Does Anybody Else Find An Effective 8:30 ET Start Time Horrendous?

[Tillain]

Wish it came on even earlier.

 

[IceManCat]

In Europe they eat dinner at like 10:30 PM.

In America 8:30 game start time = criminal.

 

[nucks88]

Agreed that nobody cares about Alberta...never have...never will. The odd thing is that their are a lot of radio ads BEGGING for Canucks fans to move to Alberta. They will pay you 5 grand! Seems odd to beg for Canucks fans to go to Alberta and properly establish a PRO-BC playing field so these second rate eastern teams know where they stand.

Well if all the Albertans got the hell out of the Okanagan and Shuswap and went home they could save their advertising dollars……

 

[paragon]

8:30 is the absolutely worst timing for European fans. For Finns that means the game starts at 3:30 at night. Too late to stay up and too early to get up to watch games. I understand why they do it, but it still sucks.

 

[User1996]

The problem with a late start time is if there ends up being multiple periods of overtime...

At a time when audience numbers should swell due to the drama that comes with OT, viewers are dropping like flies as they have to get up in 5 or 6 hours...

So the solution to that is to have an empty arena at puck drop by not giving western fans enough time to get to the game?

 

[algernon]

I like the idea of starting at 7:05 in the west, and blacking out the Eastern time-zone on a 2 hour delay.

 

[zombie kopitar]

Take it from a born New Englander. West Coast is the best coast.

As a west coaster now livin in TN, central is such a great time zone for sports , games just never be starting too early or too late

 

[coolboarder]

What the league should do is cater to the local fans who purchased the tickets that has to work to earn money to pay for the tickets. Getting off work early hurts the local fans with their paycheck. It is better for the health of the league to cater to their local fans, not the networks. The local fans are the league's main gate revenue even before the TV deal. 7pm is the optimization of the fan full experience of their game day experience that included a proper meal time. Fans of the west coast do not get the same benefits if their road games start at 5pm for some of them are still at work, or stuck in the traffic on their way home so ask yourselves, why should we cater to your whim when you get the benefit of watching the game without worrying about your paycheck for you sit at the comfort of the home, go bed at 11pm, wake up to go work without worrying about any early dismissal from work hurting their paycheck. How is that fair? I call it a East coast bias type of treatment for decades.. The bottom line is that the companies in located in the west coast suffer from the ability to conduct their business by not able to finish their business hours at its full capacity.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Why in the world did the NHL decide to do this is beyond me, I guess to gain 10,000 west coast viewers or something.

It basically a compromise between west coast and east coast.
Before double headers, every game started at 8pm in the east.

At least you’re trying to watch it, on another thread most leaf fans said not watching it.
One Leaf poster said would rather cut the grass.