The National Hockey League needs to work on its image.
It is October. Baseball playoffs are about to conclude, the NBA season has just begun and we are right in the middle of the NFL season. Then there is hockey. If you asked your average sports fan why they thought the Toronto Maple Leafs were so bad, they would respond with “Don’t you mean the Blue Jays?,” and when you inform them you are referring to hockey, they will respond with, “What, hockey season is going on?”
Why is this the case? As a culture, aren’t Americans stereotypically in love with violence? Few sports offer as much carnage as the NHL does. Truly, the athletes who play hockey are the toughest in the world. Even a simple check would draw a penalty (and a fine) in the National Football League. That sport is sometimes criticized for glamorizing violence, so why doesn’t hockey get that same rap?
Part of that has to do with what network the NHL is on. A team’s games can be broadcast on a local affiliate, but for big national matchups between big teams, where are the games broadcast? It used to be ESPN. The ratings were not stellar there, but with some work they could have drawn more interest.
Then it moved to the Versus Network, which used to be the Outdoor Life Network. Have you never heard of it? Congratulations, neither have most people. I don’t imagine a lot of folks spend their time cruising the upper 300 in the channel registry in hopes to find a hockey game.
The first thing the NHL needs to do to gain back some broad appeal is to switch networks. Why not complain to NBC to air more hockey games on a weekly basis? They could revolve its weekend schedule around college football and hockey. That would be awesome. You could watch Notre Dame underwhelm everybody one minute, and then the next be totally in awe of how amazing Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals are.
What it needs to do next is market its stars. There are a couple of hockey players that are close to household names, namely Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin. When those two play, more people seem to pay attention. Why not market more people like that? The NHL does not have a figure that approaches Kobe Bryant or Peyton Manning or Manny Ramirez. It can change that.
I like to watch sports when they are played well, but drawing power cannot be denied. I was never a fan of Michael Vick, even when he was “good.” It was hard to deny that people would pay to see him. When people were choosing one game a year to buy tickets to, they would choose a Falcons game. Why? He was a star.
No offense to center Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings, but nobody is buying tickets to see him play. Nobody is looking for VS. to see a Kings game. Did you even know he existed before you read this sentence? He leads the NHL in points. If the NHL took time to market some of its good players and try to make them household names perhaps more people would tune into hockey to watch these stars.
One final change it needs to make sure to do is stress that there is no danger of another lockout. The lockout ended in 2005, but public perception may be that it is still a wobbly league on its last legs. League Commissioner Gary Bettman needs to reach out to the general public and say “No, we will not go under again.”
It kills me that the NHL does not get the public attention it deserves. Behind major league baseball, it is my favorite sport. FOX reported through the first three weeks of the regular season, it is averaging 17.2 million viewers for NFL regular season games with an 11.2 television rating.
For Game 7 of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Redwings, NBC got 7.51 million viewers and a 3.0 television rating.
The numbers don’t lie, interest in the NHL is low. Something needs to be done to get this sport the recognition it deserves.
Derek Robbins can be reached at 536-3311 ext.269
