NHL National Viewership Down 22% in the U.S.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

Personality is one thing, but to take it a step further, the nhl needs more “villains” . It goes back to the game becoming an emotionless skill vs defensive-scheme-fest.

Whether it’s personality in the interviews or personality/emotion coming out on the ice, the intrigue of bad-blood/emotion is just gone.

Compare the flames/oilers games this year compared to the past few years. No tkachuk/kassian/smith , the intensity of “this could be a nasty game tonight “ has disappeared.

This was such a major differentiator the nhl had compared to other sports, but it’s all but gone.

You aren't getting it back. That's not how modern athletes function. These guys pal around in the off-season and have deep bonds that cut across team lines.

And I think for the most part, with a couple exceptions, that's something that is common to all leagues and sports.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

You aren't getting it back. That's not how modern athletes function. These guys pal around in the off-season and have deep bonds that cut across team lines.

And I think for the most part, with a couple exceptions, that's something that is common to all leagues and sports.

I’m not arguing that the emotions, violence, etc should come back. Just commenting that it was part of the intrigue of the support throughout past generations.

As such, I also realize the nhl is a business. At some , as the big NA sports leagues grow their footprint, I think the nhl will grow on a much much smaller scale. The above point just being one of numerous reasons of course.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.co...01/30/nhl.aspx

I don't know if the article was posted, but this is not anywhere near an apples to apples comparison.

ESPN was showing a lot of Sunday games against the NFL, and there are twice as many games as last year. National regular season NHL games are never going to be a big thing. For more direct comparisons, they are up year over year:

Now that the NFL season is wrapping up, and ABC Saturday games will be starting, the ratings from now until the end of the season will be interesting to watch.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by dobbles

I have actually been having a great time with ESPN+ the last couple years. I get random games all night long and love it. It helps that I am not particularly invested in a specific team. Stars are my official favorite, but still follow you guys a ton and the Wings still as well. But I am fine turning on an Islanders Senators game and just appreciating hockey. I am hoping you guys are just dejected from the lack of Flames success.

I've been watching more hockey the last seasons than ever before. It's great having a random game on every night even I have no vested interest. Sometimes they really turn out to be fun games and I see some great moments.

I guess I missed the part where all emotion was out of the game because there was nearly a line brawl in the St. Louis/Colorado game last week.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by dobbles

Honestly reading this thread has made me pretty depressed. I'm not sure anyone in this thread even likes hockey??? So many of you posting that you only watch Flames games. I have actually been having a great time with ESPN+ the last couple years. I get random games all night long and love it. It helps that I am not particularly invested in a specific team. Stars are my official favorite, but still follow you guys a ton and the Wings still as well. But I am fine turning on an Islanders Senators game and just appreciating hockey. I am hoping you guys are just dejected from the lack of Flames success.

Putting all the out of market games on ESPN+ was a great move in terms of getting eyeballs on the games. They have 25 million subscribers with access to most games every night, while I'd be surprised if the old nhl.tv package even had half a million US subscribers.

National regular season games were never going to be a big thing in the US.
As the RSN bubble bursts with the Bally sports nets going bankrupt, it would be huge if they could get all in market games on ESPN+ as well and have a one stop shop for all games every night.

[WCW Nitro]

One of the big issues is that most coaches stress defence, most of them show more anger when they win 6-5 than they do when they lose 2-1. The game is fast, but it's not exciting.

[Julio]

https://theathletic.com/4146799/2023...sB9uX_2kBc5iTg

[Mazrim]

I enjoyed Ray Ratto's take on this.

https://defector.com/nhl-ratings-are-not-your-problem

Why would anyone who isn't a network executive (ick) or Bettman (bleargh) care? This is always a stupid hill for anyone else to even stub their toe on, let alone die. Nobody defends hills to the death any more—they level them and then put an unnecessary 21,000-seat arena on top of them.

The ratings aren't your problem, ever. If you want to watch a game, you can find it. You can decide whether you want to pay for it, convince your friends or your bar to pay for it, or just pirate outright, but it will be there. And that's what you're in it for.

It's their issue, and if the regionals die off, the teams will come up with some other way to crowbar your wallet out of your hands. They're better at that than making the playoffs.

That's the real problem that the leagues are struggling with: finding the price point that actually chases people away. You all know what a price point is—it's that red flag in your rear-view mirror, stuck in that abandoned hill upon which nobody has ever died.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Maybe they need to move a couple teams north of the border

Starting with Arizona

[Psytic]

Someone else mentioned it to but I think the lack of physicality and big hits makes the game kind of boring now. I obviously understand why it was changed but its less entertaining. We don't need staged fighting but just big hits like watching Regher light up Hemsky or Phanuef and Sarich etc. with out a automatic penalty or having to fight after every single big hit. You couldnt make a Rock Em Sock Em tape with a half season now probably.

Basketball and soccer are much more entrenched with other cultures and ethnic groups as well. I don't know that people are that interested in another low contact sport played primarily by white men, especially zoomers. There used to be much more passion, line brawls etc. It was kind of a savage sport but that's kind of what made it different. Why watch soccer on skates with all the same BS penalties and diving when you could watch soccer with 1000s more players and talent and teams and tournaments to follow.

[442scotty]

Not enough highly skilled entertaining players in the league plain and simple. Sutter hockey is pretty much boring hockey because Gaudreau and Chucky are gone. Personally I find 2-1 games boring unless it’s because two goalies stood on their head. Fast freewheeling hockey is more fun to watch but there are not enough players like Makar, Gaudreau, MacKinnon to go around. Which would you prefer to watch. The Calgary Flames or the Calgary Avalanche…

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Maybe they need to move a couple teams north of the border

Starting with Arizona

Yeah, that'll surely raise U.S. Viewership..

[dobbles]

I've been thinking about this a lot since the other night. And even in general over the past few months as my kids have gotten involved with hockey....

I really think its an access issue. We can talk all we want about physicality and fighting, but at the end of the day, plenty of other sports do just fine without that. Certainly, as I mentioned in my first post, fighting was a differentiator for hockey. It did help make up for some of the shortcomings of an extremely expensive and location based sport.

But I just don't see how you can build a consistent following without it being a sport little kids can play either casually or in an organized fashion. Conversations like this often mention football as being an easy sport to understand. And in a way it is. But the amount of nuance the average fan already has is far and away better than what people know about hockey. People can learn touchbacks and nickel defenses because they have been around them all their life. Heck, I detest soccer but I know all the rules about corner kicks and throw ins and everything else because i watched my kids play it for 4 years.

Obviously thousands of ice rinks aren't going to magically get built. So what should the NHL do? Or USA hockey or any other group??? I don't know that I have a great answer, but just my gut reaction is they might have to try and leverage things like inline hockey, floor hockey, etc to get it more ingrained in non traditional markets.

Obviously all sports leagues have a huge problem with how ticket prices have been the last couple decades, so they lost out on regular families being able to attend games and get hooked. That is a major failing but al we as a society care about is money, so kind fo stuck with that problem.

Maybe another idea is that NHK teams need to really support and embrace their minor league affiliates so they can do more outreach. You think of how much more reach baseball has with its myriad leagues across the country. I know minor league hockey is an absolute disaster to make money on, so maybe the teams could take a more active role in helping their affiliates do community outreach.

[tvp2003]

At the end of the day, does it really matter? If NHL owners only make X billion instead of Y billion, are they going to stop playing hockey? Is Connor Bedard going to take up professional basketball instead?

Don't get me wrong -- it's an interesting topic to analyze and discuss, but I'm not sure the NHL not keeping pace with the NFL or NBA in the US is really a big deal... maybe it is if I'm Murray Edwards, but I'm sure he'll be okay.

[Bandwagon Surfer]

Too many gambling ads make it not safe to watch with kids. That cuts out a lot of my viewership right there, pretty much no more hockey at home. Only a few games per year where I have enough free time to go out somewhere to watch games.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by Draug

Heh ... Maybe they hate the overlayed digital boards as much as I do. Players, refs, sticks all dissapear often. Even worse, any puck off the ice enough to be in front of the boards just vanishes.

It is God Awful!!!!

This. I also think that the between period and pre-game panels are horrible. They have all tried to copy the NBA panel with Shaq/Barkley and don't have the ability to pull it off (i don't watch NBA games but love the panel stuff at halftime and post game when I catch it), those two guys aren't afraid to call out anyone who isn't performing.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Viewership is down because people are not invested in the game. Sutter involved with the Calgary Flames makes me immediately less interested with the team, but then add in for his approach to handling Lucic and his ilk, and you have more interest in any bad Netflix movie than any Flames game on ESPN. I don't like the team or the game they play, so have interest in watching them. At. All. The rest of the league is just as ####ty. Ain't got time for that.

[cannon7]

Maybe this trend spells the end of Bettman's reign?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Viewership is down because people are not invested in the game. Sutter involved with the Calgary Flames makes me immediately less interested with the team, but then add in for his approach to handling Lucic and his ilk, and you have more interest in any bad Netflix movie than any Flames game on ESPN. I don't like the team or the game they play, so have interest in watching them. At. All. The rest of the league is just as ####ty. Ain't got time for that.

According to the article, it’s more attributable to blackouts (last year there were none) and adding a lot more games, which brings down the average. Then there are some additional factors, but rest assured, the quality of the Calgary Flames is of no significance to US National TV ratings (as much as some “fans” want to use it as an excuse to complain about them).

[Sec214]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon Surfer

Too many gambling ads make it not safe to watch with kids. That cuts out a lot of my viewership right there, pretty much no more hockey at home. Only a few games per year where I have enough free time to go out somewhere to watch games.

Sounds like you should educate the kids on what gambling is and what the consequences are… Do you not teach your kids how to cook because you’re afraid they’ll burn the house down?

Love this IMO stupid response. Doughnut parenting these days.