[Carlo Colaiacovo] I hope this is a wake up call for change in the NHL. Fans are losing interest. No rivalries; lacking storylines; more buzz around t

[tiburon12]

Lol. We all know Bedard is going to Chicago. The league wants Chicago to be good and exciting.

It's gonna be Columbus. Chicago will be fine as a market if they get a non-Bedard top pick. But Columbus will take off and be another "expansion success story" if the league can showcase that their small-market team has homegrown stars and players who came in via trade or UFA and want to stay (Guadreau and Laine).

 

[Andrei79]

The game needs more rivalries, but the quality of the offense is the best it's been on decades. Game doesn't need major changes like it used to.

 

[Silky Johnson]

People have been warning for years that the NHL has a demographic problem. The Boomers are aging out of spending money on sports entertainment. The following generations are much smaller if you account for the effects of immigration (which primarily comes from non-hockey countries). To put it simply, the number of customers is about to start dropping.

Then you add in, what was the Millennial's formative experience of the NHL? A slow, low-scoring league where the stars were injured all the time? Games on OLN and NBCSN? Non-competitive expansion teams hanging on by the skin of their teeth if not relocated? An obsession with huge hits and fighting, which led directly to those things becoming non-existent so they've had to do a 180 degree turn in what they promote about the game? Being the last big league to get on board with digital culture? Failure to make any meaningful outreach to girls? Fabulous work, NHL establishment.

Then the obvious, as it pertains to TV ratings specifically -- people aren't watching these games on cable TV anymore. This change has been coming for years, and now it's here. Cable ratings aren't going back up again. Find a way for people to watch these games online because that's what they're going to do by whatever means.

Not sure this is actually a problem backed by statistics.

Someone already clarified that the ESPN numbers are more of a programming problem with hockey put up against football and average viewership being higher when not.

NHL revenues have gone up every non-pandemic year post lockout culminating in record revenues last year.

The NHL should definitely get better at streaming games but all sports leagues suck at this.

If I were an outside investor looking at the league...the numbers look pretty good.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Send Steph Curry and LeBron to the Toronto Raptors and ratings for basketball will improve in Canada.

Oh, you don't care if ratings improve in Canada for basketball?

That's how many of us feel about the US and hockey.

Heaven forbid they try to grow the game in the market that's 10 times the population,, 10 times the GDP and doesn't already pretty much have the available markets cornered and interested.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Not sure this is actually a problem backed by statistics.

Someone already clarified that the ESPN numbers are more of a programming problem with hockey put up against football and average viewership being higher when not.

NHL revenues have gone up every non-pandemic year post lockout culminating in record revenues last year.

The NHL should definitely get better at streaming games but all sports leagues suck at this.

If I were an outside investor looking at the league...the numbers look pretty good.

Got to wonder how much of that 18 million SNF viewing party is hard-core sports fans that watch whatever the best sport is on a major channel is.

If it's 1%, that decision by espn is robbing the NHL on Sundays of almost 200k viewers. If it's .1 it's 18K.

Probably somewhere in the middle of that or slightly above 1%, but it's a significant number.

 

[Gravity]

Lol. We all know Bedard is going to Chicago. The league wants Chicago to be good and exciting.

Chicago literally just had a 3 cup dynasty which they followed up by hiding a sexual abuse scandal. They don't deserve a damn thing.

 

[Gravity]

Heaven forbid they try to grow the game in the market that's 10 times the population,, 10 times the GDP and doesn't already pretty much have the available markets cornered and interested.

Growing the game in itself in the States is not a problem, it's simple economics. The issue arises when the backbone devout markets start become neglected in favor of pushing the sole agenda of maximizing the ability to reach new markets.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

[Carlo Colaiacovo] I hope this is a wake up call for change in the NHL. Fans are losing interest. No rivalries; lacking storylines; more buzz around talk of trades then actual trades; poor marketing of stars; too many math equations; horrible playoff format. Just to name a few things

I've been enjoying this time of no hockey and I wonder if I'm just losing interest in the sport. I think this sport is one of the worst when it comes to scheduling. All the games start at exactly the same time, NHL Network blacks out games that I actually paid for because I got the streaming service, and we have a week leading into the all star break where there were barely any games and just no interest. In a way this reminds me a little of 2020 when there were no sports and while that circumstances were different and sucky, I actually enjoyed that time away.

I think the NHL, for all the talk about wanting to grow the game, is the worst sport when it comes to growing the game. I listen to various podcasts and they have that Steve Maier on talking about skills competitions with crocodiles or dunk tanks and I just wonder are these skills competitions or just gimmicks? Is this what young people actually want? I just want an organized event that is easy to follow and doesn't go for 3 or 4 hours. They should be able to do Fastest Skater, accuracy, and the relay race in an hour and a half, but these events turn out boring overall because they stretch it out. I have no interest in the skills competition or the all star game this weekend because I just can't bring myself to care.

It also doesn't help that my team is the Sharks and I'm anticipating the bandaid to be ripped off and the Sharks will be unwatchable in March. Then I will look forward to Baseball season and my interest will shift. If the NHL has been trying to grow the game, for me personally, it might have had an opposite effect.

In a perfect world here is where I think the NHL should go:

1) Stagger starts of games so intermission doesn't happen all at the same time around the league. There are people that want to switch around and watch multiple games at the same time. Either that, or shorten the intermission time.

2) Make your Network part of ESPN+. Games that are on your network should be part of the streaming package

3) Make the All Star Game Weekend basic and casual. Sometimes less is more. You want to bring in the women game? Great, do that. I wouldn't mind seeing a women's hardest shot or accuracy shootout. Those are the best events.

4) Stop the back to back scheduling. Don't have 15 games on one day and 1 game on the next. Spread it out. Yes the NHL is a gate driven league, but someone in San Jose will not be showing up to a game in Toronto unless teleportation is invented and I can beam to the area in under 5 minutes

5) Train your national announcers and hire good ones. There should be rigorous training when it comes to play by play in the NHL and if you want Diversity hires, they should go through the same training.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Get rid of the useless games against the other conference and go back to 8-9 games against each division member. That's how you get rivalries, not the forced playoff opponent garbage.

Next bring back hitting and fighting as key parts of the sport. That's what gets people excited, goals/hits/fights

 

[LosPollosHermanos]

Sports these days are all rigged/fixed in some way or another. Its painfully obvious in the NBA/NFL. Baseball is tough to rig, but I have my qeustions about the baseball they use from game to game. Hockey is a tough one too, but the officiating is questionable. Fans are losing interest becuase they are not dumb, and can see this

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Get rid of the useless games against the other conference and go back to 8-9 games against each division member. That's how you get rivalries, not the forced playoff opponent garbage.

I hate this idea because with 9 games played against good teams, you also have to play 9 games against the terrible teams. If you are the Bruins, do you really want to see a team like the Senators 9 times a year? I know everything works in cycles, but as someone who lives in the Bay Area, I want guys like Sydney Crosby or Austin Matthews to come to the area. Maybe they should alternate sites every year like what MLB is doing this season. I will be interested to see how much I like the MLB season because of this new schedule format.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

Couldnt agree more.

Bettman has put money above all else in regards to the game of hockey.

Short term greed equals long term loss.

Missed his chance to build off international fame, last legit Olympics 2014, World Cup 2004.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I hate this idea because with 9 games played against good teams, you also have to play 9 games against the terrible teams. If you are the Bruins, do you really want to see a team like the Senators 9 times a year? I know everything works in cycles, but as someone who lives in the Bay Area, I want guys like Sydney Crosby or Austin Matthews to come to the area. Maybe they should alternate sites every year like what MLB is doing this season. I will be interested to see how much I like the MLB season because of this new schedule format.

Yes.

Those games are a hell of a lot better than the forced home and home against western teams no one gives a crap about. You should play the other conference but you only need 1 game against each team, not 2. It adds too many low interest games to the schedule and doesn't give fans incentive to tune in.

 

[JianYang]

Yes.

Those games are a hell of a lot better than the forced home and home against western teams no one gives a crap about. You should play the other conference but you only need 1 game against each team, not 2. It adds too many low interest games to the schedule and doesn't give fans incentive to tune in.

Either way, you're going piss people off. It wasn't that long ago that divisional teams were playing each other 8 times while playing most out of conference teams only once. That was not received well by fans either.

 

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Heaven forbid they try to grow the game in the market that's 10 times the population,, 10 times the GDP and doesn't already pretty much have the available markets cornered and interested.

If it does, that's fine. If not, I don't care. Do you think your average American NASCAR fan cares if their favorite sport expands into India or China? Huge markets. Huge populations. Does that make a fan of NASCAR excited, or amibivalent at best? If anything, they may even have disdain for it. Why should I care if the game that runs through the lifeblood of my country is popular or gets good ratings in another country? What's the difference? No one can tell me as a Canadian to care what some other country thinks of my sport.

 

[Reaser]

The "viewership is down 22%" comment the premise is built off of lacks all sort of context.

1. Prior to the ASG last season there was 30 national telecasts (ABC/ESPN/TNT) and prior to the ASG this season there has been 57. That's 27 more games as part of the average viewership. More games generally lowers averages, obviously.

2. As previously alluded to in other posts, as well as connected to the above point; The national telecast schedule is completely different this season compared to year 1 of ESPN/TNT. Will be more games on ABC, more games on ESPN, a game on espn2, more games on TNT, fewer espn+ exclusives, and on and on.

2a. ESPN putting games H2H with the NFL late afternoon games as well as SNF. ESPN had 6 of those H2H w/NFL games and those are 6 of the 7 lowest rated NHL on ESPN games this season and will still be 6 of the lowest rated NHL on ESPN games at the end of the season.

2b. TNT has non-exclusive games this season that they did not have last season. TNT avg. viewership is 373k in their exclusive games but drops to 239k for their non-exclusive games, which they've had 7 such games and have a few more the rest of the way.

3. Doesn't mean everything is all sunshine and rainbows, lot of issues but the "down 22%" isn't even close to a like-for-like comparison. We can do some like-for-like though, or close enough to it and people can form their own opinion based on actual comparables, such as:

Opening Night on ESPN (2 games)
Last Season: 983k & 783k
This Season: 744k & 556k

TNT's opening night (2 games)
Last season: 817k & 522k
This season: 629k & 526k

Winter Classic on TNT
Last season: 1.362M
This season: 1.778M

ESPN -- Excluding Opening Night (covered above) the two most viewed games for NHL on ESPN ALL of last season v. bit of halfway through this season (2 games)
Last season: 684k & 658k
This season: 750k & 699k

TNT -- Excluding their opening night (covered above) and outdoor games the two most viewed TNT games from ALL of last season v. little over halfway through their schedule of games this season (2 games)
Last season: 626k & 542k
This season: 550k & 534k

Applying some common sense, the "down 22%" isn't as bad as it would suggest. Again, doesn't mean all the other stuff about rivalries, loser points, etc. and so on is or isn't valid. This is just about the complete lack of context in the viewership comparison.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Meh..

Hockey is fine as it is. Stop f***ing with it.

I illegally stream the games because I refuse to pay Sportsnet a dime, but aside from that it's fine.

 

[joelef]

1 . Marketing your star players . It’s pretty pathetic when micheal Phelps and Simone biles are bigger name then Conner mcdavid. Not only that but none of the sponsors they love to brag about never put nhl players in there commercials .

2. The lack of a “ hockey night in America “. The nhl and there media partners never tries to create an American version of HNIC and make it must see event. Even espn tries to make MNF important

3. No vision by any level of hockey

4. Failure to understand the massive demographic changes going on in both USA and Canada.

 

[Devils090]

Soft cap with a luxury tax.

Can anyone explain to me why this would be bad for hockey?

“My team can’t win unless the rules change to let us spend more money than everyone”

Lol

The only thing the NHL needs to do is get rid of the loser point or go to a 3-2-1 point system. NHL fans whine more than most toddlers, my god.

 

[joelef]

The "viewership is down 22%" comment the premise is built off of lacks all sort of context.

1. Prior to the ASG last season there was 30 national telecasts (ABC/ESPN/TNT) and prior to the ASG this season there has been 57. That's 27 more games as part of the average viewership. More games generally lowers averages, obviously.

2. As previously alluded to in other posts, as well as connected to the above point; The national telecast schedule is completely different this season compared to year 1 of ESPN/TNT. Will be more games on ABC, more games on ESPN, a game on espn2, more games on TNT, fewer espn+ exclusives, and on and on.

2a. ESPN putting games H2H with the NFL late afternoon games as well as SNF. ESPN had 6 of those H2H w/NFL games and those are 6 of the 7 lowest rated NHL on ESPN games this season and will still be 6 of the lowest rated NHL on ESPN games at the end of the season.

2b. TNT has non-exclusive games this season that they did not have last season. TNT avg. viewership is 373k in their exclusive games but drops to 239k for their non-exclusive games, which they've had 7 such games and have a few more the rest of the way.

3. Doesn't mean everything is all sunshine and rainbows, lot of issues but the "down 22%" isn't even close to a like-for-like comparison. We can do some like-for-like though, or close enough to it and people can form their own opinion based on actual comparables, such as:

Opening Night on ESPN (2 games)
Last Season: 983k & 783k
This Season: 744k & 556k

TNT's opening night (2 games)
Last season: 817k & 522k
This season: 629k & 526k

Winter Classic on TNT
Last season: 1.362M
This season: 1.778M

ESPN -- Excluding Opening Night (covered above) the two most viewed games for NHL on ESPN ALL of last season v. bit of halfway through this season (2 games)
Last season: 684k & 658k
This season: 750k & 699k

TNT -- Excluding their opening night (covered above) and outdoor games the two most viewed TNT games from ALL of last season v. little over halfway through their schedule of games this season (2 games)
Last season: 626k & 542k
This season: 550k & 534k

Applying some common sense, the "down 22%" isn't as bad as it would suggest. Again, doesn't mean all the other stuff about rivalries, loser points, etc. and so on is or isn't valid. This is just about the complete lack of context in the viewership comparison.

Trying to sugar coat low ratings it is a big reason why people say this stuff in the first place

 

[landfill]

-It bugs me a bit that a Canadian team hasn't won in 3 decades now.

-More playoffs rivalries would be great. First round is always so good though and is super exciting.

-Some players like to go hide out in the Southern United states then go to win a cup in the North. In the south with the lower taxes, less media and a life where you blend in more.

-Would be good to see Montreal relevant again, but it is just great Tampa has won three cups in the last 20 years and Anaheim won a cup and had that parade in their parking lot.

-Those board ads need to go also.

 

[joelef]

5. Ruining the winter classic with the stadium series and the same teams

[Carlo Colaiacovo] I hope this is a wake up call for change in the NHL. Fans are losing interest. No rivalries; lacking storylines; more buzz around talk of trades then actual trades; poor marketing of stars; too many math equations; horrible playoff format. Just to name a few things

The raptors winning and there embrace by multicultural youth in Toronto should’ve been a wake up call.

 

[eojsmada]

I just think the broadcasters and intermission folks are too personality based, for National games in both the US and Canada. Everyone has a separate podcast they try to direct you to for the "real scoop"/inside story and trying to monetize themselves rather than entertaining fans within the confines of the hockey broadcast. I know the print/digital media folks are struggling to continue to make ends meet, but it's all just too much. And add all of the sports betting ads/nonsense and it's just a big miss across the board.

The game has lots of room to grow its fanbase, but not with dull/stiff hosts nor with clowns who think they're bigger than the game.

 

[IronHalen]

Get rid of the f***ing cap. Or add a luxury tax. Bettman is the devil.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Send Steph Curry and LeBron to the Toronto Raptors and ratings for basketball will improve in Canada.

Oh, you don't care if ratings improve in Canada for basketball?

That's how many of us feel about the US and hockey.


That all sounds good to me.

The US is the primary market.

Not Canada.