HockeySpy.com

F A I L E D    M I S S I O N S - December 19, 2006 OUT OF IDEAS I was listening to sports radio today when the discussion turned to the NHL’s never ending attempts to turn hockey into a prime time sport on a par with football, baseball and basketball. A lousy U.S. market is apparently more attractive than a sold out Canadian market. One of the panel members was adamant that the NHL is knocking its head against the wall. There are a lot of U.S. based teams playing in front of half empty arenas. Former hockey hotbeds like Boston and Chicago are struggling at the gate. Oh sure having a winning team would help. But that just tells me these ticket buyers aren’t hockey fans. They’re just pretenders who like to hop on the bandwagon if the team is winning. Obviously the Atlanta Thrashers are out of ideas. Here’s one of the better teams in the NHL this year, with a handful of highly skilled players that they could use to attract more support. Instead the Thrashers marketing department feels the need to promote brawling as the primary reason for coming to see them play the Washington Capitals. Which is odd when you consider that fighting is down significantly in the past two years. The Thrashers website promoted the Caps game by showing video clips of the many fights that occurred when these two teams met last. The graphics added across the screen said “10 fighting majors….7 game misconducts….3 suspensions. Be there for the rematch.” A bad move for two reasons. It’s not what this league is about anymore. Secondly the rematch was a calm affair. Anyone who bought a ticket based on seeing a bunch of scraps left disappointed and not likely to come back again. A failed mission to say the least.

All written content is property of HockeySpy.com Email any questions, corrections, documents or feedback to our webmaster. © 2006-2007