And the NHL was supposed to get a ratings boost from new exposure in U.S. markets getting expansion teams or relocated teams from Canada. And February's Winter Olympic hockey, dominated by NHL players, was expected to give the sport a big splash. All that happened. And sending NHL players to the Olympics was a good move. Everything has gone negative,'' he says.
Hockey draws the kind of young viewers that advertisers covet.
But its audiences are so small you have to wonder if it will ever make it on a broadcast network, perhaps the most important factor in a league's national potential. But if conventional wisdom coalesces around the idea that hockey simply isn't a big enough draw to warrant broadcast network coverage, the sport will be dealt about as big a blow as it could get. But sometimes the ratings just seem inexplicable.