Should Las Vegas have a midnight game promotion?

[oilersfan87]

Since many people in Las Vegas work at times that the team would usually play at, the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL occasionally played games at midnight. Do you think the NHL should look at doing something similar to this, in an attempt to get new fans into hockey that might otherwise not be able to attend or watch?

Click to read more...

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

I don't think it's necessary. But I think it'd be funny if they did it with an Eastern Conference team.

 

[Deif]

Since many people in Las Vegas work at times that the team would usually play at, the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL occasionally played games at midnight. Do you think the NHL should look at doing something similar to this, in an attempt to get new fans into hockey that might otherwise not be able to attend or watch?

The players would hate this.

 

[Boris Zubov]

That's something better served for an IHL team.

Would never happen & it's not needed at the NHL level.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

That's a minor league gimmick. I can't imagine either the NHL or NHLPA going along with such a thing.

That said...doing it against an Eastern Conference team would just be cruel

 

[Fenway]

Will never happen because of VISITING team television.

East Coast teams would be looking at a 3 AM start - and even a west coast team would squawk about Midnight.

You might see some 4 PM starts however as the eastern teams would love those.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I'd say no, mostly because one of the first things you'll want to do in Vegas is make the team kid-friendly. You want to build up a generation of Vegas NHL fans who aren't transplants/transients, and marketing to kids is the best way to do this.

Not many families want to drag tired kids to a midnight game...

 

[HanSolo]

Nah. It was fun with the ECHL but you can afford to focus on fun in a c tier league.

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

I don't even like playing beer league at midnight

 

[Hynh]

I don't think it's necessary. But I think it'd be funny if they did it with an Eastern Conference team.

This would be a great way to get revenge for all those terrible saturday afternoon games they make western teams play

 

[tarheelhockey]

Of course they could. The Vegas team should be oriented around doing everything that the other organizations wouldn't even consider.

Have a midnight game with 10 cent beers. Go for it.

 

[jwhouk]

Might be an idea for a pre-season game. Regular season... not so much.

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

Nooooo

 

[talkinaway]

I'd love Fenway's idea of a 4 PM game, as would most of the east coast. There would be so many good things about it, especially if they're playing a local EC team:

1) Gives a nice jet-lag bridge to the team. Starting a road trip with a Vegas game at 4 PM, and then playing the next game against Arizona, Colorado, or doing the California trip, with games at 7 PM local, would be just about as close to ideal as you could get.

2) Gives fans in the East a chance to watch a game without coming to work with a sleep hangover. (Or an actual hangover - I'm a Bruins fan, so I've been drinkin'...)

3) Gives local Vegas workers a chance to see the team. I have no idea if having a game get out at around 7 would be reasonable for casino workers. I've got a cousin who's a cop, and his shifts went from midnight-8, 8-4, or 4-midnight. But I imagine casinos are way more flexible, and maybe they have 8 PM - (3 +/- 1) AM shifts. Are casinos busy at 6? Do they need workers there before 7? Heck, you could schedule a 2 PM or 3 PM game if that's the case.

As far asa midnight game, that might be cute, but....nah.

 

[McManked]

You'd think there would be something in the CBA that would prevent this, no?

Or at least I can't imagine the league approving it. As someone else said, seems very minor league baseball-y.

 

[Deif]

You'd think there would be something in the CBA that would prevent this, no?

Or at least I can't imagine the league approving it. As someone else said, seems very minor league baseball-y.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Sun_Game

 

[Mike Jones]

I remember Bob McCown (Of Sportsnet's Primetime Sports) talking about making this suggestion as part of his failed attempt at bringing a CFL expansion franchise to Vegas. His reasoning was that the busiest time in Vegas is something like 3-4 A.M. People could go to the game at midnight and hit the clubs when it was done.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Of course they could. The Vegas team should be oriented around doing everything that the other organizations wouldn't even consider.

Have a midnight game with 10 cent beers. Go for it.

 

[willy702]

It was a total gimmick that didn't even draw a big crowd. It drew media interest, something every minor league team craves.

The whole shift worker thing is overrated and I can't believe some brought it up as an issue for the teams success. It's really only a modest percentage of the workforce who is working during normal game times. So they might not be season ticket holders, but they do get two or three days off a week when they could attend. It's not like they are never going to have a chance to go. Besides everyone who really believes Vegas is people working all sorts of hours should go look at traffic patterns on Google maps. It's like any other city, rush hour traffic is exactly the same time and same pattern of driving into the core in the morning and driving to the suburbs in the afternoon.

 

[BattleBorn]

It was a total gimmick that didn't even draw a big crowd. It drew media interest, something every minor league team craves.

The whole shift worker thing is overrated and I can't believe some brought it up as an issue for the teams success. It's really only a modest percentage of the workforce who is working during normal game times. So they might not be season ticket holders, but they do get two or three days off a week when they could attend. It's not like they are never going to have a chance to go. Besides everyone who really believes Vegas is people working all sorts of hours should go look at traffic patterns on Google maps. It's like any other city, rush hour traffic is exactly the same time and same pattern of driving into the core in the morning and driving to the suburbs in the afternoon.

Exactly, while I'm sure we have a larger percentage of people working night shifts, as a true percentage of the actual population it's still a pretty small amount on any given night.

Like you said, people have days off and the vast majority of people work normal or normal-ish hours, especially the people in the usual hockey demographic.

 

[joeyabs]

No. Absolutely not. this is the cheesy, gimmicky type of thing Vegas has to avoid.

 

[ponder719]

As has been mentioned before, the only way for this to make sense is as a preseason game, and certainly not until the team's established.

A possibility to make it work: LV vs. their AHL affiliate in an early pre-season game.

Afternoon starts against visiting Eastern Conference teams, though: brilliant. That's the kind of thing that would get EC fans watching and paying close attention to LV, and would make them instantly more recognizable (not exactly the word I want, but I'm trying very hard to avoid "palatable") to a portion of the league fanbase that doesn't get to see a lot of the WC teams.

 

[calvegas04]

Afternoon starts against visiting Eastern Conference teams, though: brilliant. That's the kind of thing that would get EC fans watching and paying close attention to LV, and would make them instantly more recognizable (not exactly the word I want, but I'm trying very hard to avoid "palatable") to a portion of the league fanbase that doesn't get to see a lot of the WC teams.

Afternoon games would take away from the Vegas and west coast fanbase

 

[JPeeper]

I don't think it's necessary. But I think it'd be funny if they did it with an Eastern Conference team.

lol, if people thought 8:30pm PST times were bad out east, just imagine midnight games. Waking up at 3am/staying up til 3am to watch your team get blown out would be soul crushing.

 

[Not So Mighty]

Not a chance. That does nothing but damage TV ratings and annoy players.