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Around The League - 2024-25 Regular Season

GrandWazoo said:
The biggest problem with hockey is that you need a rink, and rinks are expensive (and limited). That's not an easy problem to solve.
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Synthetic ice rinks which can be placed outdoors (on a playground) or indoors (all malls are being converted to entertainment for kids facilities anyway) is available.

Yes there’s a cost factor but if NHL wants to truly “grow the game”, they need to think out of the box and find a way to work with business to create the market demand they’re driving for
 
The 80s were the golden age of the NBA in terms of the product not being boring. I don't give a shit how much merch they sold in Dubai, the on court product was great. Those rivalries between the Celtics and Pistons, Celtics and 76ers, were like watching hand to hand combat. You had to be a fucking MAN to play that game.

And college ball, particularly in the Big East, was fantastic too. But basketball today is like a modified version of soccer: a boring spectacle played by metrosexuals who no real fan gives a shit about. We'll marketed to casual fans, sure. But actual basketball fans are bored.
 
What’s happening to basketball is the same thing that happened in baseball a while back… the metrics that favor winning (3 pointers and homers all the time) are not always exciting to watch. And the excitement of stolen bases, hit and runs, suicide squeezes were proven to be detrimental to winning so they were largely cast aside.
 
CH1 said:
What’s happening to basketball is the same thing that happened in baseball a while back… the metrics that favor winning (3 pointers and homers all the time) are not always exciting to watch. And the excitement of stolen bases, hit and runs, suicide squeezes were proven to be detrimental to winning so they were largely cast aside.
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And it's what's going to destroy both sports eventually.
 
CH1 said:
What’s happening to basketball is the same thing that happened in baseball a while back… the metrics that favor winning (3 pointers and homers all the time) are not always exciting to watch. And the excitement of stolen bases, hit and runs, suicide squeezes were proven to be detrimental to winning so they were largely cast aside.
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I remember Al Maguire saying the 3 point changed all and if he were coaching, his team would shoot one all the time as you need to hit 2/3 2 pointers to be ahead of a team hitting 1/3 of 3s
 
lecoqsportif said:
Hockey was third? 4th and a distant 4th. (And in term of eyeballs/time we’re being generous by combining pro and NCAA football and basketball.)

Now 5th.
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I excluded college football because it was an amateur sport, albeit only via technicality.

In the 80s, the NBA didn't have their finals broadcasted live. They were tape delayed. Up until the early 90s ish, the average salary / NBA player was higher than that of a hockey player, but hockey players made slightly more in total. The NBA really started to take off when they got rid of fighting, put much more emphasis on the star players in the 80s & early 90s (Magic, Bird, Jordan leading the way) and emphasized a much skill-oriented game instead of physical game. The NHL's run in the opposite direction: Teams above all else with minimal marketing and put more emphasis on physical play to deter the skill players.

Since Bettman took over, here's the year over year growth hockey salaries:


View: https://x.com/mirtle/status/244460331877924864

Hockey's the only major North American sport where the highest salaried player in the league today is making less than the highest salaried player made twenty years ago. Joe Sakic got a contract where he made $17M in a single season back in 1997. No player since then has ever made $17M in a season. I grant you that it's only a matter of time when McDavid gets his new contract until someone reaches that.

Also of note: The NHL is the only league of the major four in North America that is only now starting to recover from COVID and see their contracts expand. I can't find the link or the numbers, but part of the reason for that is all other leagues were able to recover faster due to their significant TV deals, whereas the NHL was more dependent on ticket sales.

Also of note:
View: https://x.com/walsha/status/1694721790483026152
 
lecoqsportif said:
NBA looks like Indy Car in the 90s - it became too “foreign” for the US market.
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The NBA product has also significantly declined in recent years with the over abundance of 3 point shots.

I'm not a basketball guy, I find virtually all basketball that isn't deep in the playoffs to be woefully bad. But what made the NBA amazing was these giant, super athletes jumping in the air and slamming the ball. Now those players are told to play like Steph Curry and shoot more threes.

It also doesn't help when players routinely sit out games for "load management", when it's been proven to be bullshit. There are players that are playing on a paper knees and can't go every night, see Kawhi Leonard, but that's one player out of a hundred.
 
GGpX said:
I excluded college football because it was an amateur sport, albeit only via technicality.

In the 80s, the NBA didn't have their finals broadcasted live. They were tape delayed. Up until the early 90s ish, the average salary / NBA player was higher than that of a hockey player, but hockey players made slightly more in total. The NBA really started to take off when they got rid of fighting, put much more emphasis on the star players in the 80s & early 90s (Magic, Bird, Jordan leading the way) and emphasized a much skill-oriented game instead of physical game. The NHL's run in the opposite direction: Teams above all else with minimal marketing and put more emphasis on physical play to deter the skill players.

Since Bettman took over, here's the year over year growth hockey salaries:


View: https://x.com/mirtle/status/244460331877924864

Hockey's the only major North American sport where the highest salaried player in the league today is making less than the highest salaried player made twenty years ago. Joe Sakic got a contract where he made $17M in a single season back in 1997. No player since then has ever made $17M in a season. I grant you that it's only a matter of time when McDavid gets his new contract until someone reaches that.

Also of note: The NHL is the only league of the major four in North America that is only now starting to recover from COVID and see their contracts expand. I can't find the link or the numbers, but part of the reason for that is all other leagues were able to recover faster due to their significant TV deals, whereas the NHL was more dependent on ticket sales.

Also of note:
View: https://x.com/walsha/status/1694721790483026152
Click to expand...

part of the NHL's problem with covid is that seven of the biggest revenue producers were ordered not to allow fans for a significant part of the 20-21 and even part of 2021/2022 season whereas the American teams for the most part were full. Hell we had a game in Dec 2021 when fans on the way to a sold out game were told, um no so fast, no crowd tonight. Our declining dollar doesn't help but our govts did shoot many of our teams in the foot.

NFL was full in 2021, NBA the same, and I believe MLB was full no later than July 2021.
 
GGpX said:
I excluded college football because it was an amateur sport, albeit only via technicality.

In the 80s, the NBA didn't have their finals broadcasted live. They were tape delayed. Up until the early 90s ish, the average salary / NBA player was higher than that of a hockey player, but hockey players made slightly more in total. The NBA really started to take off when they got rid of fighting, put much more emphasis on the star players in the 80s & early 90s (Magic, Bird, Jordan leading the way) and emphasized a much skill-oriented game instead of physical game. The NHL's run in the opposite direction: Teams above all else with minimal marketing and put more emphasis on physical play to deter the skill players.

Since Bettman took over, here's the year over year growth hockey salaries:


View: https://x.com/mirtle/status/244460331877924864

Hockey's the only major North American sport where the highest salaried player in the league today is making less than the highest salaried player made twenty years ago. Joe Sakic got a contract where he made $17M in a single season back in 1997. No player since then has ever made $17M in a season. I grant you that it's only a matter of time when McDavid gets his new contract until someone reaches that.

Also of note: The NHL is the only league of the major four in North America that is only now starting to recover from COVID and see their contracts expand. I can't find the link or the numbers, but part of the reason for that is all other leagues were able to recover faster due to their significant TV deals, whereas the NHL was more dependent on ticket sales.

Also of note:
View: https://x.com/walsha/status/1694721790483026152
Click to expand...

Yeah, no national revenue is the big issue, it’s all reliant on ticket sales, game day spending and local tv deals. It’s bad.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
part of the NHL's problem with covid is that seven of the biggest revenue producers were ordered not to allow fans for a significant part of the 20-21 and even part of 2021/2022 season whereas the American teams for the most part were full. Hell we had a game in Dec 2021 when fans on the way to a sold out game were told, um no so fast, no crowd tonight. Our declining dollar doesn't help but our govts did shoot many of our teams in the foot.

NFL was full in 2021, NBA the same, and I believe MLB was full no later than July 2021.
Click to expand...

Oh for Christ sakes this has absolutely nothing to do with COVID. Ridiculous. Hockey has always been 2nd tier sport in the US, plain and simple.
 
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