Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 6 hours ago, Ghostsof1915 said: The NBA is successful despite itself. The players dictate who wins. There's no loyalty. They are all mercenaries. Rarely, if ever, do small market teams ever build and win championships. The fanbase in hockey I would say is just as passionate and committed as the NBA. It's just no where near the size. A great point was made, take a person to live game. Most of the time once they watch it live, they will turn into a fan. Can't do that in a covid upside down world. I'm still not sure the NHL's southern expansion has worked. Arizona/Phoenix seems to be a dud, as is Southern Florida. I'm going to be curious to see how long term if the fans will still be there in Vegas. Especially if that team starts to struggle. Especially now with the NFL in Vegas. How can you say this with Denver doing what they're doing right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24K PureCool Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Bob.Loblaw said: How can you say this with Denver doing what they're doing right now To be fair, he did say rarely and this Nuggets team sure is rare. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Dog Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 4 hours ago, N7Nucks said: NBA and NFL are suffering cause a lot of Americans are up in their feels about the BLM movement finding it's way into those leagues. Specifically the NBA. Not having any fans does make the NHL games feel rather empty, but for me personally it's fine. So I wonder if the NHL viewing experience is suffering without fans in attendance. Americans have a hard enough time tracking the puck as is, can't imagine empty stands helps them enjoy the game. That’s understandable to people who just don’t want politics mixed with sports. People who just want to watch sports. A lot of people can have real criticisms about the BLM group. Especially given with the NBA and how they are tied up with appeasing China and how they aren’t gonna criticize them with the Hong Kong situation because of the $$$. That’s gonna leave people scratching there heads too. So I can imagine that’s a part of the reason but there has to be more factors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tre Mac Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 6 hours ago, Twilight Sparkle said: If King of the hill taught me anything is high school football is everything in Texas XD 'If you weren't my son I'd hug you.' 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyCuddles Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Junkyard Dog said: That’s understandable to people who just don’t want politics mixed with sports. People who just want to watch sports. A lot of people can have real criticisms about the BLM group. Especially given with the NBA and how they are tied up with appeasing China and how they aren’t gonna criticize them with the Hong Kong situation because of the $$$. That’s gonna leave people scratching there heads too. So I can imagine that’s a part of the reason but there has to be more factors. For sure, I am not saying it's the sole reason. But from the videos I seen and comments made on Twitter a lot of Americans are tuning out NBA and NFL because of BLM making it's way to em. I do admit I am not a huge fan. Watch sports to get away from politics but I enjoy sports too much to boycott them when I can just tune out those things. NBA and their love for the Chinese market seems to largely fly under the radar for fans, which is funny cause as a video game person I hear Overwatch fans continuously roast Blizzard because they fined a Chinese Hearthstone player for his protest but Overwatch is all about BLM apparently. Thought that was pretty neat. Weird times for sports. Weird times period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Dog Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 Just now, N7Nucks said: For sure, I am not saying it's the sole reason. But from the videos I seen and comments made on Twitter a lot of Americans are tuning out NBA and NFL because of BLM making it's way to em. I do admit I am not a huge fan. Watch sports to get away from politics but I enjoy sports too much to boycott them when I can just tune out those things. NBA and their love for the Chinese market seems to largely fly under the radar for fans, which is funny cause as a video game person I hear Overwatch fans continuously roast Blizzard because they fined a Chinese Hearthstone player for his protest but Overwatch is all about BLM apparently. Thought that was pretty neat. Weird times for sports. Weird times period. To stand with BLM and to keep quiet on China/Hong Kong because of that Chinese money is gonna ruffle a lot of feathers and rightfully so. That would piss the $&!# off of Hong Kong protesters. TBH it is probably best for the companies/athletes to keep quiet unless they're willing to stand up for both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkSave Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 I'll keep tuning into watch Kucherov. Guy does something incredible every game and hardly seems like he is trying. Oh and Hedman is playing the best hockey of his career. TBL should win the cup, even if Stammer can't come back and play in the series. I also enjoy watching Seguin struggle. He is currently the Stars version of Loui Erickson; an offensive black hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyCuddles Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Junkyard Dog said: To stand with BLM and to keep quiet on China/Hong Kong because of that Chinese money is gonna ruffle a lot of feathers and rightfully so. That would piss the $&!# off of Hong Kong protesters. TBH it is probably best for the companies/athletes to keep quiet unless they're willing to stand up for both. Companies will never truly care about anything but the bottom line. They "support" BLM cause it'd look bad not too and cause there's no real downside to supporting BLM. If they support the Chinese protests all of a sudden it's a problem and they'll either say nothing or condemn those that work for them for supporting the Chinese protests like Blizzard did with their Hearthstone player that supported the Chinese protests. Nobody is truly for doing the right thing unless the right thing also benefits them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Dog Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 38 minutes ago, N7Nucks said: Companies will never truly care about anything but the bottom line. They "support" BLM cause it'd look bad not too and cause there's no real downside to supporting BLM. If they support the Chinese protests all of a sudden it's a problem and they'll either say nothing or condemn those that work for them for supporting the Chinese protests like Blizzard did with their Hearthstone player that supported the Chinese protests. Nobody is truly for doing the right thing unless the right thing also benefits them. All about the $$$ and PR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 Well that’s the US for you. It’s not at all surprising that Gretzky is considered a top two most influential moment in hockey history. Without him we’d probably still be hovering around a 21 team league. Agree the league needs to market their stars better but until a player like that comes back I doubt hockey in the US will gain a lot of traction even against NASCAR. Hockey is awesome. But the Canadian market as usual, is driving the bus. The first biggest moment is considered expansion from the original six to 12 teams ... now its 32. Better stop there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 3 hours ago, IBatch said: Well that’s the US for you. It’s not at all surprising that Gretzky is considered a top two most influential moment in hockey history. Without him we’d probably still be hovering around a 21 team league. Agree the league needs to market their stars better but until a player like that comes back I doubt hockey in the US will gain a lot of traction even against NASCAR. Hockey is awesome. But the Canadian market as usual, is driving the bus. The first biggest moment is considered expansion from the original six to 12 teams ... now its 32. Better stop there. There are some truly great hockey fanbases down there though. Colorado, Philly, Chicago, Islanders, Rangers, Sharks, Minnesota are the first ones that come to mind... Making inroads though with a team full of Swedish and Eastern European players is a tough sell in some of those places. Honestly, I have to say that Vancouver's fanbase is very wishy-washy too. When we're not winning, nobody cares. In Montreal you'd have Habs fans that still follow their team through the dark times and more importantly care about hockey outside of Montreal. You see this reflected in some of the attitudes when it comes to watching the Canucks. You'll find a fan that's so self-centered that they'll say "I can't believe Canucks are choosing to sit back and letting the other team win the game. Yeah we won the game but the other team was better in the 2nd period because we let them." It's like these people have no concept of the fact that the other team is not an AI simulation in a video game. /rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 (edited) 46 minutes ago, VancouverHabitant said: There are some truly great hockey fanbases down there though. Colorado, Philly, Chicago, Islanders, Rangers, Sharks, Minnesota are the first ones that come to mind... Making inroads though with a team full of Swedish and Eastern European players is a tough sell in some of those places. Honestly, I have to say that Vancouver's fanbase is very wishy-washy too. When we're not winning, nobody cares. In Montreal you'd have Habs fans that still follow their team through the dark times and more importantly care about hockey outside of Montreal. You see this reflected in some of the attitudes when it comes to watching the Canucks. You'll find a fan that's so self-centered that they'll say "I can't believe Canucks are choosing to sit back and letting the other team win the game. Yeah we won the game but the other team was better in the 2nd period because we let them." It's like these people have no concept of the fact that the other team is not an AI simulation in a video game. /rant I really like what you said about the first part but sorry I lost you on the latter parts. The only hockey video game I ever player was back in the early 90’s, my bro would always play the Canucks and I’d always play the loaded Detroit team... Paul Yserbeart coming down the wing right at the goal line would score 9 out of ten times ha ha ... but whenever the gloves dropped I’d get fed some punches - that team (Diduck, Hunter, Odjick, etc) had a whole bunch of guys ranked 73 - 90 for fighting. I had Probert of course but didn’t help much ha ha. So can’t talk about video games much (and I was over 20 back then) but can say living out East the past decade yes - OTT, TO and MTL fans seem to get behind their team no matter what. When 50-60k fans grab their chairs and go watch regular seasons home games outside on the big screen ... and it’s TO losing like usual. Well that’s another level of dedication isn’t it? Go to games in MTL every year the past 11, I’m usually just as or more enthralled with their statues, outside skating rink, entire half of the outside bowl just showing their plaques and write ups of past greats - plus the fire hazard of banners in the roof tops as I am with the MTL vs Canucks game going on. Not the same in OTT, but so those Hab fans are spoiled rotten historically. That said OTT has a better arena for watching the games by far - ever seat is a good one. MTL arena is designed for money - not a lot of cozy in there. Miss the Pacific Colusseum with the white boards - best arena I’ve ever been in. To me there are the old fans. Ones that were around in the early/‘mid 90’s and before. And the new fans which grew up with a lot of winning during both the WCE and Sedin era. Yes a little spoiled too at least compared to us old dogs. And hopefully new fans too. Really won’t judge - I’m happy to talk to any fan - and a ton of newer fans (for me that’s WCE and onward) have expressed a huge interest in our history. AJ that’s you! And 189lbs I know your pain. And Biestra - well we’ve been through a lot haven’t we? And Creed/Apollo - well I can’t wait to see what you have to say when we finally win a cup. Edited September 24, 2020 by IBatch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grape Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 On 9/23/2020 at 8:13 AM, Battlemonger said: I guess people are not interested with politics in their sports. I guess they used to watch sports to get a break from politics. So, I guess quite a few people just stopped watching sports. It's been pretty well documented that politics has very little to do with the viewership tanking. COVID and its many resulting obstacles are by far the largest reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Biestra Posted September 25, 2020 Share Posted September 25, 2020 17 hours ago, IBatch said: And Biestra - well we’ve been through a lot haven’t we? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt kilgore Posted September 25, 2020 Share Posted September 25, 2020 On 9/23/2020 at 6:45 AM, Twilight Sparkle said: my OP was about the NHL failing to market itself and its players, outside of the powers that be, that strapped the rocket to the crosbys and ovechkins to the american market. rogers has done its part in selling new talent like elias pettersson and quinn hughes, nathan mackinnon, etc to the national market, but the NHL itself has done nothing to promote them or even protect them, and it was up to more outside media to promote these guys FOR the NHL, while the NBA perfected this practice as a league to protect the star players; they understand what and who's trending. they know what the audience wants, while the NHL constantly takes one step forward and two steps back by over complicating the game i dont really pay attention to football, but the NBA will always be that #1 market that the NHL will always trying to be playing catch up on, and never will This. You and I are not the first to wonder out loud about why the NHL does not spend more time and money marketing the game. More specifically the players. If there is anything the NHL can learn from other sports, and the key to American viewership, is American's worship of celebrity. And that the NFL and NBA thrive by promoting its stars. Make ads using them and retired greats. In Canada you don't really have to, as hockey fans are more fans for life, and more knowledgeable. but the US is different. They loves their stars. And the Tee Vee box tells them who the stars are. They need to do this long term on an ongoing basis. But this year is different of course. And it does have a lot to do with the other sports on now, especially the NFL. Usually our playoffs, only the NBA is competition. Now, in the two cities that are in the Final, we have their NFL teams starting a new season. Dallas: Only the wealthiest sports franchise in the world, "America's Team" vs. Tampa: The team that landed Tom freeking Brady whom everyone wants to watch, even if its to fail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostsof1915 Posted September 26, 2020 Share Posted September 26, 2020 11 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said: Post Traumatic Stress Dog? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Sparkle Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, kilgore said: This. You and I are not the first to wonder out loud about why the NHL does not spend more time and money marketing the game. More specifically the players. If there is anything the NHL can learn from other sports, and the key to American viewership, is American's worship of celebrity. And that the NFL and NBA thrive by promoting its stars. Make ads using them and retired greats. In Canada you don't really have to, as hockey fans are more fans for life, and more knowledgeable. but the US is different. They loves their stars. And the Tee Vee box tells them who the stars are. They need to do this long term on an ongoing basis. But this year is different of course. And it does have a lot to do with the other sports on now, especially the NFL. Usually our playoffs, only the NBA is competition. Now, in the two cities that are in the Final, we have their NFL teams starting a new season. Dallas: Only the wealthiest sports franchise in the world, "America's Team" vs. Tampa: The team that landed Tom freeking Brady whom everyone wants to watch, even if its to fail. and really, it all comes down to character. the NHL pushes the stars they want, but they have personalities like watching paint dry, and that's just hockey culture beating personality out of these guys when they're kids, that to make it in the big leagues, you have to have a "humbleness" factor. that's all well and good but if you look at a guy like Labron James, he's the most polarizing man is ALL of sports, but the man is money, ratings, but above all, goes above and beyond for his community like help putting kids through college and all of these things, and thats because the NBA knows how to market their stars and their stars know how to market themselves, and that's because they understand what's going on in the real world and you mention tom brady, another one of sports most polarizing figures. the NHL doesn't have that ONE guy who people love to hate, or just HAVE to tune in just to see them lose or see them win. they don't have that one guy who's trending worldwide, and this is the reality of sports. you can be old school and say, hey if they ain't trending, they aint doing nothing wrong, but on the otherhand, if they aren't trending, no one cares. it's not gonna attract advertisers and thus, the NHL will never be a top league in the states. there's just no one anyone can talk about for better or for worse Edited September 26, 2020 by Twilight Sparkle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iinatcc Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Personally I would take the fanbase of the NHL over the NBA any day of the week. Sure I would love it to grow but People keep talking about bandwagon of fair weather fans in the NHL but the fanbase is still more passionate about supporting their team. Heck the Nashville Predators have a really good fanbase over there. I feel like NBA fans many just jump teams every season. I have a lot of friends that are huge NBA fans but could never stick to a team more than a 2 or 3 year period. Heck when the Canucks were awful someone asked me why don't I find a new team ... I was insulted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuxfanabroad Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 An ever increasing % of population is waking up to the time & $ wasting endeavour, that is the tired sham of pro sport. There are many better things to do with one's time. It's going the way of Hollyweird fascination..watch the elite stars fight over the dwindling spoils. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
189lb enforcers? Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 I didn’t watch much outside of the Canucks and shut it off every commercial break, etc. Politics. The owners of the media, hell even my Microsoft internet page, want to present their politics through my hockey addiction, but I have some standards I guess. So, they lost my business. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now