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Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames
1.It's well known that Bettman was pushing for the Atlanta franchise to stay in the US. Seattle was talked about a lot. It's no secret that they'd rather have more American teams as they know Canadians will have access to and watch hockey across the country. How else do you explain the Phoenix Coyotes franchise (owned by the NHL) remaining in Phoenix? They are doing what they can to grow the sport in the US.
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Bettman certainly did push to have the Thrashers remain in Atlanta if at all possible. When it became clear that nobody was willing to step up and operate a team in Atlanta, the franchise relocated quickly and easily to Winnipeg. The difference Phoenix has is that it always had groups showing interest in operating a team in that market.
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2. Got me on a technicality there.. IMO what they're gaining long term far exceeds what they lose short term. By the way the majority of people (especially sports fans) have this sweet invention called a PVR.
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In your condescension, you perhaps missed the fact that sports operates as an outlier in the television landscape because most people vastly prefer watching the games live vs. recorded. This is one of the reasons why sports networks can command massive carriage fees on cable channels, and why they can pay rather silly sums of money for rights. Sporting telecasts are one of the last areas of television where a somewhat 'captive audience' exists. That means no fast forwarding of commercials which is something advertisers will pay more for.
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Why is a World Cup so much different? There's still the risk of injury. There's already a best on best tournament called the Olympics. The World Cup is for HOCKEY so only HOCKEY fans will be watching opposed to the worldwide coverage/involvement of the Olympics. This does very little to grow the sport which has been my point all along.
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Once again, it isn't the NHL's mandate to grow the sport. Its mandate is to grow its business. There are tradeoffs, absolutely. Fewer people are likely to watch a WCH than a best-on-best Olympics. But in return, the NHL can schedule the tournament in a way that does not interfere with its season. The NHL retains full marketing rights to the event. The NHL earns the revenue, which in turn is split with the players association.
From a business perspective, this is a no-brainer for the NHL. It is up to the IIHF and IOC to step up and offer something that changes the equation.