Two Minutes for Blogging

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

NHL attendance problems?

NHL attendance problems?
It's too early to start worrying
Posted on 24/10/06
BRIAN MILNER

As the revamped, salary-capped National Hockey League skates through the third week of its second postlockout season, critics are already pointing to sagging attendance in several markets as a sign that the league still faces serious problems. That is a ridiculous leap in logic.

Attendance is off only marginally league-wide from the level of a year ago, which was to be expected.
Last year at this time, teams were pulling out all the stops to draw people back to the sport, and even casual fans were curious about how their teams would fare under new rules. Now they've drifted back to their old habits. And in most U.S. markets, going to hockey games, particularly during the work week or early in the season, is not one of them.

"The reason you see some week-day crowds so far this season in the 10,000 to 12,000 range is because that is likely close to the season-ticket base of those teams," said Steve Violetta, the executive vice-president of the Nashville Predators. "Not too many groups or walk-up tickets are sold in most markets on a Tuesday."

Read more here.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

NHL attendance could be a problem. Again.

NHL attendance could be a problem. Again.
Last Updated Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006
by Scott Morrison

Gary Bettman is probably right, of course: it is still a little too early to panic.

But be careful because, as Yogi Berra once said, it gets late early out there.

Bettman was referring the other day to some early troubling attendance trends in the National Hockey League, which, as of Tuesday, were showing an overall average decline of one per cent from a year ago, though there have been big increases in Buffalo, where there is hope of a championship, and Carolina, where there is proof of one.

The usual hotbeds, especially north of the border, have continued to fill the seats but, early or not, there is no denying there are some concerns out there.

Read more here.

Sunday, July 9, 2006

NHL Lockout Sinks Canadian TV Ratings, Annoys Petulant Network Execs

NHL Lockout Sinks Canadian TV Ratings, Annoys Petulant Network Execs
From Jamie Fitzpatrick,

Start the telethon and schedule the bake sale. Canada's TV networks need your help.
Channels that usually broadcast NHL games and highlights are losing a bundle during the lockout.

It apparently never occured to them to reduce their dependence on hockey revenue, even though everyone could see this shutdown coming for several years.

Television is the all-powerful god of sport, so we should all be losing sleep. And Canadian hockey fans are expected to shoulder their share of the blame. According to one whining television exec, Canadians aren't real hockey fans at all.

Thursday, June 8, 2006

NHL Game 3 could bottom out TV ratings

NHL Game 3 could bottom out TV ratings
By Michael Hiestand Updated
6/8/2006

History might be in the making: NBC's Game 3 of the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday night just might produce the lowest broadcast network prime-time rating ever.

Reasons include: the series having a Canadian team — Edmonton — and our neighbors to the north aren't counted in U.S. ratings; the other team — Raleigh, N.C.-based Carolina — is in a midsized Southern city; neither team is a big brand name; and Saturday is TV's least-watched night.

Such factors were in play when a Tampa Bay-Calgary Finals game on a Saturday in 2004 scored the second-lowest-rated network prime-time rating ever of 1.4% of U.S. households. It was tantalizingly close to the all-time mark: 1.3% for snowboarding on NBC in 2002.

Monday, June 5, 2006

NHL's Strong Comeback Marred by Poor TV Ratings

NHL's Strong Comeback Marred by Poor TV Ratings
By Tarik El-Bashir and Thomas HeathWashington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 5, 2006; Page E01

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stood before a sea of cameras in New York last July and promised the league would emerge from its canceled 2004-05 season with more excitement and an economic system that would give all 30 teams a shot at profitability.

As the Stanley Cup finals begin tonight, Bettman appears to have achieved most of his goals: scoring and attendance are up and revenues are healthy, rule changes have made the game faster and more thrilling, and any team -- even those from small markets -- can win, as the finals between the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers proves.

The big exception is television ratings -- a key revenue driver and measure of a sport's mass appeal -- which have gone from bad to worse. The NHL playoffs, mostly relegated to the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), a second-tier cable channel known for hunting and fishing programs and its Tour de France coverage, have barely registered with the American public.

NBC's ratings aren't great, either."You look at the playoff [ratings] numbers, and they have been beaten pretty soundly by poker and bowling," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

NHL TV Ratings Suffer

NHL TV Ratings Suffer
June 5, 2006 3:45 p.m. EST
Christopher Cornell - All Headline News Contributor

(AHN) - Following the lock-out season in 2004-2005, the NHL has rebounded nicely this year and has achieved many of the goals it set out to accomplish.

The games have featured higher scoring, attendance is up, revenues are healthy and thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, there's more parity between all the teams.

One thing that hasn't improved from years past are the television ratings. In fact, they've only gotten worse. ESPN declined to renew their contract with the NHL this season, leaving the broadcasting rights to the Outdoor Life Network which usually covers hunting, fishing and the Tour de France.

According to the Washington Post, OHN posted a 0.4 rating for this year's playoffs thus far. In 2004 ESPN's coverage posted a 0.7. NBC's coverage of select playoff games this year posted a 1.1. ABC posted a 1.5 rating two years ago for the same amount of games.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

NHL's meltdown gives other sports TV opportunity

NHL's meltdown gives other sports TV opportunity
Posted 5/10/2005 10:54 PM
Updated 5/11/2005 1:01 PM

Focusing on the notion that you're irreplaceable, rather than expendable, can be healthy.
Sadly, facts can sometimes get in the way. Take a pro league, whose player salaries averaged $1.83 million per year, that skips an entire season. That leaves the league's national TV carrier to gin up replacement shows to fill what would have been hundreds of hours of playoff coverage.

As the National Hockey League and its players association continue to meet today, this must be depressing: TV ratings, so far, suggest as many viewers might want to watch hockey players bowl as watch them play hockey.

ESPN's Bowling Night, in which pro athletes from sports including hockey hit the lanes, is a stalwart in a replacement lineup that's now averaging 0.7% of U.S. cable TV households on ESPN and 0.4% on ESPN2.

That might not sound like much. But consider that at this point last year, ESPN/ESPN2 had aired 46 NHL playoff games — and drawn identical average ratings.