More bad news for the old NHL.
"Negotiations between the NHL and ESPN have reached an impasse over whether the cable sports giant will exercise a one-year option for $60 million to carry games if and when next season begins."
"ESPN's option [expired] Wednesday, and the company won't exercise it, putting hockey's cable rights into play. Talks have been held with a handful of other suitors, including Spike TV."
posted by jr at 01:01 A.M. EST on Fri Jun 03, 2005 #
I have become disenchanted with hockey since the implosion of the NHL last year.
Mind you, I have been watching the Red Wings since I was born. As a kid, I watched Gordie Howe on Channel 50 in Detroit and Channel 9 out of Windsor.
I suffered through those horrid 1970s Wings teams, and worked at the Joe for 8 years, watching Ilitch slowly build the Wings into a contender.
In the 1990s, after I had moved to Toledo, I stayed loyal. After a few near-misses, the Wings finally capped many decades of title drought with those back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.
That being said, it will take me a long time to return as an NHL fan; when MLB struck in 1994, it took me until about 1998 to return to my former interest level.
That is, of course, if the NHL can survive this mess.
The NFL, with the exception of the replacement-player year, has managed to avoid these destructive strikes. This is probably why the fan support is so high, and why football can make a strong claim for the title of "America's New National Pasttime."
posted by historymike at 06:46 A.M. EST on Fri Jun 03, 2005 #
Am I the only one confused by the league having two teams in Europe? For a small struggling new league, those kinds of travel expenses seem extravagant. How popular is ice hockey in France anyway?
-Dan
posted by photodan at 08:28 A.M. EST on Fri Jun 03, 2005 #
I must admit I haven't missed hockey at all. I don't think I've ever watched more that 20 seconds of a hockey match, the time it takes to fumble for a misplaced remote.
If you can get channel 9 from Windsor, you get to see some pretty good movies instead. Not a bad trade IMHO.
I only wish that football, basketball, baseball etc. would similarly strike!
Now why don't liberals complain about the obscene salaries some of these (worthless imho) sports figures pull in vis-a-vis the poor, working class sports consumer! ;-)
swd (not into sports much if you can't tell)
posted by swd at 05:05 P.M. EST on Fri Jun 03, 2005 #
The league has been talking that past few days.
"The NHL and players' association will meet for a third straight day of negotiations on Friday following two days of small-group talks that focused on revenue calculation and financial reporting."
"The sides have focused on a review of revenue measurement and financial reporting issues, trying to reach common ground on team-by-team revenues and how to associate them to a salary cap. The league and union have agreed that a salary cap model with an upper and lower limit will be the centerpiece of a new collective bargaining agreement."
And ...
"One of the most radical experiments that will be tried during the three-day NHL research camp next week would obliterate obstruction and free up skilled players to score more goals. Get this: the blue-lines are replaced by thin lines five feet from the top of the faceoff circles. The change would allow forwards more freedom to find open ice, significantly reducing the ability of checkers to obstruct their movements."
posted by jr at 05:14 P.M. EST on Fri Jun 03, 2005 #
If the NHL ever plays again, there will be some rule changes.
"The most likely changes in NHL play for next season are shootouts, smaller goalie equipment and tag-up offsides. Some of the radical stuff being tested is too over the top for many GMs. Shootouts would be used to determine a winner if a game remained tied after a five-minute overtime period."
posted by jr at 02:06 P.M. EST on Wed Jun 08, 2005 #
The NHL has a new public relations director in Philadelphia Flyers center Jeremy Roenick who said recently:
"We're going to try to make it better for everybody, period, end of subject. And if you don't realize that, then don't come. We don't want you at the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey. I say personally, to everybody who called us 'spoiled,' you guys are just jealous ... we have tried so, so hard to get this game back on the ice. If people are going to chastise professional athletes who are making a lot of money they need to look at the deal we are probably going to end up signing in the next three weeks."
Calling Roenick an idiot is giving him too much credit. I wonder if the NHL got that Spike TV contract yet?
Another viewpoint:
"Of all those people who could justifiably be criticized over the loss of the NHL season, its shrinking popularity and woeful financial state, ripping the disenchanted fan base makes about as much sense as blaming fireflies for forest fires."
"Is it possible that the dismal state of the National Hockey League could descend from its already tragic tale of suicidal stupidity into a deeper death spiral of almost comic proportions?"
"How can anyone be so stupid? Has Roenick checked the numbers on hockey lately? His sport is careening into insignificance in this country. The television numbers reflect an undeniable truth about the NHL's state of affairs south of the Canadian border: Though it does have a passionate hockey fan base, it is shrinking like cellophane under a heat lamp."
"No one is going to sympathize with hockey players who think they should be paid as much as NBA and NFL players, even if the minuscule size of the NHL television contract says they ought to be being paid along the scale of WNBA players and American pro soccer players."
posted by jr at 02:50 P.M. EST on Tue Jun 28, 2005 #
"The NHL and the players' association reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a six-year labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season. Both sides still need to ratify the deal, a pact that is expected to contain a salary cap -- something players' association executive director Bob Goodenow never wanted."
"If all goes according to plan, a scaled-down draft is expected to be held later this month and training camps will open from Vancouver to Miami in September. Real NHL games will be back on the schedule come October. There will also be several rules changes that could run the gamut from the size of goaltender equipment to the installation of a shootout to eliminate tie games."
I wonder who will televise the NHL?
posted by jr at 01:07 P.M. EST on Wed Jul 13, 2005 #
Maybe BCSN will pick them up. There should be enough of a fan base left for the local access cable stations to put the NHL on.
(sorry for the bitterness - I may never get over it. I am still pissed at MLB for the 1994 strike. The only league I still love is the NFL, who has been strike-free the longest)
posted by historymike at 02:30 P.M. EST on Wed Jul 13, 2005 #
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