Putting aside which team that I preferred to win the gold medal yesterday (Canada has the disadvantage of the biased hockey media,while the USA has the do
wnside of the annoying regular media),did the quality of play make new hockey fans?Or was it something to watch for a day,the game was good enough to be talked about for a day and then moves on to the next thing to watch?
I walked into the office today with my Devils cap and had two people want to talk to me about the game and one had never watched a game before,with the other commenting on seeing very few.
The lady was interested in discussing the game and to the point of wanting to know about the rules as in "wanting an "inservice" (Companyspeak for a training class") on hockey.
This made me think about just how much effect this could have for the NHL.
Did this make more NHL fans?
Well,considering the NHL's cable partner being Versus instead of ESPN certainly isn't going to help the exposure,but the NHL's game of the week deal with NBC isn't going to hurt.
I am usually critical of the same few teams always being on the game of the week,but Sidney Crosby's game winner should take some of the sting off from the Penguins being on so much,if it helps fans want to watch.
I asked a knowledgeable sports fan,who commented that yesterday was his first time watching hockey on his thoughts.
His response was it was hard for me to get into it. "Without having any idea of the rules and having never heard of most of the players I just didn't feel connected to it at all other than wanting the US team to win."
I would like to think that the NHL made some new fans yesterday,but more likely than not,few of those fans will sample the NHL game and that is too bad for hockey....
Back later with a look back at the Olympic tourney and the NHL's threat to not allow players to participate in the 2014 Sochi games....
Photo Credit-Harry How-Getty Images
3 comments:
I think the problem is that folks that may have been attracted to the sport by watching the Olympics are almost always disappointed with what the NHL has to offer. Why? It's slower (relatively speaking) the rinks are smaller (this year was an exception) and there's more penalties & violence.
It's an age-old dilemma, but I'm in the camp that the NHL will never be a true major sport until it decides that it has to get rid of fighting once and for all.
As someone that likes the fighting,but could live without it,I can see how non fighting fans see things.
I think your statement on people being disappointed in the NHL is usually accurate as to me your factors are correct,but an underrated one is this-the Olympic teams are basically All Star teams with a level of play that the NHL simply cannot match.
Fans that add some interest from the Olympics don't often stick around because the NHL talent pool is not as strong top to bottom.
The NHL is too big (in my opinion) now at 30 teams and it is inevitable that they will go to 32 teams,so with the drop in talent,plus the us vs them mentality of the casual fan in the Olympics,disappointment is more often than not what usually happens.
Imagine,if Baseball was a true worldwide sport,the World Baseball Classic was held in the middle of the season when players are hitting their peak with the games in one location with the heat of the Olympic games are upon them and only the world's best participating.
Now imagine,someone that has had little exposure to the game in the Netherlands getting turned on by Olympic Baseball under those circumstances and then wanting to sample more trying out a Nationals-Pirates game.
Unless something unusual happens,that fan will be disappointed and that is the steep wall that Hockey will have to climb and I just don't see much chance of doing that on a consistent basis enough to pull in new fans...
I agree with all that (especially the part about All-Stars) except the dropoff from WBC final to Nats-Pirates. It's a steeper decline, maybe not NFL to I-AA college, but something like that.
And it really stinks because hockey requires more pure skill than almost any other sport - including baseball.
PS: I used to go to Springfield Indians games in the 1980s, back in the "let 'em fight until they fall" days
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