Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 17:46:40 -0400 
From: Anna Matyas <am2x+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: I Was Once A Big Fan


>From adam  shah
 
>I know that it is probably boring to lodge another complaint against the 
>NHL management, but they really have no idea how many fans they are 
>actually losing because of their tv contracts.

No, this isn't boring.  It's one of the biggest concerns of hockey
fans.  Not only will the league losing fans but they aren't getting as many
new ones as they could.  Years ago, around 1970 B.C. (Before Cable)
I remember watching NHL games on Sunday afternoons once football
season was over.  Even if the league could somehow come up with a
"game-of-the-week" kind of deal it would help.  But other pro and
college sports are fierce competition.  

In conjunction with a tv contract, the league has image and visibility
problems.  Perhaps the lack of a tv contract is a symptom of the
larger problem rather than being a problem itself.  But the opposite
of this could be true as well.  I think that the San Jose Sharks have
done a lot for the visibility of the league.  I don't remember a new
team in any other sport that has garnered as much support as quickly
as have the Sharks.  Pittsburgh is crawling with people in Sharks
gear, and many of them aren't even hockey fans -- they just love the
logo and the colors.  This is a major marketing coup by the Sharks and
it could serve to help the league's business.  But, of course, it isn't
going to get the league a nice contract.  Much more needs to be done.

The lack of coverage of college hockey could be a factor in all of this
as well.  I know a lot of people who hate professional sports (particularly
basketball) but they love the college sports.  We get college hockey in
Pittsburgh but it's often a day or two delayed and often on at odd hours,
like 2:00am.  Without the consistency, it's very difficult to follow it.
It seems like it's thrown in when there's nothing else to run.  More
exposure to college hockey could possibly increase interest in the game
in general.  

>Now I can only see hockey on MSG over winter and spring breaks.  Personalities
>like Tie Domi and awesome players like Messier and co. are just names in 
>box scores.  I can't even see Roenick play except maybe twice a year at 
>$15 a pop.  I see myself losing touch with NHL hockey.  

Pittsburgh has been without NHL coverage since ESPN dropped hockey.  We
did get the playoffs last year but I doubt that we would have had we not
been in them.  And finally, I think it was in February, we started to get
some SCA games.  I understand your point.  While you can follow it through
the box scores, there's nothing like being able to watch it.  When hockey
was accessible on ESPN and WOR, I knew every player on every team.  Now I
always have to refer to the rosters because I just don't see them often
enough and I don't follow other teams anywhere near the level I used to.
 I don't know if you read my Penguin Marketing postings, but a real fear
is that the NHL could become a "corporate sport," because they're the
only ones who would be able to afford the tickets.  (The new arenas
being built are going to have amenities aimed toward corporate holders
and I wouldn't doubt that
the older arenas are thinking about restructuring some of the things they
do to attract this money.)  I don't doubt that the corporate sport
notion could become a reality but I'm also optimistic because the fan
base could drop to the point where PPV wouldn't be lucrative anymore and
then they'd have real problems.  It will be interesting to see what
happens, especially in light of the recent events.  We can only wait and
see.