View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous. This web edition features the views of print edition columnists Thom Barker (Wednesday) and Calvin Daniels (Saturday), as well as web exclusive content by Michaela Miller (Thursday) and Devin Wilger (Friday).
This week: Was putting a team in Las Vegas a good move for the NHL?
Boring
I lost interest in hockey so long ago I can barely summon the inspiration to answer this question. I don’t even remember who won the Stanley Cup this year. I’m pretty sure it was contested by Pittsburg and some other American team, but the final result kind of went in one ear and out the other if I may be so banal.
Yes, I am still a fairweather Ottawa Senators supporter and will tune in the occasional game, when it is available, which is rarely because the NHL is so out of touch with reality it is quickly becoming irrelevant to everyone aside from the hardcore fans (i.e., old people).
Seriously, in a desperate attempt to win over younger viewers, the broadcaster dumped Ron McLean a couple of years ago in favour of George Strombolopoulous. But even Canada’s hip boyfriend could not generate new interest in the game so they brought back McLean much to the delight of the hardcore fans (i.e., old people).
The reason Strombo didn’t work was not, as people claim, because he was terrible, it is because the powers that be (i.e., the idiot king Gary Bettman) kept the old regime for everything else including a ridiculously outdated broadcast model.
Here’s the thing, Gary, if you black out the Senators game, I am not going to watch Calgary or Winnipeg, I am going to watch bowling or read a book or take my dog for a walk.
And I’m an old guy. Young people don’t even subscribe to cable any more and that’s another problem altogether for the NHL because if a game is televised, you can’t get it online.
As southern U.S. markets go, Vegas may not be a bad decision from a short-term business perspective, but it stinks from a public relations standpoint. The real market for hockey is still Canada, but I don’t think we’re going to stick around forever. There is too much competition for our eyeballs and every other major sports league is doing it so much better.
If you don’t believe me, look at the ratings. This year, with no Canadian teams in the playoffs, the ratings were abysmal.
Bottom line: professional hockey is boring.
-Thom Barker
Who Knows
I’m not an avid sports person, so I cannot say that I care too much about the politics of the sports world. However, I actually think having a new
sports team stepping onto the scene will be good. From a financial point of view, money will be made from sponsoring, advertising, touring, etc. This new team being from Las Vegas, it will be a chance for sin city to step outside of its spotlight comfort zone. Perhaps in a city full of gamblers and aspiring show-people there could be ice-cold talent lying dormant. So from a pride point of view, this can be good also. If in the future this expansion turns out to be a complete failure, so be it. Nobody has ever gotten anywhere without trying something new. If it turns out to be a mistake, at least you can learn from it. Maybe a city like Las Vegas is not cut out for hockey, but another city might jump at the chance.
Michaela Miller
Not Bettman’s worst idea
Gary Bettman’s baffling obsession with expanding a cold weather sport into the southern US might be a generally dumb idea, and the lack of fortune or general market interest found in Arizona, Atlanta and Carolina - current leader for NHL team with the most dismal attendance - are all great examples of this. But the gamble in Las Vegas makes a degree of sense that pretty much every other expansion under Bettman’s watch has not.
Hockey might not be the most logical sport to set up shop in the middle of the desert’s gambling destination, but the region otherwise doesn’t have a team in one of the major sports leagues. The reason for that is the reason lots of people go to Las Vegas in the first place, gambling is everywhere and sports leagues don’t want to be connected to gambling activities. That’s sensible on their part, they don’t want there to be any suspicion that oddsmakers have affected the outcome of an event, but it has unintentionally created a city where they are starved for pro sports. Hockey has the potential of being a big draw just out of pure novelty. Las Vegas, if nothing else, loves novelty.
And it’s not a bad deal for Canadian sports fans. A weekend trip can be as low as $500 for the flight and hotel, which is less than it costs to go to many Canadian destinations. Plus, if you’re a Toronto fan, since it is an expansion team there’s actually a chance your team of choice could win, even if it’s still a very slim one. Most of the southern expansion teams might barely be able to get people in an arena, but they are not cities built on tourism. People might actually attend a Las Vegas game as part of a larger vacation. Even if the team lacks local fans, it could still be a profitable venture.
If the city can sustain the careers of Elvis impersonators and washed up pop-stars, it can probably manage a sports team. If hockey is the only sport willing to give it a go in the city, it could find itself filling a niche that is otherwise surprisingly vacant. And if it doesn’t work, strap some skates on Celine Dion to get people to give it a look. She can play right wing.
-Devin Wilger
Another reason to not watch
The Las Vegas Gamblers, Slot Machines, Roulette Wheels, or whatever they will be called when they join the National Hockey League simply add to a growing list of reasons my interest in hockey wanes.
Long ago I came to realize Gary Bettman has a vision of himself as the Messiah leading hockey to prominence in the United States.
Sorry Gary but the reality is there are only three major sports stateside; and hockey is not among them.
The huge popularity of the Coyotes in Arizona notwithstanding (yes sarcasm), Bettman’s constant push to have hockey catch on in non-traditional markets.
Las Vegas will be no different. They will struggle as an expansion team, and become irrelevant in the city as soon as the NBA, or NFL arrive, and both leagues have talked the possibility.
Of course it is a $500 billion payday Bettman can spread around to prop up some other teams.
And, let’s not even mention the diluted talent pool which already exists, which will only be made worse stocking another team.
The talent is such today that a growing number of teams lack a true superstar.
And talent is so limited its defensive hockey at all costs as teams struggle to get to overtime for a fan boring, sister kissing point.
Bad team placements and declining talent are not Bettman’s only bad decisions.
The ‘made-up’ Bettman’s Folly Cup this September has all the allure of a shined up chunk of coal. When you have the World Championships, Junior Championships, and the Olympics we did not need the new event at all. Of course Bettman knows best.
But fans may be catching on.
“Through the first five nights of hockey in the playoffs … an average of just 513,000 viewers tuned into the 20 NHL playoff games. Compare that to last spring when there were five Canadian teams playing in the first round and an average of 1.306 million viewers tuned into the first 21 first-round games. That’s a drop of 61 percent from last season,” reported www.thehockeynews.com
“Even with no Canadian teams, those are shockingly low numbers,” said one industry expert in the article. “There were regular season games on TSN two years ago that did better than that.”
Oh and Mr. Bettman it’s not all gravy stateside either.
“It’s not just in Canada where TV ratings for the NHL playoffs are sluggish. In the United States, they’re overshadowed by the NBA postseason. Ratings for last Wednesday’s (May 18) conference final tilt between the Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning (0.6) not only finished well below that night’s NBA game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors (3.0), but were also below TNT’s NBA pre-game show (0.7),” detailed www.spectorshockey.net
A great game at its supposed highest level has issues, and a Vegas franchise is not helping at all Mr. Bettman.
- Calvin Daniels
