A way the NHL/OLN can make the draft a bigger event

[puck57]

I, obviously, love hockey, but to deny that hockey fans want hockey to be one of the "big four" sports is to sheild your eyes from the obvious. Go back through the archives and see how many people complained about the NHL signing with OLN...because the NHL "deserves" a major network deal. Sorry, but if you have been paying attention you would know this. It's not about not liking something because others don't. Do true NHL fans want to see the draft? Many do. Does that mean it's as big or will ever be as big as the NBA and NFL drafts? No, for the three reasons I originally mentioned.

Of course the hockey draft will never be "as big" as the basketball or NFL draft- for pete's sake you have a whole month of "March Madness" and there is wall to wall satuaration of college football for months in the fall. What I'm saying and maybe some others are is that let's at least TRY some different approaches like some games on OLN or other projects- they won't get the ratings of some of the other sports but even if it starts to grow some more casual viewership to start to watch isn't that some small victory to help grow the NHL and lower league and college hockey.

 

[OG6ix]

It is a major sport, in my opinion. I know they don't got a billion dollar national tv contract and the ratings aren't great, but the league does make a lot of money and I know regionally (If your in a hockey market) if your in the playoffs people obviously care. I mean the league isn't poor or anything they do still make a lot of money even with no tv contract, their stands are packed night in and night out. Last I checked the NHL does well regionally, and the point is to get all those regions to watch at the same time. Something I don't think many NHL fans do. Before this season I never watched anything but rangers games, and this is just my opinion, but it isn't totally impossible for the league to grow it has all the workings. It has a lot of history in many of the bigger markets in america (MA, Minnesota, Michigan, New York state, PA). Then again it might not... but like the poster above said, it's worth a shot, atleast from the NHL owners point of view. I wont even say I am a hardcore fan as much as many of you guys are, to be honest I didn't care much for hockey in a long time, but once football was over I decided to watch hockey (since the NBA product is really really horrible now) and I got hooked. I guess Im what you call a casual fan.

 

[lemieux32*]

Of course the hockey draft will never be "as big" as the basketball or NFL draft- for pete's sake you have a whole month of "March Madness" and there is wall to wall satuaration of college football for months in the fall. What I'm saying and maybe some others are is that let's at least TRY some different approaches like some games on OLN or other projects- they won't get the ratings of some of the other sports but even if it starts to grow some more casual viewership to start to watch isn't that some small victory to help grow the NHL and lower league and college hockey.

So why are you arguing with me? I never said not to try to do things, I simply said that the NHL draft won't become a big thing like the NFL or NBA drafts for the reasons I listed. I am all for showing as much hockey as possible. I'll watch just about any hockey on TV.

 

[puck57]

It is a major sport, in my opinion. I know they don't got a billion dollar national tv contract and the ratings aren't great, but the league does make a lot of money and I know regionally (If your in a hockey market) if your in the playoffs people obviously care. I mean the league isn't poor or anything they do still make a lot of money even with no tv contract, their stands are packed night in and night out. Last I checked the NHL does well regionally, and the point is to get all those regions to watch at the same time. Something I don't think many NHL fans do. Before this season I never watched anything but rangers games, and this is just my opinion, but it isn't totally impossible for the league to grow it has all the workings. It has a lot of history in many of the bigger markets in america (MA, Minnesota, Michigan, New York state, PA). Then again it might not... but like the poster above said, it's worth a shot, atleast from the NHL owners point of view. I wont even say I am a hardcore fan as much as many of you guys are, to be honest I didn't care much for hockey in a long time, but once football was over I decided to watch hockey (since the NBA product is really really horrible now) and I got hooked. I guess Im what you call a casual fan.

To be viable long term the NHL will have to have a much better tv contract than what it has now. TV is the main way for sports league to remain and really to grow to any extent in the long scheme of things. TV is the golden cow so to speak- you can have packed attendance and a ravid small core of regional fans but to be a big time national sport you need good tv exposure. It will be interesting in a few years or so just to see what the NHL's tv landscape looks like after the new CBA is in effect for 2 or 3 seasons.

 

[OG6ix]

To be viable long term the NHL will have to have a much better tv contract than what it has now. TV is the main way for sports league to remain and really to grow to any extent in the long scheme of things. TV is the golden cow so to speak- you can have packed attendance and a ravid small core of regional fans but to be a big time national sport you need good tv exposure. It will be interesting in a few years or so just to see what the NHL's tv landscape looks like after the new CBA is in effect for 2 or 3 seasons.

This whole CDA was made to keep the league stable. Also I know as americans we tend to think that there is nothing surrounding our borders but, as john buccigross said in one of his articles, if Canada was a part of america than Hockey would be more popular than Basketball and baseball. Not to mention across the ocean Hockey is played in many international countries. I dunno, I could care less about what the US media thinks. ESPN "the world wide leader of sports" was showing Red Sox vs Blue Jays last night and they showed some Latin guy on the screen saying it was J.P. Richardi when it wasn't. The funny thing was they had the caption saying his name and the announcers went on about him. I mean c'mon...

 

[HockeyEh]

Start showing CHL/NCAA games. Why are the NBA and NFL drafts such big events? Because they get lots of college games on TV, that way people start to get more familiar with the players and it drums up more interest.

I'm not sure if it's an option but OLN doesn't have anything better to show anyways!

In addition to the reasons already identified in other responses (including, in particular, the lag between the time players are drafted and when they "graduate" to the NHL), you should also take this into consideration: a substantial percentage of NHL draftees come from foreign leagues, and a fair number are drafted out of high school. Televising CHL/NCAA games isn't going to do anything to make those players more familiar. And it's nearly impossible to imagine that even OLN could survive the ratings hit that would come if they tried to televise US high school hockey or Czech league play.

 

[NYR469]

Start showing CHL/NCAA games. Why are the NBA and NFL drafts such big events? Because they get lots of college games on TV, that way people start to get more familiar with the players and it drums up more interest.

I'm not sure if it's an option but OLN doesn't have anything better to show anyways!

i've said the same thing for years, guys drafted in the nfl/nba are household names prior to the draft in the nhl lots of guys already in the nhl are still unknown...the nhl will never get to the same level as the nba or nfl but they can improve greatly on what they are now and thats really only thing that matters...

but if nhl games don't get ratings why would anyone show junior games??

i think the best place to attempt this is thru the center ice package since anyone with that is clearly a hockey fan and would be interested...

next year we are supposed to finally get the nhl network in the us and an idea similar to this is definitely something that they should be looking into...not simply showing games but do features on young players both soon to be drafted guys and guys in the nhl...run features to promote and sell the ovechkins, kovalchuks, etc of the league to make them more known to the average joe...and the number of people that would tune into a minnesota gopher game might not be that high, but i bet if you did a 1/2 hour feature on phil kessel showing his highlights and giving a background on him lots of fans would be interested.

 

[Stevedude530]

I'll be getting an email from OLN tomorrow on their Draft Plans. He confirmed they ARE airing it, just whether or not they'll be covering it.

 

[Randall Graves*]

I, obviously, love hockey, but to deny that hockey fans want hockey to be one of the "big four" sports is to sheild your eyes from the obvious. Go back through the archives and see how many people complained about the NHL signing with OLN...because the NHL "deserves" a major network deal. Sorry, but if you have been paying attention you would know this. It's not about not liking something because others don't. Do true NHL fans want to see the draft? Many do. Does that mean it's as big or will ever be as big as the NBA and NFL drafts? No, for the three reasons I originally mentioned.

It doesn't have to be that big. I think alot of the hardcore fans would love to watch the young prospects of the game, get more familiar with their games and personalities. You've gotta get the names out in the news. I'd like to see each NHL team's website find a way to webcast their minor league games as well.