NHL SEASON BEGINS, BUT NOBODY IS WATCHING
During the opening evening of the 2007-08 NHL season three of the four games went to overtime, one of the overtime games was decided in a shootout and the fourth “most boring” game witnessed a hat trick.
If you were an NHL executive you couldn’t ask for a better start to the season. But in early-October, did anyone really notice?
Hockey used to be one of the big four professional sports until the 2004-05 lockout. Unfortunately, the NHL has given way to more popular spectator sports like NASCAR.
Let’s be honest here, no one is paying attention to hockey right now. Major League Baseball just reached the postseason, pro football is beginning the second quarter of its season, college football is going full-throttle and heaven forbid I mention it, NASCAR is in its playoff the “Chase for the Cup.”
The NHL would be better suited if started its season in November. Usually November temperatures are colder, more like winter, which is fundamentally hockey. This is the sport of ice and snow after all.
The potential down side for franchises in cutting out the first month of the season is lost revenue. But an NHL season that went from November to March would be more than adequate. If those ten-or-so games are too precious, the league could easily spread them out throughout the remainder of the season.
It’s great the hockey is back, but I won’t be watching for a while.
2 comments:
The Caps are 3-0 and I love hockey, but you're totally right. I find it hard to turn off the football game and watch hockey when I know how long hockey is going to be around. They should pack a few more games into their 3 games a week schedule and shorten the season. The problem for me in that scenario is that once football ends basketball begins. Hail Hail NBA!
I care! And have you noticed that the new Reebok commercials for their hockey uniforms feature both the Crosby (I <3 Penguins) and Ovechkin (I <3 Caps!). I think hockey may also suffer from being relegated to the ex outdoor network. And while they were on strike ESPN discoverd the NASCAR nation and that eats up their coverage time. Stupid NASCAR.
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