Hockey on pay-per-view?

Question

I read an article today (further adds to the incompetence of Bettman) that stated that maybe this would be the way to go. It mentions the De La Hoya/ Mayweather fight brought in 120 million to HBO. Versus payed 55 million for a whole season's worth of hockey. It also stated that the whole Buffalo/Ottawa Preakness game that NBC bounced because they payed millions to air the race while NBC paid nothing for the hockey game, they just made them a "partner."

Would this system work better for the USA, especially in the play-offs.

If anyone wants to read the article, it is at philly.com-sports and is written by Sam Donnellon, entitled "NHL's future on TV can't be worse than the past". Check it out- a good read for you die-hards IMO.

Andy- did I say NHL center ice package?

TheOnlyBeldin- if you read the story he touches on this. Nobody watches boxing when it is on for free either LOL but they pay for over-hyped matches. Good point but this guy (Donnellen) makes a good point too.

Answer 1

He has a point...they have NOTHING to lose. Nothing. Less than nothing. Nada.

I don't really see this working because there are too many areas in which hockey is just not analogous to boxing. But...who knows...I guess it could work. Or maybe it'll just work better than this.

What would annoy me about pay per view is that I would have to pay to watch the games. I don't like any sport enough to pay to watch the games...unless it's like 5 bucks. Thirty bucks though? Forty? Fifty? I'm not going to get a bunch of people to watch it with me so it's not really worth it.

That another thing. Boxing gets a lot of its sales to people who watch it as a group. Good luck finding a bunch of buddies who wanna spend the night watching hockey...not gonna happpen in America methinks.

But give this guy points for being creative.

Answer 2

I hate to do this, but I have to defend Gary Bettman's stupidity on this issue. (I do agree that most of his plans have been short sighted at best) The article made no statements about the league actually considering this, it was simply Donnelson throwing out a hypothetical. With that said, I would not put it past him. If the NHL wants true rating about how little interest the US has in our game, this would be the way to go about it. The NHL might not match the money they got from OLN (Versus will always be OLN in my eyes) if they televised their games on PPV. I personally would love to see an NHL network. Unfortunately, the majority of people in the US do not share my love of the game.

Answer 3

I say the NHL goes the way of NFL and makes an NHL network. Except make them the major source of NHL games, something the NFL doesn't do because they have better coverage. The advertising, extra money you'd have to pay to get the channel, and contracting of games outside of the channel would make up for the cost of running it itself. Too much money? Broaden it to all hockey...get the AHL into it, maybe roller hockey, field hockey, college hockey, pee-wee hockey, and make it a Canada run network....more Canadians will watch and it will sell like hotcakes in Canada.

Yeah it'd never happen, but it's a thought.

Answer 4

Bettman's a moron. If it's not as popular down there as it is up here in Canada, who would actually pay money to see it? Hell, even with Leafs TV, not too many people in Toronto were willing to shell out money for all 82 games. The only thing that that's good for is during the summer months.

Answer 5

Are you talking about the NHL Center Ice package Direct TV offers?

Answer 6

Pay per view has destroyed the Chicago fan base...look no further to the money hungey Toronto Maple Leafs org. who will be having 20 games this coming year on Leaf Tv. I hope they increase it to 80 as any respectable hockey fn would not put up with this b.s. Leaf Nation of suckers...

Answer 7

They can barely get anyone to watch it on free TV and they think there's money to be made by taking it all to PPV outside of NHL Center Ice?