2010-11 NHL Season Thread

[Sport]

As far as I know, winning championships make franchises a success, its not all attendance and TV ratings.

Well, no, but this is primarily a business-oriented approach to what works, and as such, championships can't be the last word in measuring the success of a niche sport. If the Whalers moved to an abandoned aircraft hangar in Dayton, Ohio, their 2006 championship would validate the decision to place a hockey team in an abandoned aircraft hangar in Dayton, Ohio only insofar as they didn't go out of business.

Fun fact: Dayton's hockey arena, The Nutter Center, is almost entirely underground. The concourse is above all the seats. It was strange loading all of our hockey equipment into a freight elevator and riding down just to get to ice level. Also, the brightest rink from a lighting standpoint that I ever played in.

Just a little info on Dayton's hockey facilities, not that you were asking.

[The_Admiral]

No, that's pretty cool. One might even say it's a bit nutty. Thanks for sharing; it's always fun to learn about quirky buildings. Reminds me of the one in New Haven where you parked on the roof of the rink or something.

[Sodboy13]

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

[OMMF]

DP! Double Penetration... I mean Dribble Penetration!

Clearly one of the problems with the NHL this season: too many basketballs!

[OMMF]

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

[crashcarson15]

DP! Double Penetration... I mean Dribble Penetration!

Clearly one of the problems with the NHL this season: too many basketballs!

Haha that post was in reference to the fact that I made a double post...

[RedRenesis]

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

Anyway to blame this on the fact that Jeff Rimer does pbp?

[dfwabel]

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

CBJ is generally on the Fox Sports Ohio Alternate. That channel is not a part of the local basic cable package for the majority of Columbus.

[crashcarson15]

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

CBJ is generally on the Fox Sports Ohio Alternate. That channel is not a part of the local basic cable package for the majority of Columbus.

Yup because for some odd reason, we still have the Cavs on FSO most of the time I'm pretty sure.

[charger77]

Beauchamin to Ducks

[OMMF]

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

CBJ is generally on the Fox Sports Ohio Alternate. That channel is not a part of the local basic cable package for the majority of Columbus.

Hmm. So can I assume then that the 41% that was last was just casual viewership, i.e. flipping through and seeing a game and stopping? I'm guessing that even if a FSN-Columbus sub-channel existed, more people would still rather watch the Cavs? I don't know enough about Columbus to know whether that is true or not.

Unrelated, I mentioned stats earlier about teams and their rank in decline and stuff. I didn't see this note on the stats until now:

Note: Viewership data for Carolina, Nashville and the NHL's six Canadian teams was not available.

I'm sure the C6 don't figure into the bottom 1/3 but it would be nice to see where Carolina and Nashville fit in, just for completeness sake.

[nash61]

Beauchemin has been traded back to the Ducks.

Leafs get Lupul, Gardiner, and a conditional 4th rd pick in 2013

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=353098

[Sport]

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

Anyway to blame this on the fact that Jeff Rimer does pbp?

I know so many people that watch the games with the sound off. I jump at any chance I get to listen to the other team's broadcast.

From yesterday's Sports Business Journal

At the halfway point of its season, the NHL's local TV ratings in the United States are marked by the haves and the have-nots.

The biggest traditional U.S. hockey markets have seen strong growth and big audiences, but the sport still seems to be struggling on TV in the Sun Belt.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are drawing the biggest local TV audiences leaguewide, with an average of 105,000 homes watching the team's games on FSN Pittsburgh through the All-Star break. The rest of the league's leaders for ratings and viewership are mainly teams in cold-weather markets, including Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Conversely, teams in warm-weather markets dominate the bottom of the NHL's local TV chart. An average of 3,000 homes watch Panthers games on FS Florida, and an average of 6,000 homes watch Thrashers games on FS South and SportSouth.

I know that TV ratings are measured on a fairly antiquated system, but only 3,000 households/game?

IIRC, last year's numbers, or those from the year before, showed the Panthers averaging about 4,000 households per game. So they've lost a quarter of the nothing they had. Nice work.

And yet, still not the biggest drop. (Panthers ratings, not viewers, dropped 27% from last season.) No, the biggest losers, as it were, are the Columbus Blue Jackets who have lost 41% from last years ratings. Ouch.

CBJ is generally on the Fox Sports Ohio Alternate. That channel is not a part of the local basic cable package for the majority of Columbus.

Hmm. So can I assume then that the 41% that was last was just casual viewership, i.e. flipping through and seeing a game and stopping? I'm guessing that even if a FSN-Columbus sub-channel existed, more people would still rather watch the Cavs? I don't know enough about Columbus to know whether that is true or not.

Unrelated, I mentioned stats earlier about teams and their rank in decline and stuff. I didn't see this note on the stats until now:

Note: Viewership data for Carolina, Nashville and the NHL's six Canadian teams was not available.

I'm sure the C6 don't figure into the bottom 1/3 but it would be nice to see where Carolina and Nashville fit in, just for completeness sake.

The Jackets are on the main FSO channel for me, but I don't know about the rest of the city.

I'm sure that a lot of the decline in viewership has to do with the perceived drop off of the team on the ice. The 08-09 ratings were pretty good because that team made a playoff run and last year people thought they were going to get another playoff team. The team has been a real disappointment this season. Anyone doubting Columbus as a hockey market should look at the potential that exists rather than looking at the numbers that are skewed because of a ten year history of crappy hockey. Very few markets would be able to withstand what Columbus has gone through without experiencing any attendance or ratings decline.

We sold out the arena last Saturday in a game between the 13th team in the west and the 15th team in the west. I think that's pretty telling.

[Lee.]

I only doubt columbus as a hockey market due to the fact that former GM Doug Maclean does guest spots on the sports station out here in Vancouver, and he occasionally regales us with tales of how they hated Friday night home games because the local high school football games would completely kill their attendance.

If you can't get more than 11 or 12 thousand into an arena for a Friday night game because Central is playing Riverside, then I'm not sure where you fit into that city's sports landscape.

[The_Admiral]

Columbus is just a minor league/college town to me. It's probably the best one in America (and now I'm going to bring out all the goobers saying THEIR school's city is better), but it doesn't feel right for the majors.

I'm puzzled as to why the local team, the one that's right there in Columbus, would get shunted to the overflow feed of FS Ohio in favor of games out of Cleveland or Cincinnati. That can't be true. If it is true, man, pack it in. It's bad enough they're apparently running scared from high school football. You don't even want to share your fans with high school football, because if you care about high school football without A) being a student there or B} having a child who is a student there, there's a pretty good chance you're a latent pedophile.

[Sport]

I only doubt columbus as a hockey market due to the fact that former GM Doug Maclean does guest spots on the sports station out here in Vancouver, and he occasionally regales us with tales of how they hated Friday night home games because the local high school football games would completely kill their attendance.

If you can't get more than 11 or 12 thousand into an arena for a Friday night game because Central is playing Riverside, then I'm not sure where you fit into that city's sports landscape.

I have no idea what Doug Maclean is talking about. During his time in Columbus the team was routinely selling out games. I went to my fair share of packed house Friday night games. He's either bitter or playing up the "herp derp, all Ohio cares about is football!" angle to the Canadian audience, or both. High school football is popular here, but it's not that popular. I would take everything Doug Maclean says with a bag of salt.

I will say that Ohio State football controls the city, and to that end, I find it incredibly annoying.

I also have no idea what dfwabel is talking about. Everyone I know has the Blue Jackets on the main FSO feed. If you want to watch the Cavs in Columbus then you have to search them out on the alternate feed or catch them on a night when the Jackets aren't playing. In late hockey season the Reds are preempted by the Blue Jackets and you have to watch the Reds on an alternate channel.

[OMMF]

I also have no idea what dfwabel is talking about. Everyone I know has the Blue Jackets on the main FSO feed. If you want to watch the Cavs in Columbus then you have to search them out on the alternate feed or catch them on a night when the Jackets aren't playing. In late hockey season the Reds are preempted by the Blue Jackets and you have to watch the Reds on an alternate channel.

That makes much more sense. Everyone but Columbus has to watch the Blue Jackets on the FS-Ohio alt while viewers in Columbus watch on the main channel. I wonder then if that drop comes from households outside of Columbus but inside the viewing area.

[Don]

As far as I know, winning championships make franchises a success, its not all attendance and TV ratings.

Well, no, but this is primarily a business-oriented approach to what works, and as such, championships can't be the last word in measuring the success of a niche sport. If the Whalers moved to an abandoned aircraft hangar in Dayton, Ohio, their 2006 championship would validate the decision to place a hockey team in an abandoned aircraft hangar in Dayton, Ohio only insofar as they didn't go out of business.

Well no, thats speaking in a huge hypothetical, because the NHL wouldnt allow them to move into an abandoned aircraft hangar in Dayton, OH. They moved into a new market, grew a decent fanbase, won a Title. They arent a burden on their community and they arent ever in any conversation of re-locating like Phoenix. I guess my own expectations for southern markets are pretty low, and I would hate for an area that loves their team to lose it. Phoenix, Atlanta, Florida are clearly on another level of suckitude while Carolina et all arent doing so bad.

[The_Admiral]

For what little it's worth, Karmanos did float the idea of moving the Whalers to an abandoned aircraft hangar somewhere in Ohio until an arena could be built in Columbus. As it turned out, it wouldn't have been markedly worse than Greensboro. Hmph.

Best I can tell, the Hurricanes have enough of a small niche to squeak by without cash-calling the government, and Karmanos is content to get a snappy little tax writeoff on his make-believe Red Wings, but to call them a success--especially because of their championship, which is widely regarded as one of the worst Big Four championship teams ever--is a reach. They just sort of exist. That we have to laud mere existence is why the NHL will forever be a sham league. I mean, the Hurricanes owe their existence in large part to NC State needing a co-tenant for a full-sized gym. How backward is that?

I wonder why that report couldn't get access to their TV numbers. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd put them somewhere in the Tampa Bay/Atlanta neighborhood of about 8,000ish households or so. That would seem to be about right for a NASCAR Division team in a metropolitan area that's not very big. Raleigh is a lot like Columbus in that it's a terrific place for developmental-level sports but should never be in any conversation for pro sports.

[BrianVlietDesign]

Beauchemin has been traded back to the Ducks.

Leafs get Lupul, Gardiner, and a conditional 4th rd pick in 2013

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=353098

Good re-acquisition for the Ducks. Lups had been injured a good portion of the season and hasn't been the same player since. Gardiner is a prospect, but he's still got some time to go before he makes a huge impact. Beauch is a proven veteran defenseman. He'll help the Ducks squad make their playoff push.