MIA: The NHL

About a month ago I was channel surfing one night and stumbled upon Rocky IV for the 9,000,000,000,000th time. The late James Brown is singing "Living in America," Rocky looks confused, and Apollo Creed is dancing around the stage while Ivan Drago stands in the center of the ring…. about to kill him. Obviously, I put down the remote, sat back, and watched this modern day Sly Stallone classic. So Rocky doesn't throw in the towel, Apollo is left having convulsions in the middle of the ring with absolutely no medical personnel on the premise, and the Russia calmly explains, "If he dies, he dies." Everything is peachy.

Then we go to commercial and I realize I’m not watching TNT, but Vs (or Versus, I'm still not sure). Confused, I check the display to see what else is on this mysterious station and up next…Rocky V! I get excited even though it’s Rocky V. Could this be my dream come true...a station that just plays the Rocky movies in a continuous loop or possibly for good measure throws a curveball once in a while and shows Cobra or Over The Top!! Wowie!!! Alas, No. Only in a perfect world I suppose. With never hearing of Versus in my life I actually checked the channel line up card from the cable company. The card says the station is OLN. The plot thickens. Now I have to make the extra effort to go online. Come to find out OLN (Outdoor Life Network???) had changed its name to Versus. The name change took effect a few months back to coincide with the new NHL hockey season.

The NHL made a deal with OLN to be the exclusive cable provided of NHL games prior to last season. Now I may not be a hockey fan, but as a sports fan I had not heard anything about the NHL on Versus debut. As a matter of fact, I never hear anything about the NHL these days. Sports talk shows don't spend a second on it and I never see anything written about the league. I'm surprised SportsCenter still shows NHL game highlights. Does anybody care about the NHL? Does the NHL care if anybody cares? As an outsider it sure doesn't look that way. Then something funny happened last week.

Apparently, last Wednesday the NHL held it's first All-Star game since 2004. Yes, the NHL All-Star Game was held during the middle of the week with no promotion or fanfare. The All-Star game is supposed to be an event, a celebration for both the league and the sport. The NHL has received very little attention since the 2005 strike and with good reason. Nobody missed the game while it was away and few have a pulse on the league now. It is hard to tell if the NHL even has a pulse because when it comes to marketing their product the league is comatose. There will always be the diehards who will support the game of hockey, but they are the minority. The league needs to attract new fans to the game yet there hasn't been one visible attempt made by the NHL to expand their fan base.

I'm not a big proponent of the NBA because of how the league ruins the game of basketball (plus the Knicks suck), but marketing their product is something the league actually does right. The NBA has become an internationally recognizable brand. The NBA All-Star game has little to do about the actual game and more about a weekend long event marketing the league and it's players. Fans and media are given access to a plethora of events taking place during the entire weekend. The NBA has even moved the Rookie - Sophomore Game to Friday night to extend television coverage to of All-Star weekend to three days. Many fans look more forward to NBA All-Star Saturday Night with competitions like the Slam Dunk Contest and Three Point Shootout. Did the NHL even hold any skill competitions this year? I have no idea and neither does any sports fan that isn't a hockey nut because there wasn't one bit of promotion done by the league. The NBA uses the All-Star game and all that it encompasses as an opportunity to market their product to the masses. It is essentially a three-day advertising blitz by the NBA for the NBA. This year the NBA brings the party to Las Vegas. Why? Because it's all about the spectacle and there is no better stage than Vegas for David Stern to showcase his product.

The NHL could sure use a showcase to open the eyes of the general public to the game. This past weekend was a dead weekend for sports and a perfect opportunity for the NHL to be on showcase. Instead, it was decided to schedule the game smack dab in the middle of the week with little mention and absolutely no promotion. This equals nobody watching.

Ratings for the game dropped 76% vs. the last All Star Game in 2004. According to Nielsen Media, the game managed only a 0.7 rating meaning it was watched by a measly 474,298 households. Not what the NHL had in mind in terms of promoting the sport. Gary Bettman should think about heading over to the NBA offices and getting a refresher course in Marketing 101 from his former boss David Stern.

Though a funny thing happened. The NHL actually did manage to garner national attention resulting from the All Star Game. Stories were written about the game and sports talk shows were finally talking about the NHL. One problem. All that talk wasn't about the game itself, the final score, or who won MVP…it was ridicule over the fact that an episode of the forty-year old ‘Andy Griffith Show’ on TV Land got a higher rating than the NHL All Star Game. Finally, the NHL created a buzz.