Again.
More Hockey.
Front page of The Gazette, Montreal's Anglo newspaper, trumpets the sale of the Montreal Canadiens to the Molson family.
The brewers of Export and other fine ales, the Molson's have owned the Habs off and on since 1957 and are now back in the game paying 550 million, give or take, to George Gillett for an operation that he bought from them for 275 for at the turn of the century.
Would some one please forward this to Gary Bettman with the note that, Mr. B., franchises in towns that enjoy hockey, like Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, appreciate. Towns like, oh say Phoenix, not so much on the appreciation.
WFDS
Showing posts with label Gary Bettman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Bettman. Show all posts
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
313...Gary Bettman Doesn't Need Viagra
Coz the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs provided him with enough to keep him going for a long, long, long time.
Not just the fact that it was a superb seven game series between Pitts and Detroit, no, it was the fact that last Friday's game seven drew 3.529 million viewers on average during the entire game on CBC and around 8 million on NBC.
That was the biggest audience since 1973; were you alive in '73?
The fact that the NHL is equal to its numbers from 36 years ago should make Commissioner Bettman very happy.
The fact that the NHL is equal to its numbers from 36 years ago should make Commissioner Bettman very concerned.
It is a sword that cuts both ways.
WFDS
Not just the fact that it was a superb seven game series between Pitts and Detroit, no, it was the fact that last Friday's game seven drew 3.529 million viewers on average during the entire game on CBC and around 8 million on NBC.
That was the biggest audience since 1973; were you alive in '73?
The fact that the NHL is equal to its numbers from 36 years ago should make Commissioner Bettman very happy.
The fact that the NHL is equal to its numbers from 36 years ago should make Commissioner Bettman very concerned.
It is a sword that cuts both ways.
WFDS
Friday, June 5, 2009
219...Good News/Bad News For Our National Game
From this morning's Globe and Mail, Toronto's National Newspaper, Bruce Dowbiggin writes:
WFDS
...NBC and the NHL are set to announce an extension to their relationship for another two years, past the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Stanley Cup playoffs.It will likely be a continuation of the no-money-down/split-revenues-after-costs arrangement that has existed since the two sides fell into each other's arms after the NHL lockout in 2004-05... NBC got an inexpensive property to fill out its sports schedule, while the NHL got the perfume of network respectability after locking out its players and fans for a complete season.Despite the hiccup of NBC switching away from a playoff overtime to a Kentucky Derby prep show in 2008, the relationship has worked reasonably well for both sides...NBC has to get their priorities straight when it comes to the use of Versus, but they've improved their broadcast over the last few years immensely. It also doesn't hurt that the star power is finally there for advertisers... the network is also airing the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Good news is Gary Bettman gets to stay on American TV and continue the dream of becoming a bigger sport to mainstream USA than bowling, IndyCar, tractor pull, fishing, squash, tennis, golf, lacrosse, sumo wrestling, rodeo and the other 35 sports that get bigger ratings outside of the northern coast of the States than the NHL. Bad news is, still working for free.
WFDS
Saturday, May 9, 2009
109...NHL, Group Think and Failure
The National Hockey League and their commish Gary Bettman are the most absurdly run major professional sports league in North America and most likely the world.
Just because you say something over and over and over again does not make it true but it does reinforce group think.
Case in point comes from Rod Bryden's interview in Friday's Ottawa Citizen under Don Brennan's byline where the former owner of the Ottawa Senators wraps himself in the flag and repeats the company line which is small market Canadian cities, like Ottawa, cannot make it in a world full of big bad American cities that want to steal our hockey teams and make them our own.
It is Joesph Goebbels big lie theory redux; if you say it enough and with sincerity then it must be true. No one, and I mean no one, in media, either main stream or in the blog sphere has ever questioned the fact that little ol' Ottawa is a small market.
The only fly in the ointment is that we are not a small market. We are not Toronto or New York or Montreal that is for true but out of about 300 markets in North America we are in the top 20 per cent.
Keep in mind sports fans that the NHL is not selling corn flakes or pop or cars, they are selling a specific product, hockey, and when you take that into account Ottawa is safely ensconced in the top 10 per cent of North American markets, as are Edmonton and Calgary.
When Mr. Bryden's Ottawa Senators were spiralling into bankruptcy he kept saying what he said in yesterday's Citizen: I could have sold them to an American market for a lot more money than keeping them here. Yeah, well, no. Seriously, where Mr. Bryden, where? No one ever asked that question. Until now.
The truth of the matter is in the little story right below the piece on Mr. Bryden where our beloved Premier, Dalton McGuinty is quoted in an uncredited piece as saying "I don't know what's up with these guys. I mean, this is a great market [referring to Hamilton and Southern Ontario]...the strongest and most committed fan base on the face of the planet. We would welcome one, two or three more franchises in the province of Ontario." The Premier suggested that the NHL come to grips with the realities of the hockey business, that being it works well in markets that have snow. He is, of course, right.
You could drop a team in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and somewhere north or east of the CN Tower and do just fine with those clubs. For those of you who have been to the Joe Louis in Detroit, do you think it is a coincidence that the Detroit Red Wings rink is right, right, right on the border with Windsor, Ontario? For those of you not familiar with Detroit's demographics, the metro is a bit over 21 per cent Black, a bit under 4 per cent Hispanic but the city of Detroit is about 90 per cent Black and about no per cent White. Look around next time you are at a hockey game, it is very pink and pale in that house. If the owners of the Wings were merely marketing to their Michigan fans the arena would be above 8 Mile Road; in a lot of respects the Detroit Red Wings are really the Windsor Red Wings.
The concept of a metro in North America having more than one major league team in the same sport should not be anathema, in fact the NHL has two teams in the Los Angeles region and three in the New York City area, spread out over two markets in both locales. You can not tell me or anyone sane that there are more hockey fans in either places than in Toronto. In England's Premier League [soccer] London has five teams, Liverpool and Manchester, a pair each and best I can figure Birmingham will have two in the Premier League next season. It is germane to point out that the combined population of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham is less than the GTA and Liverpool is smaller than Ottawa-Gatineau. Therefore, the concept of cities spread tens of klicks from each other in the most hockey mad part of the world having individual clubs in the NHL should also not be anathema. It should be an no brainer.
Which may be Gary Bettman's problem.
WFDS
Just because you say something over and over and over again does not make it true but it does reinforce group think.
Case in point comes from Rod Bryden's interview in Friday's Ottawa Citizen under Don Brennan's byline where the former owner of the Ottawa Senators wraps himself in the flag and repeats the company line which is small market Canadian cities, like Ottawa, cannot make it in a world full of big bad American cities that want to steal our hockey teams and make them our own.
It is Joesph Goebbels big lie theory redux; if you say it enough and with sincerity then it must be true. No one, and I mean no one, in media, either main stream or in the blog sphere has ever questioned the fact that little ol' Ottawa is a small market.
The only fly in the ointment is that we are not a small market. We are not Toronto or New York or Montreal that is for true but out of about 300 markets in North America we are in the top 20 per cent.
Keep in mind sports fans that the NHL is not selling corn flakes or pop or cars, they are selling a specific product, hockey, and when you take that into account Ottawa is safely ensconced in the top 10 per cent of North American markets, as are Edmonton and Calgary.
When Mr. Bryden's Ottawa Senators were spiralling into bankruptcy he kept saying what he said in yesterday's Citizen: I could have sold them to an American market for a lot more money than keeping them here. Yeah, well, no. Seriously, where Mr. Bryden, where? No one ever asked that question. Until now.
The truth of the matter is in the little story right below the piece on Mr. Bryden where our beloved Premier, Dalton McGuinty is quoted in an uncredited piece as saying "I don't know what's up with these guys. I mean, this is a great market [referring to Hamilton and Southern Ontario]...the strongest and most committed fan base on the face of the planet. We would welcome one, two or three more franchises in the province of Ontario." The Premier suggested that the NHL come to grips with the realities of the hockey business, that being it works well in markets that have snow. He is, of course, right.
You could drop a team in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and somewhere north or east of the CN Tower and do just fine with those clubs. For those of you who have been to the Joe Louis in Detroit, do you think it is a coincidence that the Detroit Red Wings rink is right, right, right on the border with Windsor, Ontario? For those of you not familiar with Detroit's demographics, the metro is a bit over 21 per cent Black, a bit under 4 per cent Hispanic but the city of Detroit is about 90 per cent Black and about no per cent White. Look around next time you are at a hockey game, it is very pink and pale in that house. If the owners of the Wings were merely marketing to their Michigan fans the arena would be above 8 Mile Road; in a lot of respects the Detroit Red Wings are really the Windsor Red Wings.
The concept of a metro in North America having more than one major league team in the same sport should not be anathema, in fact the NHL has two teams in the Los Angeles region and three in the New York City area, spread out over two markets in both locales. You can not tell me or anyone sane that there are more hockey fans in either places than in Toronto. In England's Premier League [soccer] London has five teams, Liverpool and Manchester, a pair each and best I can figure Birmingham will have two in the Premier League next season. It is germane to point out that the combined population of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham is less than the GTA and Liverpool is smaller than Ottawa-Gatineau. Therefore, the concept of cities spread tens of klicks from each other in the most hockey mad part of the world having individual clubs in the NHL should also not be anathema. It should be an no brainer.
Which may be Gary Bettman's problem.
WFDS
Thursday, May 7, 2009
99...Buzz Words/Follow up to Post 98
Gary, the commish d'NHL, Bettman, throws around buzzwords like market size with great regularity without knowing what they mean.
Hamilton/Vaughn/Winnipeg/Quebec City/Saskatoon are all bigger markets than Phoenix/Washington/Nashville. Not in gross numbers, no, but Gary ain't selling Coke or Hondas, he is selling hockey and there are 10 times more hockey fans in Vaughn than in Phoenix.
Research, Gar', research.
If I can do it from my laptop on Elgin Street in Ottawa, you can do it too!!!
WFDS
Hamilton/Vaughn/Winnipeg/Quebec City/Saskatoon are all bigger markets than Phoenix/Washington/Nashville. Not in gross numbers, no, but Gary ain't selling Coke or Hondas, he is selling hockey and there are 10 times more hockey fans in Vaughn than in Phoenix.
Research, Gar', research.
If I can do it from my laptop on Elgin Street in Ottawa, you can do it too!!!
WFDS
Friday, April 17, 2009
73...So
I am watching the NHL playoffs on Hockey Night In Canada, San Jose versus Anaheim and it dawns on me that there is a pretty good chance there are more people watching this game in Ontario than in California, where the teams are based and the game is being played.
Would someone tell Gary Bettman, please?
WFDS
Would someone tell Gary Bettman, please?
WFDS
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