[Rumour] Ron Maclean to replace George Stromboulopoulos on HNIC

[nik-]

Wow, cut one of their best panel hosts.

Sportsnet is such a joke.

[CliffFletcher]

Hextall is talented. She'll find another gig in the hockey broadcasting business.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

sounds like she got cut. apparently more cuts coming to rogers regional broadcasts...

[URL="https://twitter.com/dshoalts"]

[URL="https://twitter.com/dshoalts"]

Jeez, do they not know their audience? She was competent, personable, and yes more attractive than the other hosts.

[Coach]

Gotta pay Jose somehow.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Gotta pay Jose somehow.

The worse part is, the Blue Jays aren't immune to this. This bad hockey deal is going to ensure the Jays payroll shrinks massively to help compensate.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

The worse part is, the Blue Jays aren't immune to this. This bad hockey deal is going to ensure the Jays payroll shrinks massively to help compensate.

Baseball salaries should be shrinking in general because, well because it's fricken baseball. I can't believe those guys make $30+ mil/season. Absolutely ludicrous.

[Resolute 14]

Sorry Rogers, but making your product - which is already pretty bad - much worse isn't going to make things better.

[Erick Estrada]

Man the NHL really screwed over their Canadan viewers with this deal. Would anyone be surprised if by the end of the deal Rogers has the 960 radio guys doing TV simultaneously for regional games?

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Man the NHL really screwed over their Canadan viewers with this deal. Would anyone be surprised if by the end of the deal Rogers has the 960 radio guys doing TV simultaneously for regional games?

That wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Ashasx]

Doesn't the NHL require some sort of minimum level in broadcast quality with this deal? At what point does Sportsnet get close?

[nik-]

Does anyone really think that we won't be losing our PBP tandem in the near future?

How many more years of this ####? 10?

[Ashasx]

I wouldn't be surprised if Sportsnet ditches the idea of a colour commentator.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Doesn't the NHL require some sort of minimum level in broadcast quality with this deal? At what point does Sportsnet get close?

As long as they are cutting million dollar cheques, they'll get a pretty long leash.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by nik-

Does anyone really think that we won't be losing our PBP tandem in the near future?

How many more years of this ####? 10?

I do wonder if Hrudey wants to stay out west, since they didn't import him to Toronto full time. That would be the only hope to keep him. Ball - I could see them replacing Romanek with him if they wanted to improve their broadcasts.

[burn_this_city]

Is it confirmed Leah is out? I'll be extremely disappointed if that's the case, she was top notch.

[SuperMatt18]

I doubt they change much of the commentary crews or the in-arena stuff.

It's the in-between stuff that they have too much of a regional split.

My guess is they will have one main broadcast crew and the regional games will cut back to that crew for the respective intermissions.

Cuts a lot of costs. Sucks as it has the potential to lose some of the specific focus on the game you are watching if two are on at the same time on separate regional channels, but if they stagger start times for some games it really might not make a difference.

[TheAlpineOracle]

It's pretty bad when I would rather watch an NBC broadcast of hockey over Sportsnet. It was of a horrendous quality before the cuts.

[HotHotHeat]

About time that everyone just embraces the hilarity of Sportsnet managing to suck so much that Canadians stop watching hockey. As much as it would be nice to have a network properly produce Flames games, the only way this deal ends up shorter than 10 years is if it gets so bad the NHL has to step in. Let's hope for SD broadcasts, and just give up with in game graphics all together, who needs a clock?

Ball and Hrudy will likely be asked to do intermissions now that Rogers has cut the regional game budget.

And to add on... Watching the last two rounds of the playoffs on CBC/Sportsnet really highlights how poor the production of Flames games are.

[PeteMoss]

jonah ‏@yyzsportsmedia 2m2 minutes ago
so the rumour was that Rogers hockey would no longer be deploying trucks to regional games. all production from Toronto- not pxp just prod.

jonah ‏@yyzsportsmedia 2m2 minutes ago
haven’t heard that confirmed yet. Also told that there is renewed talk of selling off some games…

Not sure what the production change would mean besides some job losses. Would it eliminate the Millions position? Would is also mean the end of the mis-timed audio?

[Boreal]

I listened to the draft on the Fan 960 on holidays in Europe & Stellick/Hlushko were a special blend of oblivious, incorrect, & awful.

The issue with these cuts is that if you're willing to stay & live in Toronto you will eventually get hired by another country.

If you leave on of the most expensive cities in the country, coming back can be difficult, but if you do, you come back on your terms not theirs.

There are a lot of people looking for these kinds of positions so unfortunately they can be picky. I imagine they Hextall had a decent contract when they recruited her from NESN, so perhaps it was a quick way to cut cost & infill with someone else?