NHL Considering Going to a Jan-July Format Permanently

[pietasterp]

I tend to be more of a traditionalist, but getting hockey out of the way of the NFL might not be the worst thing in the world for the overall health of the league. It seems pointless to compete with the 800-lb gorilla that is football at this point in time.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I tend to be more of a traditionalist, but getting hockey out of the way of the NFL might not be the worst thing in the world for the overall health of the league. It seems pointless to compete with the 800-lb gorilla that is football at this point in time.

For a third of the league, NFL won't have as much of an impact. Although maybe NHL could schedule less Sunday games for those markets with NFL teams in the fall?

While NFL will have an impact, I dont think NHLs interest in the fall when NFL is on would be lower than the interest of hockey in the summer, not just with baseball on, but with it being summer.

If NHL wants to improve interest in the league, they should have more offense in the games and get a better TV deal, such as having ESPN being one of their partners. NFL has the best kind of TV deal of all sports with games on NBC,CBS,FOX,ESPN and I think ABC again?

NHL just being on NBC/SN isn't as good. If they could get a deal with select primetime games also being on FOX and ESPN, that would be big for them.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I tend to be more of a traditionalist, but getting hockey out of the way of the NFL might not be the worst thing in the world for the overall health of the league. It seems pointless to compete with the 800-lb gorilla that is football at this point in time.

How much does the NFL really hurt the NHL, anyway? Would hockey really get better ratings and more media oxygen if they played Jan thru July?

I know you're not necessarily making this point, but the "overall health of the league" always makes think about the CFL, not the 5th biggest pro league in the world in total revenue. The NHL makes a ton of money, but it's never going to get much more traction in the US than it has now (with the possible exception of a US-born Gretzky/Lemieux level player on the Rangers), and it's never going to break into the top 3 in North America, but that's okay.

[pietasterp]

I think both of the above posts are probably correct. I certainly don't have any evidence that hockey would do better in non-football months, just a generalization that there is sort of sports desert period in the spring/summer. That having been said, would there suddenly be a raft of new hockey fans if the NHL were playing during that time? I would have to agree that there is scant evidence for that.

I guess in general, I do feel like there are more US-based fans that aren't being served right now, and they could/would be interested in hockey but it just seems buried in the sports landscape now more than ever. I think that probably has more to do with its broadcast arrangement than anything (to Majingir's points), but I also don't recall a time that football was this dominant in the American sports landscape. But that may be an impression more than a reality.

Hockey needs to be on network TV more in my opinion. I think the 'special' games like the outdoor series definitely help, and the league has the right idea with those kinds of events IMO. It definitely gets the games on the radar of people with otherwise no rooting interest in the matchups.

[jb12780]

ESPN doesn’t give a **** about hockey. Doubt they have any interest in getting the rights back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pietasterp]

Quote: Originally Posted by jb12780

ESPN doesn’t give a **** about hockey. Doubt they have any interest in getting the rights back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ESPN is financially wedded to the NBA, which forces them to cover that league out of proportion to its relevance to the American sports landscape. I don't think they want to make the same mistake twice.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by jb12780

ESPN doesn’t give a **** about hockey. Doubt they have any interest in getting the rights back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what I heard, ESPN is in the running.

Friedman mentioned NBC likely retains the main rights, with either FOX or ESPN getting secondary rights. I'd rather ESPN over FOX for the sake of league growth.

Too bad they cant get all 3 on board. 1 game on ESPN and 1 game on FOX every week would've been nice. Not sure what either networks schedule is like, but if theres a specific day in the week for multiple months at a time where they could turn into NHL night, that would be ideal.

[nikethebike]

I root for ESPN just because of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PRe...zznRT2&index=3