The Fall of Hockey or NHL-SOL
The last straw has been snapped. The main television networks would not cover the Stanley Cup Finals in their entirety for this classic Pittsburgh versus Detroit rematch. Gary Bettman and the NHL gave the rights to NBC for free.
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What has this sports world come to? Last year, NHL viewership on the much made fun of Versus network actually earned a higher market share than the NBA games it went up against, on average. Hockey is certainly not a dead or dieing sport in this country yet somehow, due to two fatal marketing mistakes by NHL higher-ups, we are all suffering now.
ESPN used to carry quite a bit of hockey coverage but when the NHL decided to prey on the then owner of Disney, ABC and ESPN (Michael Eisner) for his love of the game (as well as owning the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) everything changed. They demanded more money to broadcast hockey games despite a lower market share at the time against the other sports. Somehow overnight, there would be no more coverage of hockey.
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Here is the conspiracy theory portion. Perhaps with Bettman and the NHL going up against Eisner, ABC and ESPN, this somehow tied on the FOX network who then dropped their weekend coverage of hockey games. This was a real shame, not because of their incredibly annoying glowing puck technology, but because they broadcasted in higher quality sound with “sounds of the game.” If a game was on FOX, you actually got to hear everything on the ice.
So, what will it take for the NHL to make amends with everyone? While Versus does a good job of broadcasting hockey when they show some games, speaking for hockey fans, we miss Thursday Night Hockey and the FOX Game of the Week. I can’t even tell you how much money I’ve wasted on hockey jerseys trying to relive the good old days. The NHL should stop with the ad campaigns and get back to building relationships with the broadcasting networks.
