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Around the League 2019-2024 Edition

Hockey is a winter sport ..... Baseball (lol) and football are usually played outdoors and who the hell would want the NHL to be like the NBA?
Not me .... you're paid for 80, play the 80. body management ROFLMAO.
When it comes to talent levels, no other sport can compare to the athletes the NHL can produce (basketball? travels at speeds and physicality as well as the movement of the puck). Who cares what they have to say, I am interested in their abilities with a puck or ball, not who they vote for or their ideas on government.
Let the game market itself and make the stars a little more of a focus ... but they already do this. Getting rid of every single on-air personality would be a start. Get rid of POS Mclean and all the rest. Get the idiotic female voices they now use ... boring and no real input. Maybe become more of a cutting edge by using AI with an attitude (I know, out there) as the host, or bring in some youngish personalities and prank videos on the players throughout the season. Who cares about hometown hockey except for Mclean ... wasn't that his idea? JMHO
 
I love to listen to anyone who has an idea and is insightful ... but the women on the HNIC feeds are horrible.
 
Market the stars, cut out the suit BS the players walk in with, call the rule book.

Part of hockey's issue is it is a TV show for those in the biggest markets. I'm all for getting kids to a game and making a big deal of it but the area the big market teams miss is getting teens and young adults to games. If attending a game is completely unattainable for a group of friends in their 20s unless they are lawyers or bankers then it will not be a big part of their lives.
 
NHL has shit marketing but let’s face it, the fact that it’s played on ice will always be an impediment to being well loved.
 
From a growth perspective, opinions read on Forum Ice are coming from a demographic that has already bought in. The things that we get pissy about are either trending away from "traditional hockey", or simply do not cater to us. I'm not going to stop watching hockey because they have female hosts - but a crop of new fans just might start.
 
The NBA is the best NA sports league for so many reasons:

- Way more diversity and innovation than NHL/NFL/MLB (POC/Women in broadcast and coaching positions)
- Players have more control over their destiny.
- Players have actual personalities. Hockey players are boring boring boring.
- Load management is used in an effort to preserve the best players for the playoffs instead of game 74
- Luxury tax lets teams who want to spend more, spend more. Hard cap blows.
- National TV product is top notch compared to HNIC.
- Shorter game. NBA game is generally shorter than an NHL game. Much shorter than MLB and NFL as well - although there are less NFL games obviously.
 
It's objectively a better sport too. But baseball and football are beyond unwatchable so I can't necessarily use that as an explanation.
 
From a growth perspective, opinions read on Forum Ice are coming from a demographic that has already bought in. The things that we get pissy about are either trending away from "traditional hockey", or simply do not cater to us. I'm not going to stop watching hockey because they have female hosts - but a crop of new fans just might start.

The male hosts are generally terrible anyway. I'm all for an equal opportunity to be terrible on national TV
 
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