Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
How many of us never watched a rock climbing event until the Olympics? A World Cup of Hockey is only good for hockey fans. If you want to be seen by sports fans, the Olympics is where it's at.
IMO it's in the NHL's interest to go to the Olympics, particularly with the death of "getting paid for people who aren't watching your channel on TV" looming.
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How many people have watched a rock climbing event since the Olympics? Of course, if it were easily accessible perhaps some would become regulars, but at most we might be talking about just the X Games or something.
I suspect NHL hockey is similarly inaccessible to international audiences...maybe the SC finals can be found, but its not exactly sustainable growth.
The NFL and MLB don't have particularly global audiences...it's only really soccer and to some extent basketball that have pulled it off (the simplicity of equipment and player(s) required being a common denominator there).
I think the better question for the NHL is whether they are maximizing value from existing hockey engaged/affluent markets (northern Europe).
In the late 00's the league had a good run of 5 years sending teams to Europe for pre-season inter-league games and NHL season openers. Then the 2012 lockout disrupted things and they didn't really go back until 2018. In any case, there doesn't seem to be much of a plan beyond plopping in a few games and saying "see you next year...maybe".
The nice thing about Europe is that central EUR time zone is 6 hours ahead of EST...there is a window on the weekends where viewership could work across each continent. I think there is a lot of mutually beneficial meat on that bone.