What is going on everyone, hope you are all enjoying the palate cleanser from Hawks hockey during this “bye week”. I wanted to apologize for the lack of blogs. I was celebrating my birthday this past week and wanted to take a bit of a breather as we are about to enter the busy season for this Hawks team. Before I get back into talking about this team, I wanted to vent a bit about this weekends All Star events and the viewership report.
Growing up watching hockey I used to make All Star weekend much watch TV. I would annoy my parents that we would have to get home in time to catch the skills competition and game. To me there was nothing better than watching the best of the best go head to head. Especially when you had the format of Team North America vs Team World. While defense was never seen, the action these All-Stars created was just always entertaining. Nowadays, for me its just an embarrassment to the game and when it comes to the skills competition you almost just have second hand embarrassment for the players.
Now this could very well just be me and I am having my first old man yells at the clouds moment but when this game has never been better when it comes to skill, and instead of showcasing it correctly, you create these gimmick events that have nothing to do with hockey? I totally get that they are trying to draw in a new audience but if I am a non-fan and I see players who I don’t know playing hockey golf out on the links, or David Pastrnak doing some strange attempt at Happy Gilmore, I am changing the channel and seeing what else is on. It just always feels like this league is shooting themselves in the foot by putting more effort into events that do not matter than into the events that should.
Maybe Bettman needs to spend less time worrying about All Star Weekend and spend more time listening to the players and fans. Sidney Crosby speaking to the media, talked about how the playoff format needs to be 1-8 instead of the bracket format we currently have. Bettman's response is that tweaking the playoff format is not as simple as it sounds. Gary I have to disagree because the reason you are saying its not as easy as it sounds is because you know its what the players want and you are going to hold that card come next lockout and dangle it out there to get the players to cave on what the owners want.
This past week there were reports about USA viewership has been down 22% since the move to TNT/ESPN. Everyone has been trying to figure out why this is and for me there are two big reasons.
Reason One: Less TV Time
Since the move to TNT/ESPN, it doesn’t feel like games are getting much air time. TNT I know, does Wednesday Night Hockey and we all know the NBA is where their loyalty really lies but I couldn’t tell you the last time I remember seeing a game on ESPN. I believe the ESPN part of this TV deal was strictly for streaming rights. However, when you have regional blackouts that prevent fans from watching their team play, of course viewership is down. By enforcing these blackouts you are either driving people to illegal streams or people just not tuning in. In this day, in age with cable cutters on the rise, they need to adjust and adapt to allow fans to watch the games they want, the way they want.
Reason Two: Marketing
The NHL is the absolute worst when it comes to marketing their teams and players. There is zero reason that players like McDavid and Mathews shouldn’t be front and center at all possible times. When the league does have interesting match-ups, they seem to always choose the most uninteresting games to broadcast. You want to grow the game? Showcase what makes this game great. I would watch McDavid every other week if given the opportunity. This is part of the reason that the Hawks need to win the right to draft Connor Bedard; he ends up in a small market; the league will have zero idea what to do with him. Plus, this league is better when the Hawks and other Original Six teams are good. Speaking of the All Star weekend and bad marketing, when they started to promote this event, not once did I see when it was actually taking place. I went back to roster announcements, jersey reveals, fan vote posts, and not once did they actually say when this even was. What are we doing here?
I love this sport and I love this league and I want to see it grow to the levels that we all know it should be. This game has never been better when it comes to just pure talent and parody across this league. However, you can’t sit here and just accept that they are the fourth of the major four sports. This league needs to be better and do better for its players and fans. You can not continue to cry “please like my sport” if you are unwilling to adapt and make just the most simple changes. Anyways, if you made it this far, let me know if I am somewhat on track or if I am just beyond wrong here.
Hawks Talk returns Monday and Ill be taking a look at the Toews and Kane Situation.