NHL marketing brain-trust strikes again

[Viper]

The Penguins and Capitals are playing today on NBC, showcasing the game's two biggest rising stars, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin on national TV.

Too bad the NHL scheduled this game to be played at the same time as one of the biggest sporting events of the year, meaning that even a lot of people who are already hockey fans won't be tuning in, much less the "unconverted" casual sports fans the league is trying to attract.

Yes I know there's TiVo, but probably the only people who will bother to TiVo a hockey game are existing fans.

There's been a lot of discussion in this forum about what the NHL is doing wrong or ought to do differently. Well, how about putting "not trying to compete head-to-head with major events in other established sports" at the top of the list?

[Pat]

Welcome to the NHL, the worst run sports league in the continent. Is there any question as to why many Americans don't even consider the NHL a major league any more?

Its a crying shame!

[jkrdevil]

The game starts at 3:30 The Daytona 500 should be over for most of the game.

But yea it's dumb. Although it's not both the Penguins and Caps are playoff teams. The Pens are but the Caps are on of the worst teams in the league, that takes some of the meaning out of the game.

[Taylor R.]

i'm a NHL fan but i do agree that it's not smart to schedule games at the same time as bigger events

[Viper]

The game starts at 3:30 The Daytona 500 should be over for most of the game.

But yea it's dumb. Although it's not both the Penguins and Caps are playoff teams. The Pens are but the Caps are on of the worst teams in the league, that takes some of the meaning out of the game.

The 500 starts at 2pm Eastern time. The race usually runs between 3 and 4 hours (depending on weather, cautions, etc.) so anyone watching that would miss at least the first half of the game, if not the entire first two periods.

[Fred T. Jane]

How about actually broadcasting games when I'm not in a semi-comatose state? Perhaps I'd actually watch them then instead of having to choose between the 387th matchup of the Stars vs. Blues vs. Red Wings vs. Avalanche vs. Sharks (We get the combination of those five every week. Thankfully they're the only 5 teams in the NHL...) of the season and taking a Sunday afternoon siesta...

[floydnimrod]

Actually pre race starts at 2 ET and the race starts at 3:15 ET. stupid scheduling on the NHL's part

[jkrdevil]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

[espo]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

The Penguins game isn't the overall national game. I am in Arizona and getting the blackhawks and rangers. This is ridiculous.

[OMMF]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

The Penguins game isn't the overall national game. I am in Arizona and getting the blackhawks and rangers. This is ridiculous.

Then your station must have changed it.

http://www.nbcsports.com/download/2007/0215/1056177.pdf

[espo]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

The Penguins game isn't the overall national game. I am in Arizona and getting the blackhawks and rangers. This is ridiculous.

Then your station must have changed it.

http://www.nbcsports.com/download/2007/0215/1056177.pdf

This is odd in the middle of the rangers game they switched over to the pens game but it's not in hd now.

[NJTank]

Gary Bettman is sabotaging this league the more and more I see things like this the more and more I'm convinced.

[jkrdevil]

Gary Bettman is sabotaging this league the more and more I see things like this the more and more I'm convinced.

Yes, Tank he is sabotaging the league by actually having games on network TV unlike his predecessor.

[DEAD!]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

I was going to make a point in that TV networks often put some of their best shows up against one another in particular timeslots a lot. Perhaps the thinking is that they know a lot of people will watch TV that day and at some point, someone will change the channel to the hockey game whereas if it was just an ordinary Sunday, then fewer would even think about watching TV.

[Phil]

Gary Bettman is sabotaging this league the more and more I see things like this the more and more I'm convinced.

Yes, Tank he is sabotaging the league by actually having games on network TV unlike his predecessor.

His predecessor? You can't compare Bettman to his predecessor... completely different eras.

When Bettman took over, the Avalanche still spoke french, the Dallas Stars were the new kids on the block, and the Jets had yet to fly south. That was almost 15 years ago. Times have changed.

Bettman was handed a league on the rise, flying past basketball to become the third most popular sport on the US map. Now it's only slightly ahead of lawn darts and crokinole (no slight to those two). The salary cap has been the first thing Bettman has done right - most other CEO's wouldn't get 12 free-falling years to finally get something right.

[Squeaks4]

Well it's also the time slot NBC has available because of prior commitments to the PGA (which is on now). They also probably requested this match-up for today to try and go up as best they can with the 500. Plus if the race starts at 3:15 there is a chance a person would watch the hockey then when that's over flip on the race. After all how much can someone just watch cars go around in a circle? That's a rhetorical question.

The Penguins game isn't the overall national game. I am in Arizona and getting the blackhawks and rangers. This is ridiculous.

Then your station must have changed it.

http://www.nbcsports.com/download/2007/0215/1056177.pdf

This is odd in the middle of the rangers game they switched over to the pens game but it's not in hd now.

I am in Scottsdale and got Pens Vs Caps...At least on the NBCHD channel. Do you have Cox or Dish?

[jkrdevil]

Gary Bettman is sabotaging this league the more and more I see things like this the more and more I'm convinced.

Yes, Tank he is sabotaging the league by actually having games on network TV unlike his predecessor.

His predecessor? You can't compare Bettman to his predecessor... completely different eras.

When Bettman took over, the Avalanche still spoke french, the Dallas Stars were the new kids on the block, and the Jets had yet to fly south. That was almost 15 years ago. Times have changed.

Bettman was handed a league on the rise, flying past basketball to become the third most popular sport on the US map. Now it's only slightly ahead of lawn darts and crokinole (no slight to those two). The salary cap has been the first thing Bettman has done right - most other CEO's wouldn't get 12 free-falling years to finally get something right.

Flying past basketball please... There is a thread on HF on the infamous Si cover that said the NHL's hot and the NBA's not. Inside they had the numbers, the Cup Finals numbers that year in the States was a 1.8 on ESPN where the NBA Finals that year did a 12.6 on NBC. It wasn't even close to surpassing Basketball as far as popularity goes in the States. It was only that year the the NHL got on network TV after about 15 years, and it wouldn't be until the next year it got some of the Championship games on network TV.

All that article was 1 persons opinion on the states of the games at that time and had nothing to do with popularity. In fact it compliments Bettman on the stuff hockey fans vilify him for. You can make a strong case that hockey is more popular now in the States than then.

Here is the HF thread in question.

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=346372

[NJTank]

After the 1994 playoffs he decides to lock the league out while baseball is losing the World Series, that was the most horrific time possible.

The 1994 playoffs were the best ever, and helped get a Network deal without baseball fans would have latched on to hockey earlier and the league would have continued to rise.

[jkrdevil]

After the 1994 playoffs he decides to lock the league out while baseball is losing the World Series, that was the most horrific time possible.

The 1994 playoffs were the best ever, and helped get a Network deal without baseball fans would have latched on to hockey earlier and the league would have continued to rise.

I don't understand the baseball fan latching on argument. The 2 sports take place at completely different times of the year. There is only overlap at the beginning/end of each season. I highly doubt that a disgruntled baseball fan would have filled the void with hockey because hockey couldn't fill the void. Why couldn't they latch on even if baseball didn't go on strike?

The sport to compare to is Basketball because the two take place at the exact same time and whose seasons are the same length.

I agree the 94-95 lockout was ill timed and not good in the long run, mainly because it didn't accomplish anything. But you can't say it is the cause of hockey lack of popularity. That goes back a long way to the beginning of the 80's.

[-Helix-]

Bettman was handed a league on the rise, flying past basketball to become the third most popular sport on the US map.

Haha. Good one.

If you're serious I wonder where you would've gotten an idea like that.

At the point of the NHL's highest ever popularity in 94 with the Rangers in the Finals about to break their curse: The Stanley Cup Finals were on (lowly, obscure back then) ESPN. Meanwhile, the NBA finals, taking place at about the same time, were on ABC. A major network.

The NBA had a rating of 12.6

NHL had a 1.8

Yep... "on the rise, flying past basketball" alright.

The little popularity it did gain on the NBA was due to the NHL video games which were very popular and the fact that most of the NBA's big stars had just retired and the NBA playoffs of 94 were considered some of the worst ever.

And don't give me the "well atleast they were indisputable number 4 back then, now they're not even that" BS.

The NHL didn't have any competition for the number 4 spot back then. NASCAR, soccer, lacrosse, arena football, etc. were not even on the radar back then. And college sports were also far less popular than they are now.

But yeah, Bettman has run this league into the ground alright. Personally, I'm surprised the NHL is doing as well as it is considering sports like lacrosse and soccer are much easier to play and are growing rapidly. Hockey however is on the decline at the youth level and is very expensive and demanding. More high schools have lacrosse teams than hockey teams.

NASCAR has also grown into the north and tried to stay away from their "redneck" roots in order to make the league be taken more seriously and seem professional.

That said, I'm not sure why we're complaining about the NHL in a thread about what NBC did. If NBC wants to compete with the Daytona 500 let them. They're showing the NHL for free anyway so I doubt they care.