How can the NHL improve it's image?
Question:By and large, compared to Baseball, Football, and Basketball, NHL players are drug-free, do not get into trouble off the ice and give a lot of time and money to charity.
They even get in FEWER "bench clearing brawls".
I'm sure I'm not saying anything that most people here and involved in Hockey don't know.
However thanks to STUPID sportscasters who would rather show fights than Crosby Goals or Brodeur saves and incidents like Bertuzzi sucker punches and Simon stick swinging, people we would otherwise ATTRACT TO THE SPORT are turned away.
What can the NHL do? Try to get a little deeper than "Fire Bettman".
Answers:
If the NHL wants to increase their fanbase they need to advertise their young stars more (Crosby, Ovechkin - let's give Ovechkin more interviews!) and spend some money on a better network for their games...OLN/Versus...nobody knows what that is or where to find it. They need to do something about that.
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Uhm, it's the fights that DRAW people to the sport. How many people watched the World Cup last year? Not many people like the thoughtful offense and defense that go into a sport like hockey. They want the visceralness. If the NHL wants more people to watch it needs to capitalize on the primal instincts of its target audience.Whatever happened to the face wash in pro hockey?
I dont know.Is there an Australian ice hockey player in the nhl or ahl?
DRAWShould Gary Glitter be set free?
2 words topless cheerleadersget on a TV channel that everyone gets for free and show everyone that the fighting highlights don't happen very often. the contract with versus was a terrible, greedy idea that puts hockey even further down the rung of sports in terms of popularity.
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hockey is a cool sport and I used to live in Canada where hockey was a major thing up there. I guess fighting is part of the sport, but the players should just be more disciplined and not get into childish anger fits for no reason.Question for Canadien fans: Okay, say it's January 1, 2010. Which would you rather have?
3 words for yougirls
girls
GIRLS!
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The main reason hockey will not do well in non traditional areas is because it does not play well on television. Unless you know what you are watching it is hard to follow the game and therefore boring to most people.Hockey is a niche sport. If you grow up around it and know what you are watching then the game is easy to follow and very interesting to you.
In essence it is a cultural thing. Personally I wouldn't worry about it. The league isn't going anywhere and will soon be expanding. Possibly to Europe.
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More fights!!Where can i buy the 07/08 seasons version of the asics gel-lethal mp2 hovkey trainers?
one thing i'd like to see is just minor changes like going back to the old names (whales and campbell conferences and the old division names patrick...and i forget the rest) from before bettman came in. also change the rules to the way they were back in the day. it will bring back the old school fans and keep the true fans of present day. also move some of these poor attendance teams back to canada they are after all the country that gave us hockeyi think part of the attraction to hockey is the fights to be honest ive played for 16 yrs up to the aaa juniour levels and most of the players are well mannered and drug free off the ice cuase thier canadian lol if most where american like football players youd be hearing about strippers and booze in the locker rooms too lol , but as to make the sport better nothing really i love the game the way it is they got rid of the 2 line pass rules which blew and a unch of other of teh stupid rules they came up with when they where trying to clean up thier image before the strikes started happening, i think it should just to be alowed to be played if a fight happens give thier 5 min break in the box and let em keep going if they do it again ejction and miss the next game would be the way to deal with that i mean what ever happened to the bob proberts of the league?
I play hockey and not many people like it, i think that the NHL could improve their image if more players would go out to other comunities and teach other kids about the sport and how long it has been around. Like the NBA has that thing that i cant remember the name but i was up in canada the there were many people from the toronto raptors and people from new jersey teaching the kids about the sport and I think that if the NHL did that it would definentaly improve its image.
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By and large, Hockey suffers the from the same problem that Soccer does. It's slow, low scoring, boring to watch, and feels foreign.Football and Basketball are fast paced and high scoring. that is why it captures the publics imagination. The only time Hockey is interesting to the masses is when a fight breaks out.
Also, there are not alot of players that American fans can relate to. Sure you get a Mike Modano or an Anson Carter every now and then. But look at the majority of high profile Hockey players:
Teemu Selanne - Fin
Sidney Crosby & Martin Brodeur - Canadian
Sergei Federov - Russian (I think)
And countless others.
Until American fans can feel as if they are watchinh people they can relate to, Hockey will stay in the doldrums.
Don't be so hard on sportscasters. The only reason I know anything remotly Hockey related is because they force it down my throat.
well for one the NHL itself could host the TV and radio show.
another is to ban permanently players that use there stick to hit someone above the knees or uses his skates as weapons.
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By having cheerleaders, lots of cheerleaders!Is nhl hockey becoming less canadian ?
They can improve their image by sending back all the American teams to the Canadian cities that the teams moved from, and maybe it will become popular again in Canada, because even there it's not as popular as it used to be.Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordics ... almost every Canadian city and province had a hockey team, but they all moved to the U.S. cities ... why? Because they wanted more money. It's their own fault.
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they playWhats is the record for most penalty shot in a nhl game?
hockey is a sport not for the weak at heart. some will always feel its barbaric ,but it s their loss.to make it mainstream, nhl would have to dumb itself down to be accepted by all which would lose its appeal to the grass roots fan. leave it alone, let them fight til they hit the iceEdmonton Oilers or Calgary Flames?
Stop striking (2005) for more money when your popularity is growing. There is nothing people like less than alternative sports players whining about $250K per year when the rest of us grind it out daily for, if we are lucky, 20% of that. Baseball struggled to recover and that is the "american passtime"... hockey? c'mooooooon.First of all, they should've avoided a lockout.
Second, they should try to get back on ESPN.
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More fighting. Seriously. Besides goals, when do people actually stand up to cheer and yell and scream? After a bone crunching check or when two guys drop the gloves. Yeah, the fast guys are great skaters and the skill guys do their thing with pinpoint passes, but those things just get the "oohs and ahhs" from the crowd. More fighting and heavy hitting. Old school hockey. Eddie Shore.Bettman isn't the problem.
The NHL probably can't improve its image cause nobody south of Detroit really cares too much about the sport.
Repatriate the majority of teams to Canada, let them have their precious game and just accept the fact that the major media markets in the US would rather watch Wrestling, Nascar, and Women's Softball over the NHL.
It doesn't matter that you have a vastly more creative sport than any other of the major sports. The game is fast, creative, poetic, brutal and exciting yet all you get are yawns from most people exposed to it.
Enjoy it and forget about the image.
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It's hard to get a fan base here in the US when really it's not an American sport like the NBA or NFL. We have the hockey camps and meet the players here in Dallas all the time if it's not free no one goes. But if the Dallas Cowboys were to do meet the players, people sign up $125 a head. Showing real life brawls isn't really family oriented. I agree a little less negativity more positive may help.Looking back at the trade deadline?
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PLAY THE PUCK INSTEAD OF THE MAN. IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE SKILL OF SKATING AND PUCK HANDLING WHEN A PLAYER IS ALLOWED TO CHECK AND BASH EACH OTHER UNNECESSARILY. ITS STUPID. !!!Get more black people involved.For some reason and I don't know why the brothers get allot of camera time in sports.
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It is just not a game with the mass appeal in the U.S. as the other three sports you mention.The problem is they've changed the game. They mean well. But you mention brawls, I hate them, but have you ever been at a game where there has been one? The fans are euphoric, and if management stopped the brawl and asked if people wanted their money back or to sign up for more tickets, more tickets would win hands down.
So what does that tell you. The NHL is taking fighting out of the game, yet that's what people cheer for and buy tickets for. I know, marketing geniuses say people go to see skilled players. Obviously. But nobody can question the fact that the majority of people love the fights. Not wall to wall, but strategically placed.
And if there's a brawl, so be it. Like you said, there are more in other sports and always have been.
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