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NHL's U.S. television future remains unclear

WILLIAM HOUSTON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 7:40 PM EST 14/02/08

When NBC makes a decision on its future with the NHL, the other pieces related to U.S. television will fall into place ...Read the full article

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  1. Mariposa Belle from Leacockland, Canada writes: Your Rock Star Curling mention. In the USA, yes they could be world class - Jamaica competes in bob-sleigh, New Zealand could compete in curling.

    Any athlete could be taught the basics of curling in a week. They would be good inside fo a month. The only difference would be deep understanding which comes from years of playing.

    Sometimes the rookies see clearer that the veterans.
  2. Man and Superman from Canada writes: one more reason to bring the weak- market US teams back to Canada!

    Its not working!
  3. Sandy T. from Canada writes: Just what the Vast Wasteland needs... John Ferguson Jr. bloviating ad nauseam as a between periods 'expert'.

    Given his penchant for verbal diarrhoea, and given the fact that within all his interminable babble he never actually says anything at all, it looks as if TSN's gone and got itself another winner here - if they're lucky, this move may even approach the success of The Great Tie Domi Experiment.

    One can only hope.
  4. paddy o'reilly from Canada writes: The rock star curling thing seems ideally suited in particular to the clowns that do the hockey play-by-play on Versus and NBC. They don't seem to get the fact that hockey isn't played at a snails pace like baseball and football necessitating endless "expert" commentary to keep the audience awake. I thought Pierre Maguire's endless blather while the play was on was bad until I got a load of Eddie Olczk and whoever else they use. The guy that called the game last night on TSN from Colorado was actually fairly good when he stuck to describing the play, but he and Eddie just don't seem to think that that detail is a priority. Kind of strange given that Eddie was a pretty decent player at one time

    American's just don't seem to get hockey. I guess it's just too fast for them.
  5. George Hall from Canada writes: I don't think Americans take NHL hockey all that serious....you know the old joke " I went to the fights last night and a hockey game broke out"
  6. Matt O from Canada writes: Not to sound mean-spirited, but I wish the league nothing but ill in its pursuit of new American television contracts...only for the reason that any success will look good on Bettman, and he's expiry date is long past.

    The sooner Gary goes, the sooner this league can get to coming close to what it was until he took over. Many readers may be too young to remember, but there was a time until not that long ago when hockey was actually an interesting and exciting sport to watch.
  7. Proud Canadian from Canada writes: Americans are Baseball, Football, Nascar. Thats it. They put 100G into a college football game, that many into NFL, 80 G at a baseball game on Sat aft and 200G or close to it every Sat and Sun at a Nascar track anywhere in the States. I am in Columbus area of Ohio every night, thats their bread and butter. As I stated before, the only thing they know about hockey is Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburg Penguins. Nothing else matters. So why is Butthead trying to put teams in Key West Florida, Punta Cana Dominican or Honolulu where they will starve? Hey, he's a New York Lawyer, not much in his head other than a lot of dusty air.
  8. Proud Canadian from Canada writes: Matt O. Your last paragraph is dead on. Dead on. Either cut the number of teams or move some of them to European cities. Fail that, Canadian cities.
  9. Larfing Outloud from Virgin Islands (British) writes: One thing most hockey fans can agree on: Buttman must GO!
  10. Hy Borne from Rosedale, Canada writes: "the average has dropped to a remarkably poor 0.8." (rating)

    ..."NBC isn't losing money in its profit-sharing deal with the NHL, but it could be earning more by airing something else on Sunday afternoons"

    - they made more with infomercials and figure skating 9way more). Hockey will NOT work in the US, give up Gary. Close down some (all) of the weak franchises, re-distribute the players and make the on ice product better in REAL hockey markets....and I don't mean Ottawa, the jury is still out on that being a real hockey market
  11. Hy Borne from Rosedale, Canada writes: JFJ in the studio - Is this an improvement on Tie Domi??? Both talk like they have a mouth full of marbles, except one has a vocabulary, the other doesn't. They both have giant egos - and neither one of them makes for good TV....This pig won't fly TSN. Don't let this guy shame himself any more than he has.
  12. Robert Miller from Halifax, Canada writes: JFJ on TSN -- Perhaps he can give some commentary on how not to manage a hockey team...

    Also reminds me of Tie Domi telling us how not to play hockey...
  13. scott ballard from Portland OR, writes: hockey is played in the evening, so broadcast the games in the evening. I am not going to plan an entire day around a game in the middle of the day. Much easier to watch at night. And yes, give up on trying to convert the entire US to hockey fans, it is a regional sport here. Where the water bodies freeze they play hockey where they dont freeze they play the other 3 sports.
  14. dallas mcquarrie from Regina, Canada writes: The NHL's fixation with cracking a hostile American market has kept possible franchises out of Canada for years. I hope NBC dumps hockey all together and rankings on both cable and broadcast TV in the United States go all the way to zero. It would be very nice to see half a dozen U.S. franchises added in the last decade or two go belly up. Maybe Quebec City or Halifax or Hamilton or Winnipeg could get an NHL franchise.
  15. Dickie Longstocking from Canada writes: I'd sooner see failing US franchises move to Europe , though Canada is preferable, than see the situation continue as is.

    teams in Quebec, out West, Southern Ontario and Eastern Canada would be nice.
  16. Gary Dare from Portland, Oregon, Canada, writes: Hockey on US TV, at least cable, will work as long as it isn't overvalued, which is the case with the current NHL leadership under Bettman. ESPN would have taken the NHL back on a free, no rights, profit sharing deal like NBC's but Comcast was willing (foolish?) to pay. Some regionals will do well (e.g., Avs, Flyers, Rangers) and others won't. The new Oregon-oriented Comcast SportsNet Northwest (Fox Sportsnet NW is nicknamed FSN Seattle!) has a small pseudo-regional package of a few Canucks and Sharks games plus the odd Avs or Flyers game, which it didn't pay much for (it is not part of the Versus deal) and makes just a bit more money than reruns of last night's Blazers or Oregon or OSU game. The price just has to be right!
  17. johnny meahan from halifax, Canada writes: the rock star curling makes me laugh, i think it's a great idea. I have no doubt that you could take 4 good athletes and make them world class curlers with a year of intensive training. I have played in 4 curling bonspeils in my life and have won two against ppl who have curled their whole life. Even without the rock star angle i still think this is a good reality TV show idea (at least no worst then the ones on now; the Hills anyone?)
    As far as JFJ as a analyst; TSN has a long history of terrible hockey braodcasters. Pierre McGuire and Glenn Healy are the worst, i don't know how they are allowed on TV. Check out the anti McGuire groups on facebook. really funny.
  18. Billy Biroux from Polar Bear Pit, Nunavet, Canada writes: Canadian hockey fans should be estatic the NHL is failing on US Tv.
    Because if it was doing well, we'd be subjected to more afternoon hockey games, afternoon playoff games, and hockey going into July so as not to confict with the NFL.

    Plus it wouldn't benefit Canadian teams one bit, beause American networks will not show Canadian teams. Meaning Bettman would make sure there isn't another Canadian franchise in the NHL ever.

    So look on the bright side. The game fails down there. We get our game back. And the game is only played in places that want it.
    Plus the NHL looks to better markets then the USA ie Europe.
    This scenario is nothing but win-win-win.
  19. Dick Lenning from Edmonton, Canada writes: I cannot understand how the NHL could even consider begging NBC to sign another broadcasting contract, especially after NBC spit in the face of the NHL by leaving a Buffalo Sabres PLAYOFF game in OVERTIME in favour of horse racing! In spite of a crack down on cheating (i.e. hooking, clutching and grabbing) and US-based continuing their Stanley Cup dominance, ratings have still declined!

    If it hasn't been made clear already, Gary Bettman's reign as NHL commissioner has been a failure, and he must be fired immediately!
  20. ghostofpatbuchanen buchanen from Victoria, Canada writes: Hard to build an audience when NBC shows the Rangers snoozefest every weekend. Plus, those games are practically over before I even roll out of bed on Sunday.
  21. Robert Coles from Sydney, Australia writes: Oh Harry, the Canadians don't like afternoon hockey, but as far as I am concered when your name is Bob Cole and Harry Neal we are too old to stay up past 7PM (in Newfoundland) to call a game. If we do then we start calling everyone on the Senators, i.e. "Ottawa carries it through the blueline and passes it over to Ottawa" He comes Ottawa now, and Harry would continue to call the Sedin twins from the Koov, the Sundins. Because as you can see, even though Harry works with the Sabres, he still only knows the greatest team in the history of hockey: The Leafs and as everyone else knows that Mats Sundin is the greatest player to ever play the game (despite the fact he has less 100 point seasons than Sid the kid). I am begging CBC to carry more afternoon games or else they'll have to give the important games to announcers who know that there is 29 other teams in the league, which is something myself and Harry still haven't figured out. I curled in the Brier back in 1971 and 1975, but when it comes to my NHL record books about the other non-important 29 NHL teams I still have yet to sweep the dust off those books, mainly because I was a skip and nobody cares about teams outside the GTA.
  22. Justin Ferron from Ottawa, Canada writes: " Close down some (all) of the weak franchises, re-distribute the players and make the on ice product better in REAL hockey markets....and I don't mean Ottawa, the jury is still out on that being a real hockey market "

    Not that I'm overly offended being from Ottawa, but I would like to point out that for a city that one may consider to not be a real hockey market, we sell out nearly if not every game, upwards of 20,000 tickets, in standing area and all.
  23. garlick toast from Canada writes: the league needs to buy up faltering franchises and fold them up,hold a dispersal draft.also,any team not able to make proper ice should forfeit the game.i saw a replay of some player breaking his leg when his skate got caught in a crack.it was brutal and not what our game deserves.
  24. P McLean from Canada writes: Remember one thing about folding franchises: less canadian hockey players in total in the NHL. I don't know the current makeup, but if 4 or 6 franchises disappear(which in one sense I think would be a good thing for the product), don't use nationalism bceause those 120 spots lost won't all be Europeans and Russians and Americans. Or do you really think Ottawa with its 12 Canadian players was more of a "Canadian" team than Anaheim with their 17 Canadians?
  25. Gary Dare from Portland, Oregon, Canada, writes: Billy Biroux writes, "Plus it wouldn't benefit Canadian teams one bit, beause American networks will not show Canadian teams." NBC had the Habs versus Rangers a couple of weeks ago. US hockey fans will watch a game against a Canada-based team especially a winning one. The NHL's problem is that too few are even watching games on American TV between two US-based teams.

    Thanks to the new Comcast Sportsnet NW regional NHL package, the Canucks are one of Portland's part-time home teams along with the Sharks. We had Flames at Sharks on Monday but not Oilers at Sharks tonight. We also get some other odd games like Blackhawks at Oilers last weekend. This Sunday, CSN will have Habs at Flyers after the NBC game ends on KGW 8.
  26. Hy Borne from Rosedale, Canada writes: I know there are rabid fans in Ottawa justin. But wait until you get a few seasons like the Maple Laffs are going through and see how any sellouts, or almost sellouts happen - I still remember the pre-melnyk days when no one wanted to buy the team.

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