Comments on an NHL related article on ESPN's web site - Selling the NHL in a Post Lockout Environment (Part 1)

Ok let's face it, Selling the NHL in a US market where the WNBA gets better ratings than the NHL would probably keep the average advertiser and publicists from working with the owners. It's probably an impossible task right? It's been done before. The task of taking a product that the American public wouldn't look twice at, investing money into the correct marketing of the product and then watching the cashflow come back to the investors ten fold. It can be done.

I'll use two examples of selling a product and watching the $$$ roll in:

Nascar
Country Music, specifically Country Music Television.

I don't know if any of you have ever read Tony Robbins books or not. I'm sure you've seen him on QVC or on infomercials. Anyways, one of his ingredients for success is to find people or parties that in some way have become successful in certain areas. If you're interested in Business or Real Estate you may want to research about Donald Trump and how he became successful. If you're interested in Becoming a pro basketball player, perhaps you'd research the careers of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. You get the point.

This same theory can be applied to the NHL to better the game.

Let's start with Nascar.

At one point in time Nascar wasn't even a blip on the Radar of Sports Networks. Repeats of the 'World's Strongest Man' shows, in the past, would have gotten better ratings than live Nascar events.

Enter Fox Sports (among others) investing time and money into the education of the sport. I don't remember a time on the Fox Regional Sports Networks where they didn't have some sort of show that taught people about the sport. It took some time but as you can see, Nascar is gaining popularity in the TV ratings across the US.

IMO, This is the first example of what needs to be modeled and applied to the NHL.

Country Music

Now you're probably asking yourself what does Country Music have to do with the NHL? First off, look at the rise in record sales versus pop music. In this day and age, Country Music out sells pop music by a great margin. It didn't used to be that way.
During my last hiatus from being employed (being a career contractor tends to have periods of unemployment), I took a long and hard look at how Country music is being sold to the masses.

I watched quite a large sample of shows and Country Music Television did an excellent job of bringing in people who weren't normally country fans. I'm only going to give one example of the types of methods that were applied to bring in new fans to Country Music because I like my weekends and I don't want to be typing all weekend.

Next time the show 'Crossroads' is on, sit down and watch it. The show is the bringing together of an artist from the Pop/Rock vein and matching them up with a Country Star. It's a pretty good show. The best ones were the ones with Ray Charles and John Mellencamp. Anyhoo, this show not only exposes pop/rock fans to country music but it also gives Country Fans a good listen to pop/rock music.

The methods that the Country Music Industry is using to bring in more fans is definitely worth studying for potential application to the NHL.

Let's face it you can't argue with the results of Nascar and Country Music Sales.

In my next post I'll offer some suggestions to better market the game. Including rule changes, commercials

I'm working on it. I'm working on it.

I'm still working on my reply to the ESPN NHL article. Just looking up facts at the moment.

A note to the NHL about the failed ESPN negotiations

I read this article:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=126633

...this week and it occurs to me that if you can't bring a game that originated in Canada to the US based Cable/satellite channels, why can't you bring the Canadian Hockey Channels (CBC, TSN, and/or Sportsnet) to the US Cable markets?

Detroit/Miami - Game 3 On now

I've got the Detroit/Miami game on now while I'm typing up my next Hockey blog entry. Detroit is owning the boards on both ends of the court early on....never mind.

Comments on an NHL related article on ESPN's web site

I was poking around some sports related sites and came across this article by ESPN NHL anchor John Buccigross. The article, entitled 'State of Hockey isn't Bettman's fault' can be found here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=2057114


So as I'm watching repeats of Drag Racing I'd thought I'd begin writing my proverbial 'blog book'.

I'm a passionate hockey fan who is deeply concerned about not only the state of Hockey in the United States but the state of the NHL.

I'm not a reporter and I'm not 'connected' to anyone in the NHL or Hockey in General but I am an analyst of everything I see, hear, or read. One of my great talents is that I draw in all sorts of information that is available to me and give my opinion of certain topics. Unfortunately, some of the information that is available to the media or the NHL isn't always available to the general public so keep in mind what I'm working with.

Frankly, I'm sure that there's alot of what's going on during the CBA that will never be available to the public. I personally don't have an opinion on who's right and who's wrong in the CBA negotiations. I know at first I did but now I don't. It's not that I'm keeping my mouth shut about the CBA it's that I just don't have enough facts to make a comment either way. I will say this, the way things are going, the NHL won't be able to be successful in the future and it needs to be fixed NOW!.

In response to the question that Mr. Buccigross asks in his article:

"Should Bettman Remain as commissoner, yes or no?"

Look, it's not my place to say wether or not he should go or not. As stated before, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes so I can't fully comment on wether or not he should stay as commissoner or not or gage his performance based on some rating scale. I will however, state my opinion on what I have seen and the information I've been able to gather from various sources.

Let's start with Mr. Buccigross's 'stereotypes' of Mr. Bettman:

1) He's an NBA Guy.

He was an NBA guy who was hired away from the NBA to put an NBA style salary cap into the NHL after the NHL couldn't hire away David Stern and the #2 NBA man at the time. (Stan Fischler's Book about the Previous CBA)

3) He de-emphasized fighting and alinated the hard core fan.

Let me ask you all this. If Wayne Gretzky were in his prime in today's NHL (if there was a season), do you honestly think that he would be scoring as many (or more goals and assists) in today's NHL as he did when he played with the Oilers? No, he get pounded, trapped, and basically slowed down.

Come on, let's be honest about this. A lack of production would more than likely happen in today's NHL the way the current set of rules are.

I don't beleive for a second that there could be any way Gretzky could have been as successful now, against the players and the teams today, than during his actual playing career. Back then, he had players protecting him and the rules in the NHL allowed the players to police themselves on the ice. The players today are bigger, stronger, and faster (insert the 'Six Million Dollar Man' theme here).

Now add to the mix, the 'de-emphasizing' of fighting in the game and the other related rule changes during Bettman's tenure.

So basically, the NHL took the 'policing' of the game by the players out of the mix. Fine. I don't have any problem with that. The NHL Brass is now in charge of policing the players and teams.

**Disclaimer**
Now, I will say that I'm a Vancouver Canucks fan and I am biased towards them as well. Most people will write off what I have to say next as being too pro-Vancouver and any other related comment. I could give a rat's ass what they have to say. With the examples I'm about to give I simply can't think of any other example to use excpet for what I saw.


During the last full Regular Season, St. Louis Blues player Doug Weight, during a game in St. Louis cross checked Vancouver Canucks player Henrik Sedin in the face with his hockey stick (he basically blind sided Sedin). This cost Weight four games and 180K (US) in wages.


Here's a link to the Story about Weight's Suspension:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1656656


Ok, now think for a second what would happen if something like that happend in the old days of the NHL? Do you think that the players would just sit and do nothing? Furthermore, what would have happened if the NHL didn't fine Weight (in Today's NHL)? There would have been a throwdown in GM Place the next time St. Louis came to Vancouver. But, the NHL stepped in, suspended Weight, case closed.


Now could you argue that the Moore/Bertuzzi incident could have been avoided if Moore had been suspended with his hit on Naslund in Denver? If memory serves, Naslund was out for quite some time with a concussion and, after they were eliminated by the Flames in the playoffs, it was made public that he did get a body injury as a result of Moore's hit in Denver.


4) He expanded too much and too fast.

I agree with Mr. Buccigross in the sense that it is indeed too complex of a question to tackle.

However, you can't deny that the state of the NHL today is partially a result of the quick expansion of teams. A quick expansion of teams in the sense that with said rapid expansion, there was little to any effort to market the game. Nothing personal, but is an NHL commercial with Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan the way you want to sell the NHL to the masses?

More on this in my next post.

US Players Getting Schooled at the French Open

Is it me or do the ranking US Tennis players need to get their chops up on clay courts. I mean come on, Roger Federer is 12-1 on clay this year and Andy Roddick has historically played horrible on Clay. I don't think there are any Men's players left at the French Open, are there?

Sixers Hire Mo Cheeks

Well, if Mo Cheeks can take a bunch of misfits (beleive me 'misfts' is way too nice of a word) that you all knew as the Portland Trailblazers and turn them into a half way decent team one could assume that Mo Cheeks is going to do wonders for the sixers.

So the question I have to ask is when AI acts up with Cheeks, and history sez that he will, what will the Sixers do?

IMO, the Sixers would have two choices:

1) Trade AI to the Clippers, Warriors or some cruddy team for Draft Picks and a bag of basketballs.
2) As noted in the comments section in the web link below, Fire Cheeks and make AI the Sixers player-coach.

If/when AI acts up the Sixers, IMO, have only one option and it ain't #2.

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story.asp?id=125798

The Memorial Cup Begins!

The Memorial Cup is going to be one of the best Hockey tournaments of the year that no one in the US will not get to see or hear (I haven't been able to find a link to listen to the memorial cup games yet).

This one is probably one of the best Tournaments in a very long time especially with:

- The Kelowna Rockets being the defending Memorial Cup Champions and WHL Champions
- The London Knights the Hosts of the Memorial Cup and OHL Champions
- The Ottawa 67's Representing the OHL

...and finally

- Rimouski Oceanic who has a player by the name of Sydney Crosby. For those of you who live below the US/Canada Border or may not have heard of Sydney Crosby he is playing and being billed as the second coming of Wayne Gretzky. Of course, no one in the US will be able to see this tournament to see why.

How much attention is Sydney Crosby getting and why?

As of the 20th of May the Canadian Hockey League had 347 media accreditation requests for the Memorial Cup.

This past regular season (62 games) he scored sixty-six goals, one hundred two assists, and a +/- of 78.

Are ya catching on now?

ESPN and many of the other sports outlets in the US are missing out on probably the most talented and best hockey tournament short of the NHL playoffs, and the World Junior Hockey Championships.

The Future of the Seattle Supersonics

I was watching ESPN's Cold Pizza the other day before work and the topic came up of the future of the Sonics specifically Ray Allen and Coach Nate McMillan both of whom are free agents at the end of the summer.

The media seem to think that both are going to Cleveland to be with LeBron James. When this topic seems to come up it usually follows with the typical sports media person proverbially drooling at the mouth of all the possibilities of a Cleveland superstar team.

The one thing everyone keeps forgetting is that Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks owns the Sonics. He's not going to let either Ray Allen or Nate McMillan go very easily if at all. Do you all forget who the Sonics gave up to bring Ray Allen to Seattle?

Earth to ESPN...come in ESPN!

I would think that by now you all would have had some plan in place to monitor Woody Paige's sugar intake.

Back from Hiatus!

I'm back from hiatus and will be posting some stuff in the next couple of days.

Stay tuned...