Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
They need to think outside of the box.
The NHL wants to grow the sport in non-traditional markets. Why not create a 6 team league in Britain as the only top level league. The NHL could pay for operations, equipment and full time minimum wage to players, with any profit going back into player bonuses. NHL recoups costs by building awareness in a big market at minimal cost.
Sell TV rights back to North America and build a niche market with accent on international tournaments.
Will it lose money. Yeah. Will it lose a lot of money. No. Will it expand the audience for the NHL. Maybe, but at the cost likely worth the gamble.
Take it out of the competition of North America.
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The TV rights thing is going to be a tough sell, previous televised games drew about as well as televised spelling bee's.
When you sell TV rights you have to guarantee the network in terms of ad buys and ratings. If you don't achieve the numbers promised, you have to make good on that with the network, also advertisers will look for a certain guarantee in terms of viewership in their demographic. if its not where its promised, you're either selling advertising cheaper or making good in terms of future ad buys.
Sports like the NHL sell across a lot of demographics, so you get a lot of advertisers and ratings become easier. Woman's pro hockey doesn't do that, even hardcore hockey fans won't tune in consistently.
Putting woman's hockey in Britain would fail.
If you want to sell the game, put it in non nhl or major junior cities and make it a gate driven league. Don't bother with a TV deal. Do it streaming with a low subscription price and sell specific sponsorship deals.
Instead of going to the NHL and asking for money, make it easy and ask for their expertise in terms of marketing, kind of like a donate some time to help us get established.