SEAN AVERY COMMENTS CORRECT; NHL EUROPE DID A BAD JOB

NHL bad ass Sean Avery stuck again. This time he targeted NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and how he has done a bad job marketing the NHL and its players. I for one, totally agree with Sean Avery’s comments. Except for the part where he said he could do a better job marketing the game. It’s hard to say what he knows about marketing, since he has done a good job with himself, but mostly being a bitch.

If you look back at the NHL since the lockout, the head office really hasn’t done much to provide a better brand or market the game in non-traditional US hockey markets. After a new labor agreement was announced between the NHL and NHLPA, the league lost one of its most important TV contracts, ESPN. In return they picked contracts with Versus and NBC. What the hell is Versus? I doubt that channel is even available across American households like ESPN. Then there is NBC, and there weekend only coverage midway through the season. The NHL can’t survive like this and those lesser teams are dying slowly each day. So, TV contracts are just the beginning with the NHL. If the league can get better TV contracts i.e. ESPN, they’ll be better off. Just look at the NFL, TV contracts drive that league, and the marketing is unbelievable.

Another topic Sean Avery touched on, and ESPN, was player marketing. I don’t even think half of America knows who Sidney Crosby is. His name is supposed to be up there with Wayne Gretzky from a marketing standpoint? When you look at Wayne Gretzky and where he played, Los Angeles, it was very easy to market his name. He was getting national coverage on a daily basis. Whereas Crosby plays in Pittsburgh, not the greatest city to play in to market your name. If you look at other leagues and the big name players that play in small cities, there names are up there with the big names. Why, because those players have smart commissioners and know how to sell the game and their players. Not so much Bud Selig, Commissioner of the MLB, he is kind of an idiot along with Gary Bettman.

Anyways, back to the NHL, and how they are ‘trying to market the game in North America.’ Instead of doing there jobs here, they’re taking their act to Europe. Only because the NBA has already established a good foundation there. Now the NHL is trying to one up them by trying to create a whole new NHL Europe conference. Imagine the road trips? And the NHL so far hasn’t done a good job of marketing the game and its players.

The weekend of October 4th and 5th 2008, saw the NHL open its season in two European cities. One was Stockholm, Sweden, where the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins faced off. The other was Prague, Czech Republic, where the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning played. There are so many things wrong with those match ups and players on those teams. Lets just get the one good thing out of the way; they marketed Sidney Crosby in Europe and in front of sold out crowds.

Now the bad. Why did the Ottawa Senators get called up to play in Europe? They only do have one Swedish player in that faggot Daniel Alfreddson. Why not take the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings. Who have five star Swedish players in Niklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen.

Secondly, they only took one of their prized jewels, Sidney Crosby. Why not take the other jewel too, Alexander Ovechkin, and let the Penguins take on the Washington Capitals in Prague. That’s the closest they’ll get to Russia without having to go there to market Ovechkin.

Thirdly, the Tampa Bay Lightning, why? Probably half the European population doesn’t even know where Tampa Bay is. And Tampa Bay is not a hockey market, not even close.

Fourth on the docket, they took the New York Rangers which was good, trying to market one of their top hockey markets and Jaromir Jagr, the native Czech. There is only problem, Jaromir Jagr doesn’t play for the Rangers anymore; he is playing in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League.

So what if the NHL thinks they did a good job with NHL Europe, and had sold out venues. Sidney Crosby was probably the reason why and that’s just one player. Imagine if the NHL had taken more superstars? Another reason they’ll sell out is the NHL is the highest level of hockey in the world; fans in Europe would pay to watch. After the games, and once the NHL leaves, do you possibly think that those fans are going to follow those four teams that just played? Hell no.

The NHL seriously need to get there heads out of there asses and stop thinking of ways to make quick money and be done with it. They’ve got to do a better job in North America first, and for long term success, before they could even think of going back to Europe.

Again, Sean Avery was bang on with the comments he made, and Gary Bettman needs to get evicted or something. Even though Gary says the NHL is changing for the better, it is just the same old bullshit, over and over again. The NHL needs a new commissioner, and a Canadian, no fence to the Americans, but Bettman fucked up, and big.


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