Q’s ways to improve the NHL
As many people know the NHL has gone through many changes the last few years, mostly due to stubborn owners and the stupidity of the players unions that caused the loss of entire season. The NHL has been trying for a year and half to recover from that. They have done an admirable job in there attempts. Things such as the shoot out, no red line, no changing after icing the puck, bigger offensive zones, and the delay if games for shooting the puck out of the ice surface with out touching the boards are very good rules and add excitement to the game. But there is still a long ways to go to get were the league should be. If course there are still things that can be done on the ice to improve the game, but there are also things off the ice to get the popularity back up, and get attendance up. I will hit on a few ideas I have to help the NHL along, and note a few things I think they have done wrong along the way. These are just a few things that could help, they are not a cure all just my thoughts.
The first thing I take to issue with the brain trust of the NHL, is their push to try to gain fans that are not hockey fans. I am sure there has been some crossover success with gaining some traditionally non-hockey fans. But this focus has also driven some life long NHL fans away. I look at the Nashville Predators; at present time one of the best teams in the NHL. But yet have pretty low attendance. Imagine what this team would have for attendance if it was in Winnipeg or Quebec City. The NHL has tried to hard to gain a foot hole into the US market. Sure there are some markets that are natural fit for the NHL, and have been successful. But the NHL went into to many of the non-traditional cities. The NHL needs to embrace its roots as a majority Canadian sport. A majority of its players are Canadian. The ratings for the NHL are still extremely high in Canada, even with the focus on the US market. It is time to probably move some of these franchises to cities that would welcome an NHL team with open arms. I would propose moving the Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers to Winnipeg and Quebec City. This would open those markets back up to the NHL, and be natural rivals with Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton.
On the same note as above. I think pre season games could be useful marketing tools. These games can be used to hit hockey markets that have lost interest in the NHL. I watch a lot of college games and know college fans who do not watch the NHL. These are prime candidates to hit. Playing games in college rich areas to draw people in, can make the tickets part of peoples college hockey season tickets. I know this is not a big money maker at first, but in the long run can work in their favor. A place like Madison Wisconsin, and North Dakota with no NHL team around would be a good place to go to. With the influx of college players into the NHL, many of these college fans will already be familiar with some of the players. Also on the same note I would take a cue from the NBA who had there All-Star game in Las Vegas the other night. I think the NHL could do this with some of these same cities, and cities in Canada with no NHL teams. I think bringing the game to people who are hockey fans but without an NHL team would show that the NHL is reaching out to them. Also put the game on the weekend and not this middle of the week stuff like this year. Also putting the game on NBC would much more effective then Versus.
TV contracts. As anyone who watches or attempts to watch the NHL knows the NHL is on Versus, which for many people is hard to find, and not on as many TV line ups as some other channels. I really don’t have a problem with the NHL being on Versus. They do an excellent job on the games and have devoted extra programming to the NHL that the NHL would have not received if they were still on ESPN. I do believe they should work out a deal with ESPN to show at least one game a week, and to pick up more of the playoffs. If the NHL did go full time with ESPN right now it would be loss in the mass amount of programming they have, the NFL, NBA, Baseball, College Football and Basketball, and now NASCAR. But they can find a few hours a week to highlight a game, and have the rest on Versus. This has worked with ESPN sharing the NBA with TNT. This would also help get the NHL on Sportscenter more often to. I have noticed since ESPN has picked up NASCAR they have highlighted it more on Sportscenter. Also need to push the weekly games on Sunday on NBC. I know the NHL is a low priority for NBC and is mostly filler for after the NFL season. But if the NHL worked hard with NBC could get the word out more of the games and help market the NHL. Some cross promotional stuff with NBC would be effective to. Getting someone like Sidney Crosby on some shows would work. One idea would to get him on The Office, which is set in Penn. To me this would be a natural fit. The NHL has marketable commodities but has not used them correctly, and Sidney Crosby is #1 on that list.
Scheduling. There is a need to revamp the schedule that is currently in place. The thing to do is make the season shorter. I would say 76 games is the max you need. I would go with 4 games against teams within your division, 3 with the 2 other divisions with in your conference, and 2 with the teams in the other conference. I know this would cut back on division games, but it would have more of the stars coming into buildings. Right now have people like Crosby and Ovechin not heading out West, and that does not help the game at all. Joe Thornton does not come back to Boston for at least 2 more years. With all the trading in the NHL now it is good to get the stars out in different markets. I would also recommend starting the season later. I would go with late October/ Early November. This way Baseball season is almost over and the NHL season is over a quareter the way over and some teams are all ready out of a playoff hunt and the local markets have more time to dedicate to the NHL. This would force teams to play more games during the week to. I look at the Bruins early season schedule were some time they were only playing 1 game a week. This makes it hard for fans to get involved with games so far between. Also like to see more weekend games. Every team should be playing Saturdays. This is prime time for families. The season should end the last week in March. This gives 5 months to play 76 games, which would be about 4 games a week. I know that would compact a lot of games into a short time, but I think it would be better for the fans. To accommodate the strain on the players you might have to expand the roster by a couple of players. I would recommend having these players be salary cap exempt. They would be need to signed for the NHL minimum. I would recommend having a 3 player exemptions. This would give the teams extra players for the compact schedule, and not hurt the cap.
Tickets! The first thing is ticket prices. I look at the prices to go to a Bruins game and think they are outrageous. It makes it impossible for a family to go to a game. I totally understand that it is a business, and is meant to make money. But I think the NHL should have certain dates set aside league wide were tickets prices are marked down tremendously. This would be a chance to get families to the games. These should be dates that the games are carried on NBC. This would pack the buildings and wouldn’t have half empty buildings showing up on national TV. Make these games family friendly with family events and give a ways. Give tickets out to local youth teams to get them interested in the NHL. Sure they might not go to a lot of games with the prices are higher, but they might start to watch the games on TV, and make new life long fans. Let these youth teams play between periods. They do this a lot at college games and the kids love it, and the fans get a kick out of it.
Points. There is a need to change the point structure. There is no emphasizing on winning a game in regulation or overtime if it gets that far. See to many teams playing for a shoot out if the game is tied late and in overtime. Giving some a point for an over time loss to me makes no sense. It is a loss. I like the idea of 3 points for a regulation or overtime win. 2 points for a shoot out win and a point for a shoot out loss. I think this would put more pressure on a team to actually try to win the game, as the win is worth more. They introduced the 4 on 4 overtime to try to get more scoring involved and less ties. Well if a team knew it was worth more then they would press more on offense. At the end of the season all those extra points to add up and the best teams make the playoffs, not the team that does best in the shoot out. While on the shoot out have a few suggestions for that. First of all it should be best out of 5, not 3. I would let the players choose if they want to wear their helmets for it or not. I think getting their faces exposed will make the game more human and get a better connection with the fans. Also I like the idea of coin toss to decide who gets to decide if they want to go first or not. I know it is cheesy but it adds a little more entertainment to the game.
Other on ice improvements. There has been a lot of talk about making the nets wider. I for one am against this. I don’t think the problems are the nets, but the massive equipment the goalies are wearing these days. I do think that needs to be looked at. If you watch tape from games 20 years ago there is noticeable difference in the size of goalie pads. This will open up the net more and makes the goalie more mobile to make highlight reel saves. There has been move on the last few years to drive fighting out of the game. Fighting is the 500 pound elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Well I will say fighting does sell. I don’t care what people say that it hurts the game, it doesn’t. People are drawn to violence. If you ever been to game when a fight breaks out you know the building erupts. I am not saying to encourage fighting, but to relax some of the rules against it now.
As many people know the NHL has gone through many changes the last few years, mostly due to stubborn owners and the stupidity of the players unions that caused the loss of entire season. The NHL has been trying for a year and half to recover from that. They have done an admirable job in there attempts. Things such as the shoot out, no red line, no changing after icing the puck, bigger offensive zones, and the delay if games for shooting the puck out of the ice surface with out touching the boards are very good rules and add excitement to the game. But there is still a long ways to go to get were the league should be. If course there are still things that can be done on the ice to improve the game, but there are also things off the ice to get the popularity back up, and get attendance up. I will hit on a few ideas I have to help the NHL along, and note a few things I think they have done wrong along the way. These are just a few things that could help, they are not a cure all just my thoughts.
The first thing I take to issue with the brain trust of the NHL, is their push to try to gain fans that are not hockey fans. I am sure there has been some crossover success with gaining some traditionally non-hockey fans. But this focus has also driven some life long NHL fans away. I look at the Nashville Predators; at present time one of the best teams in the NHL. But yet have pretty low attendance. Imagine what this team would have for attendance if it was in Winnipeg or Quebec City. The NHL has tried to hard to gain a foot hole into the US market. Sure there are some markets that are natural fit for the NHL, and have been successful. But the NHL went into to many of the non-traditional cities. The NHL needs to embrace its roots as a majority Canadian sport. A majority of its players are Canadian. The ratings for the NHL are still extremely high in Canada, even with the focus on the US market. It is time to probably move some of these franchises to cities that would welcome an NHL team with open arms. I would propose moving the Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers to Winnipeg and Quebec City. This would open those markets back up to the NHL, and be natural rivals with Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton.
On the same note as above. I think pre season games could be useful marketing tools. These games can be used to hit hockey markets that have lost interest in the NHL. I watch a lot of college games and know college fans who do not watch the NHL. These are prime candidates to hit. Playing games in college rich areas to draw people in, can make the tickets part of peoples college hockey season tickets. I know this is not a big money maker at first, but in the long run can work in their favor. A place like Madison Wisconsin, and North Dakota with no NHL team around would be a good place to go to. With the influx of college players into the NHL, many of these college fans will already be familiar with some of the players. Also on the same note I would take a cue from the NBA who had there All-Star game in Las Vegas the other night. I think the NHL could do this with some of these same cities, and cities in Canada with no NHL teams. I think bringing the game to people who are hockey fans but without an NHL team would show that the NHL is reaching out to them. Also put the game on the weekend and not this middle of the week stuff like this year. Also putting the game on NBC would much more effective then Versus.
TV contracts. As anyone who watches or attempts to watch the NHL knows the NHL is on Versus, which for many people is hard to find, and not on as many TV line ups as some other channels. I really don’t have a problem with the NHL being on Versus. They do an excellent job on the games and have devoted extra programming to the NHL that the NHL would have not received if they were still on ESPN. I do believe they should work out a deal with ESPN to show at least one game a week, and to pick up more of the playoffs. If the NHL did go full time with ESPN right now it would be loss in the mass amount of programming they have, the NFL, NBA, Baseball, College Football and Basketball, and now NASCAR. But they can find a few hours a week to highlight a game, and have the rest on Versus. This has worked with ESPN sharing the NBA with TNT. This would also help get the NHL on Sportscenter more often to. I have noticed since ESPN has picked up NASCAR they have highlighted it more on Sportscenter. Also need to push the weekly games on Sunday on NBC. I know the NHL is a low priority for NBC and is mostly filler for after the NFL season. But if the NHL worked hard with NBC could get the word out more of the games and help market the NHL. Some cross promotional stuff with NBC would be effective to. Getting someone like Sidney Crosby on some shows would work. One idea would to get him on The Office, which is set in Penn. To me this would be a natural fit. The NHL has marketable commodities but has not used them correctly, and Sidney Crosby is #1 on that list.
Scheduling. There is a need to revamp the schedule that is currently in place. The thing to do is make the season shorter. I would say 76 games is the max you need. I would go with 4 games against teams within your division, 3 with the 2 other divisions with in your conference, and 2 with the teams in the other conference. I know this would cut back on division games, but it would have more of the stars coming into buildings. Right now have people like Crosby and Ovechin not heading out West, and that does not help the game at all. Joe Thornton does not come back to Boston for at least 2 more years. With all the trading in the NHL now it is good to get the stars out in different markets. I would also recommend starting the season later. I would go with late October/ Early November. This way Baseball season is almost over and the NHL season is over a quareter the way over and some teams are all ready out of a playoff hunt and the local markets have more time to dedicate to the NHL. This would force teams to play more games during the week to. I look at the Bruins early season schedule were some time they were only playing 1 game a week. This makes it hard for fans to get involved with games so far between. Also like to see more weekend games. Every team should be playing Saturdays. This is prime time for families. The season should end the last week in March. This gives 5 months to play 76 games, which would be about 4 games a week. I know that would compact a lot of games into a short time, but I think it would be better for the fans. To accommodate the strain on the players you might have to expand the roster by a couple of players. I would recommend having these players be salary cap exempt. They would be need to signed for the NHL minimum. I would recommend having a 3 player exemptions. This would give the teams extra players for the compact schedule, and not hurt the cap.
Tickets! The first thing is ticket prices. I look at the prices to go to a Bruins game and think they are outrageous. It makes it impossible for a family to go to a game. I totally understand that it is a business, and is meant to make money. But I think the NHL should have certain dates set aside league wide were tickets prices are marked down tremendously. This would be a chance to get families to the games. These should be dates that the games are carried on NBC. This would pack the buildings and wouldn’t have half empty buildings showing up on national TV. Make these games family friendly with family events and give a ways. Give tickets out to local youth teams to get them interested in the NHL. Sure they might not go to a lot of games with the prices are higher, but they might start to watch the games on TV, and make new life long fans. Let these youth teams play between periods. They do this a lot at college games and the kids love it, and the fans get a kick out of it.
Points. There is a need to change the point structure. There is no emphasizing on winning a game in regulation or overtime if it gets that far. See to many teams playing for a shoot out if the game is tied late and in overtime. Giving some a point for an over time loss to me makes no sense. It is a loss. I like the idea of 3 points for a regulation or overtime win. 2 points for a shoot out win and a point for a shoot out loss. I think this would put more pressure on a team to actually try to win the game, as the win is worth more. They introduced the 4 on 4 overtime to try to get more scoring involved and less ties. Well if a team knew it was worth more then they would press more on offense. At the end of the season all those extra points to add up and the best teams make the playoffs, not the team that does best in the shoot out. While on the shoot out have a few suggestions for that. First of all it should be best out of 5, not 3. I would let the players choose if they want to wear their helmets for it or not. I think getting their faces exposed will make the game more human and get a better connection with the fans. Also I like the idea of coin toss to decide who gets to decide if they want to go first or not. I know it is cheesy but it adds a little more entertainment to the game.
Other on ice improvements. There has been a lot of talk about making the nets wider. I for one am against this. I don’t think the problems are the nets, but the massive equipment the goalies are wearing these days. I do think that needs to be looked at. If you watch tape from games 20 years ago there is noticeable difference in the size of goalie pads. This will open up the net more and makes the goalie more mobile to make highlight reel saves. There has been move on the last few years to drive fighting out of the game. Fighting is the 500 pound elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Well I will say fighting does sell. I don’t care what people say that it hurts the game, it doesn’t. People are drawn to violence. If you ever been to game when a fight breaks out you know the building erupts. I am not saying to encourage fighting, but to relax some of the rules against it now.
posted by Qman16 at 5:28 PM
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