TOR vs PIT

[chara]

you start loosing american located teams-kiss any chance of a lucrative tv deal goodbye. no american media outlet is going to feature toronto vs ottawa. Teams fold in the US, you just locked hockey as a niche sport with no coverage outside of Canada and some larger US markets

An excellent point.

Bettman & Co. do not want teams folding, American or Canadian. Only 20 years ago, the NBA was on the verge of collapsing all together. A salary cap system plus agressive marketing of the product not only saved the NBA but now it is absolutely thriving.

The NHL owners are looking at hockey 20 years from now. In order for it to succeed in the 21st century, it has to change its economic model. Period. The NHLPA better get on board sooner than later because the deal that's on the table could look worse (ex. guaranteed contracts could become a thing of the past with teams allowed to buy out players at say 20% to get under the cap)....

 

[I.am.ca]

An excellent point.

Bettman & Co. do not want teams folding, American or Canadian. Only 20 years ago, the NBA was on the verge of collapsing all together. A salary cap system plus agressive marketing of the product not only saved the NBA but now it is absolutely thriving.

The NHL owners are looking at hockey 20 years from now. In order for it to succeed in the 21st century, it has to change its economic model. Period. The NHLPA better get on board sooner than later because the deal that's on the table could look worse (ex. guaranteed contracts could become a thing of the past with teams allowed to buy out players at say 20% to get under the cap)....

Well you do see alot of rappers and singers wearing basketball jersies and other merchanise from the NBA all over the place, the NHL jersies will be rarely seen in video's....i think the NHL does well with his merchandising and gets enough exposure here in Canada, in the states it might be alot different as its not one of the top sports in that country. Here its going to be shown in commercials like gillette or speedstick to relate to canadians, in the states they'll see a basketball player, baseball player, or football player first then maybe a hockey player depending on the city if its the only sports team they have.

I never even noticed the NBA doing bad, the league has had guys like Jordan, Shaq, Kobe, Hakeem, Magic Johnson and various other stars to keep the sport alive and well with fans coming to games to see these guys play.


I think your thinking about the MLB, they have been trying to get their fans back for the past 10years and are now finally starting to do pretty decent.

 

[Lionel Hutz]

Well yeah, but that's the same in pretty much all the threads. :lol

Granted, but this one is especially absurd.

 

[shakes]

Have fun in your 6 team league, because if everyone thought like you thats all that would be left.

Yeah, maybe we could give it a neat little name like "Original Six".. oh wait..

 

[Jets4Life]

How was hockey before the lucrative TV deal?

I remember hockey doing pretty well in 1990 when it wasn't on fox, i remember that ABC or Fox when they showed hockey on normal cable it blew big time, was nothing near CBC, TSN, SN in comparison to coverage and commentating.

Hockey folds in the states...would the people even notice? They'd mourn for 2mins before the baseball/football/basketball game is on tv.

In the 80's, Hockey had a good deal with ESPN. The sport grew in the US, especially with the Gretzky trade, and ESPN showed many high-quality games. Then along came "SportsChannel America", with their 3 year deal that paid more to the NHL for TV rights, but was not even remotely close to ESPN in terms of size and access for US TV Households.

THe NHL expected SCA to "mushroom" into a major US TV network, which never happened. After the deal was over, the NHL went back to ESPN in 1992-93, and shortly after signed a deal with Fox.

 

[Robert Paulson*]

Last year it was

http://www.kenn.com/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl_2004_attendance.html

Rk Team Average
1 Montreal 20,555
2 Detroit 20,066
3 Toronto 19,377
4 Philadelphia 19,375
5 Vancouver 18,631
6 St. Louis 18,560
7 Minnesota 18,531
8 Dallas 18,355
9 NY Rangers 18,081
10 Colorado 18,007
11 Los Angeles 17,877
12 Tampa Bay 17,820
13 Ottawa 17,759
14 Edmonton 17,678
15 Columbus 17,369
16 Calgary 16,580
17 Florida 15,936
18 San Jose 15,836
19 Phoenix 15,469
20 Buffalo 15,290
21 Boston 15,133
22 Atlanta 15,121
23 New Jersey 15,060
24 Anaheim 14,987
25 Washington 14,720
26 NY Islanders 13,456
27 Chicago 13,253
28 Nashville 13,157
29 Carolina 12,086
30 Pittsburgh 11,877

I want to see the Penguins live and be healthy. They have dedicated fans, they'll come back as soon as the team is winning (much like most teams) and hit 16,000+ without a doubt. I can't blame them for now showing up last year, the team was terrible. As your numbers showed, give them a reason and they'll be back.

See, half the teams in this league had a higher average attendance last year than our arena can hold at max :lol
That's why we need a new arena. Pittsburghers "on the bubble" of being hockey fans are much more likely to go to a game if the arena is nice. Just look at our baseball team, the Pirates.

 

[Epsilon]

I think that I smell a red herring rotting. The question is not 'saving' this team or that team but saving the league. How can a rigged system where some teams can acquire more talent to compete year in year out be called a 'sport'? Example, the Yankees may not win every year, but when was the last time that they did not make the playoffs? The Red Sox? . . . yeah, that is what we need in the NHL. The truth is that no league can survive that kind of competitive imbalance forever.

In reality those in the cities who have total player salaries a small fraction of those on the 'blessed' cities are the ones who are supporting those rich cities, not the other way around. The fans in the cities with 25 million dollar payrolls pay $40 dollars and more . . . for what? To subsidize those in the Detroits and Colorados of the world so that they can have a league where they can see an all star team compete year in year out and pat themselves on the back for being so brilliant to have a team with a payroll approaching $100 million beat up on teams with payrolls a quarter of that amount. Why not pay to see Mike Tyson beat up a three year old girl and call that a sport too.

Sports should be seen as analogous to the movies. It is entertainment, and yes, in NY they may pay $15 to see the same movie that I pay $8 to see, but when I go I see the same LOTR movie that they see in NY as it should be. But if the movies were like some of you 'fans' (and I use the term loosely) want, then when I paid my $8 I would see a puppet show instead put on by local high school kids. If the NHL goes the route that you all wish I will take my entertainment dollars elsewhere, as will everyone in all but 4 or 5 markets and you see what kind of 'sport' you have then.

Pretty funny to see one of the board's most hardcore Republicans talking like a communist.