The bottom line is the NHL would now be on tv 4-5 nights a week in America with NHL2nite on every night. The more exposure the league gets the better.

No offense but I don't think the networks would go for that. One might be able to get a Versus/ESPN split but there is no way that either Disney or NBC agrees to split the broadcast network rights. Personally I think the league is best staying with NBC.

 

[jkrdevil]

An 8.8 for the Daytona 500 is miles ahead of what the Stanley Cup finals got last season.

Well once again the Cup Finals takes place over 14 days where the Daytona 500 takes 4 hours. There is more of an event feel. Plus once again NASCAR has that more TV friendly setup of once a week that helps boost the 500. If you set up the sports the same way (once a week) and let the sports settle into that setup the Cup Championship would get similar ratings.

 

[Happy Pony]

No offense but I don't think the networks would go for that. One might be able to get a Versus/ESPN split but there is no way that either Disney or NBC agrees to split the broadcast network rights. Personally I think the league is best staying with NBC.

Nothing changes for NBC. They stay the way they are, part of the agreement is that NBC has exclusive rights to the Sunday games, the majority of the conference finals and all of the finals. They can add more games if they wish (Sundays throughout the whole regular season). I don't see how this would be a problem. If it really is a problem then drop ABC from the equation and just air all games they get on ESPN or ESPN2.

 

[achtungbaby]

I write about hockey and even I didn't watch the NHL all-star game so that argument doesn't tell us much. Besides, we can watch hockey any time. If we tune into Nascar it gives us all the chance to see people driving cars.

 

[triggrman]

You don't need to be from the south to be a redneck.

Thank you....

 

[EbencoyE]

Yeah, they certainly want to trade in NASCAR for the NHL.

NASCAR, the sport that draws 100,000+ crowds every weekend. NHL, struggles to fill 20,000 seat arenas nightly.

NASCAR, a sport that scored an 8.8 rating for the Daytona 500. NHL, drew 0.7 for it's all-star game.

Yeah, ESPN is idiotic if they think there is more money to be made in NASCAR than the NHL.

How can you possibly compare NASCAR to the NHL? If you're going to try, atleast do it right:

NASCAR has ONE (read: 1) event a WEEK. The NHL has what? (30 teams... multiplied by about 3 games a week... 90 events a week.)

So lets see, average NHL attendance is about 16,000 probably... (16,000 x 90 = 1,440,000)

Sorry, 1,440,000 is more than 100,000.

As for TV ratings, you can't go by some stupid all-star game on Versus (a channel that most people don't even get) and compare it to a nationally advertised race which is considered the biggest of the year.

If I had to guess, I'd probably say local nelson ratings for NHL games are probably around the 0.1 area when averaging the whole league together. So let's see: 0.1 x 90 games = 9.0 (higher than the Daytona 500's 8.8)

Yeah, NASCAR is just miles above the NHL. [/sarcasm]

Although this isn't a perfect way to compare the two, the two should never be compared at all because of how different they are. The only sports league you could possibly compare the NHL to is the NBA because of the same amount of games, relative time of the year they play, size of the arenas, etc. Nice try though.

(And I know my math is bad since I didn't take into account many things. But I'm just trying to prove that comparing one race to one hockey game is not the way to do it either.)

 

[EbencoyE]

An 8.8 for the Daytona 500 is miles ahead of what the Stanley Cup finals got last season.

The Daytona 500 is also a one day event with all the big drivers taking part.

The Stanley Cup finals were 7 games long with two small market teams nobody cared about. (With two of those games being on Versus - a channel most people don't even get and having very little marketing/advertising as compared to what NASCAR gets.)

 

[Meichel Kane]

I have a hard time believing fly fishing and repeated poker championships get better ratings then a NHL game but I could be wrong

No, but they cost a lot less.

 

[Brad*]

How can you possibly compare NASCAR to the NHL? If you're going to try, atleast do it right:

NASCAR has ONE (read: 1) event a WEEK. The NHL has what? (30 teams... multiplied by about 3 games a week... 90 events a week.)

So lets see, average NHL attendance is about 16,000 probably... (16,000 x 90 = 1,440,000)

Sorry, 1,440,000 is more than 100,000.

As for TV ratings, you can't go by some stupid all-star game on Versus (a channel that most people don't even get) and compare it to a nationally advertised race which is considered the biggest of the year.

If I had to guess, I'd probably say local nelson ratings for NHL games are probably around the 0.1 area when averaging the whole league together. So let's see: 0.1 x 90 games = 9.0 (higher than the Daytona 500's 8.8)

Yeah, NASCAR is just miles above the NHL. [/sarcasm]

Although this isn't a perfect way to compare the two, the two should never be compared at all because of how different they are. The only sports league you could possibly compare the NHL to is the NBA because of the same amount of games, relative time of the year they play, size of the arenas, etc. Nice try though.

(And I know my math is bad since I didn't take into account many things. But I'm just trying to prove that comparing one race to one hockey game is not the way to do it either.)

Please tell me this post was made in jest. You can't be serious with that method of comparison, and you can't be serious in thinking that the NHL's popularity and marketability is anywhere near NASCAR's. Because it isn't.

 

[Daily Special]

Hopefully. VS sucks.

Sure, but a bigger reason is: NHL on ESPN = Automatic influx of new fanbase.

I've always maintained losing the ESPN contract is what put the NHL on life support popularity-wise. Bettman would do well to do whatever it takes to maneuver into inking something with them again.

 

[LamborGREENie]

For the past month or so, I have seen a lot more NHL coverage on SportsCenter, and earlier too, not just in the 50th minute of the show...they even showed college hockey highlights once or twice! Plus, the ESPN website has a LOT more NHL news on its front page, and even put the NHL in front of NASCAR and Autos...I know this is all really small things, but do you think ESPN would want to bring back the NHL on their network? The exclusive cable contract with Versus expires after the 07-08 season, so maybe "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" would already pick up the third-biggest sport in the world (behind soccer and basketball)?

From an interview I saw between Gary Bettman and Habs commentator Pierre Houde, he said that he would maintain his contract with Versus and hope that with time, it grows with the NHL...

 

[redwingsdude]

All the increased coverage couldn't possibly have anything to do with:

Football Season over
MLB not yet started
NASCAR didn't start until last weekend.

and yes, NASCAR IS miles ahead of hockey in the U.S., even if the NHL had a major TV deal.

 

[OG6ix]

Apparently Lacrosse is reaching the level of hockey, or is hockey reaching the level of lacrosse?

I don't know what they can do to be honest.

 

[Stevedude530]

Monday and Tuesday should go to Versus, Thursday and Saturday to the USA Network, and NBC shows a game of the week on Sundays.

Both networks get playoff games, the Eastern Finals go to VERSUS, the West goes to USA, with NBC getting to air both series on Saturdays and Sundays.

USA gets 1 & 2 of the Finals, NBC 3-7. VERSUS gets the All-Star stuff.