Day-after Stanley Cup column

Not anymore.

If the NHL should try to use the Ted Stepien-style, owner-detrimental-to-the-franchise rule on an owner, it should be Bill Wirtz. Lots of people PLAY hockey in Chicago. None of them watches the Blackhawks version of it anymore. Between overpriced seats, bad teams, and no home games on TV, it's like Wirtz is TRYING to make sure no one comes to games.

 

If the NHL should try to use the Ted Stepien-style, owner-detrimental-to-the-franchise rule on an owner, it should be Jeremy Jacobs. Lots of people PLAY hockey in Boston. None of them watches the Bruins version of it anymore. Between overpriced seats, bad teams, and no home games on TV, it's like Jacobs is TRYING to make sure no one comes to games.

 

Maybe you should threaten to murder him.

 

what?

 

Check out this thread on a Hurricanes fans message board:

http://mb3.scout.com/fcarolinacanesfrm1.showMessage?topicID=6786.topic

It includes fans posting his responses to their e-mail messages.

This idiot is now saying that a Stanley Cup title doesn't count as a major title.

 

The Bruins don't put home games on TV, either?

 

sorry, chicago is worse....we do get the home games. Its so sad to see these franchises fall so far.............I always liked the Blackhawks.

 

If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around.....

The NHL has got to get off OLN. Great improvements to the product this year with the rule changes and playoff hockey takes a backseat to nothing in terms of sporting drama.

But, if no one is able to 'purchase' the product, you're not going to be able to drive up demand and build the sport. And no one in America has OLN (slight exaggeration for dramatic purposes....)

I don't buy that hockey has to  be a niche sport. If they can fill arenas night after night at some pretty expensive prices, they can get an audience who'll watch, especially come playoff time.

Get the playoffs back on a venue that has the broad reach--ESPN the obvious choice; maybe USA or another cable mainstay if Bristol still says no go.  Sacrifice short term in terms of revenue/cost and build the future. It can be done.

 

 

I dug up the SI article from 1994. Nice little trip down memory lane. I found an article on Todd Bertuzzi as a rookie. Forgotten he was once Islander property.

Anyway, yes, this SI cover article appeared after the popular Rangers won, but prior to the first lockout, which killed any momentum the league had going. Also written when new teams like the Sharks, Panthers and Lightning were relatively new novelties in their areas.

6-20-1994, E.M. Swift

Here are a couple of notes:

Tommy Hilfiger is quoted because hockey jerseys have "a great shape, very oversized, with neat emblems and great colors. And it's cool because hockey is kind of a rough sport." (Yeah, there's a fan of the sport)

Article mentions NHL licensing had increased 600 percent over the last five years (Hmm...Gretzky in LA, no?), but notes that the NBA had increased 333 percent and was at $2.5 billion. (I don't see the NHL amount, but it says it's "well below" the NBA).

Cites how the EA Sports 94 NHL video game is hotter than the 94 NBA one. (Not real clear on how that translates into fans of the actual sport.)

Priceless quotes:
"Honest, genuine and sexy - what's what I keep hearing about our players. This game has been underexposed, and that makes it fresh. From a marketing point, we have to do a better job with our athletes. ... To do a little chest-thumping. But all that will come." -- Bernadette Mansur. (Really, Bern? At the time I read this, I had been spouting that theory for five years, when I first heard of the sport. 12 years after you uttered these worse, we're still waiting.)

And here's the little man (no, the other little man) on ESPN's "miniscule" 1.8 and ABC's 1.7 (six games):
"Nobody should read too much into the ratings. We were off TV so many years, we're in the rebuilding process. If we were still getting those numbers in five years, I'd be disappointed."

And, less notably, the five-page article is allegedly about how basketball is waning in popularity, but that's the first topic it addresses. Maybe it's a bad news-good news thing, but I was always taught in journalism that you start with the most important and leave the lesser stuff for the end.

 

Hay, thees is Kint Kang callin'. Whuddya thank about those Caynes?

 

Getting back to the southern hospitality thing, I saw it first-hand when I was in Raleigh for the draft two years ago.

There was a convenience store across the street from my hotel and I popped over one day to get some beer. The dude behind the counter, a rough-looking redneck type, asked me for my ID. At that time I was almost 39 and told him I couldn't believe he was carding me. He pointed to some sign by the regiater that said they card virtually everybody. I figured there was no point in arguing with the guy about it so I ran back to the hotel and grabbed my passport (I don't drive so that's the only ID I have when I travel). I was gone two minutes, tops, and when I get back I go to the counter I reach for the beer which is still sitting there.

The guy says, "Leave it. That beer's got warm since you've been gone." He goes to the cooler, gets another case and brings it back. "I will not let a man leave this store with warm beer."

Can't argue with that kind of service.