Habs Season Thread: 2024-25 Regular Season
- Thread starter Habsy
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WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
The NHL needs to relocate teams more than it needs to expand, but Bettman won't do that either because the teams he would need to shuffle are his pet projects.
And the thing that he also doesn't get is that TV market size is becoming an outdated way to look at things. Traditional televised sports is dying. Look at Bally Sports, which acquired all the old regional Fox Sports affiliates. Filing for bankruptcy. Now we're hearing rumbles that Bell might just get out of owning television content altogether and refocus on telecommunications instead. We already know that Rogers is taking a bath on its NHL deal. The way forward will not rely on having teams in cities with large populations but in having teams that fans give enough of a shit about to actually seek out and watch.
Leaving aside the fact that Atlantans have proven twice in 50 years that they dont give a shit about the NHL, hockey fans in the rest of the world, the ones who stream NHL content, don't give a shit about Atlanta. So the fact that Atlanta is a big TV market is irrelevant. It's not a big hockey market and it's never going to be.
Quebec City is a small TV market but it's not a small hockey market. People who watch hockey will want to watch the Nordiques far more than they will want to watch the Atlanta Thrashers.
It's time for the NHL to accept the reality that there are large swaths of the United States that, despite their large population concentrations, do not now and never will give two shits about hockey. Put franchises in cities where they are wanted, not in cities where the only people who want them are the property developers who stand to make a fortune off of a taxpayer financed arena.
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
NHL need to get rid of blackouts like 20 years ago. The fact that people can't watch the local team on their tv (without going through some crazy loops) is absolutely asinine. Hard to get people excited to go to games when they can't watch it at home.
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
We know from experience that blacking out Thrashers games in Atlanta didn't help attendance at Phillips Arena. And not blacking them out probably wouldn't have helped either. People in Atlanta don't care. It's a shit sports market. The Braves went to the playoffs for 14 years in a row and couldn't get sellouts for most of them. But they're playing in their 3rd stadium in 40 years so we know what actually matters, don't we?
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
I can't imagine any scenario where blackout helps.
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
It was a theory that team owners (in all pro sports) believed would help drive ticket sales. To my knowledge it was never tested or proven to achieve that, it was simply a belief accepted at face value and put into practice.
worm
Well-known member
NFL used to do them if not sold out, not sure if they still do. I know the CFL used to do it, if a local Lions' fan wanted to watch them, he had to drive to Hope (180km away)
but why would you watch them if you are a Canadiens' fan?
The shell game is wonderful for the owners
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
I don't think it's a thing in Canada as much. And let me clarify, it's not old traditional blackouts where it's not on tv at all, but a by-product of teams having local tv deals with specialized cable companies, so those games don't get shown on Centre Ice/ESPN or other services. The problem is the only way to get those channels is to have cable, or sometimes satellite, which is quite antiquated in this day and age. I couldn't watch the Kraken games in Seattle unless I had Comcast or DirectTv. I couldn't watch Coyotes games in Phoenix either, and I can't watch Vegas or Utah games, either through ESPN, even though they have the NHL tv deal, as they are somehow local games.
To their credits, the Kraken dumped their TV deal after the first after realizing the aberration, and went with over-the-air and streaming instead.
worm
Well-known member
Two local teams are not blacked out.
yeah they are on KONG, love those station names, KING and KONG
I didnt think Seattle would be a legit hockey market this soon
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
We get Seattle US channels on our cable grid in Edmonton and Saturdays game vs the Oilers was on KING, the local NBC affiliate. A few Kraken games this season have been shown on KING.
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
No NBA team meant that there was a pretty big gap to fill. Seattle is a sports city but I don't think it survive a lengthy reconstruction process. People will lose interest if the team is not competitive eventually.
only things that choke me about Seattle getting a team are
a) now my son wants to go to games there too but it is a long day for a game); and
b) the Kraken demolished Northgate Mall to put in their practice rink.
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
First season they were on Roots.
GrandWazoo
Well-known member
Northgate Mall was dying already, you're not missing anything.
But the rinks there were a huge boom for the local hockey league. There were no rinks in Seattle before that.
yeah I know when we played there, it was either Lynnwood or Mountlake Terrace, I think there was one in Kent that was an old Safeway
My wife liked the mall, and I liked the Barnes & Noble there. Now we just go to Bellevue.