Good day all,
I am out here in TO right now, and will be for some time. So far, TO has been quite good, with one notable exception; Flames highlights.
In Ontario, the Leafs are king, the Raptors are in the upper crust, and all others are merely peasants in comparison. Last night, I attempted to find a sports bar where I could watch my hometown boys beat up on the Wild, and it didn’t go well. This however, was due more to logistics than any establishment unwillingness to show the game.
This wasn't the most disappointing part of the night however, (although there were some rather interesting curse words used by yours truly), rather it was when I returned to my hotel and attempted to catch highlights of the game I was unable to see.
SportsNet East was 97% focused on the Maple Leafs snapping their winless streak against Tampa, 2% interested in the latest Raptor News and 1% focused on other sports such as golf and baseball. BASEBALL?!? It's December! Eric Gagne, formerly of the LA Dodgers is now going to be an Astro.
Whoopee friggin do.
I had to tune in to TSN as SportsNet didn't show any highlights at all. Not one.
Why all the complaining you might ask? Why does the fact that SportsNet is catering to an obvious audience instead of out of town travelers matter? Well, in my humble opinion (and my opinion is nothing if not humble*), this is yet another example of the NHL's poor marketing.
As everyone knows, the NHL board of governors recently decided that the schedule is fine the way it is. Actually, a better way of putting that would be that they couldn't decide on a better way of doing things. To me, this is unacceptable, and I would hope that every Canadian hockey fan would agree with me. Calgary doesn't play Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto again for the next two years (if I am not mistaken). Although Canada is a huge country, we have a relatively small number of big cities, and only 6 with NHL franchises. With the number of Canadians that are moving around the country, you have built in rivalries. Case in point, when I attended the Ottawa game, there was at least 2000 fans wearing Flames gear, and those were the folks that were WEARING Flames apparel.
Now, I don't want to treat my audience like idiots, but a rivalry must consist of TWO teams that have a genuine interest in playing one another. When your local sports network covers only one team, it is a symptom of two things;
1. Toronto is the center of the universe
2. The network is catering to the needs of its audience, and since the only thing Ontario cares about is the Leaf's, (sorry Ottawa) there is no need to cover any other games.
In Alberta, depending on where you live, your two favorite teams are;
1. Calgary or Edmonton respectively.
2. Who ever are playing Calgary or Edmonton respectively.
In Calgary, we don't dislike the Oilers, we HATE them. While most Canadian hockey fans were cheering for the Oil in the Stanley Cup finals last year, we giggled and laughed when they failed to bring the cup home. As fans of the NHL, not only do we watch our home town boys, but we also watch the mullets from North Alberta in hopes that we can see them get hammered by opposing teams. Our interest, and therefore our attention are focused on two different teams.
Hopefully the NHL will change its collective minds and allow Canadian teams more of a chance to build a rivalry by playing each other more often.
How long would it take for Calgary Flames fans to rekindle the hatred of les Canadians and vice versa, when prior to a game the NHL floods the screen with Images from 1986 and 1989? Not to mention the obvious marketing that can be found when you have players from Canadian Junior teams going back to their former homes. It may be cheesy, but watch an NFL game and you cannot make it through 3 quarters without seeing one player’s family in the crowd, or hearing about how he played his college ball just down the road. The NFL wouldn't consistently waste time with these if they didn't work, they are that good.
Now I know that I'm bitter ‘cause I had to watch the end of the Leaf’s game instead of all of the Calgary Game, and that I couldn’t see any highlights of Calgary’s massive win on SportsNet East. But…how much better might the NHL be if I was bitter because my hated Canadian rival finally broke their losing streak?
I cannot believe how much I rule.
*Quote graciously lent to me by J.G.
