Posted May 28, 200519 yr Report: ESPN severs ties with NHL Posted: Friday May 27, 2005 6:59PM; Updated: Friday May 27, 2005 7:15PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- The hits just keep on coming for the NHL. According to a report on Rogers Sportsnet of Canada's Web site Friday, cable sports giant ESPN has declined to exercise its $60 million option to televise NHL games for the 2005-06 season. With the 2004-05 season canceled as a result of the lack of a collective bargaining agreement and ongoing labor meetings producing little progress toward resolving the dispute in time to resume play in the fall, ESPN may be seeking to work out a new deal at a much cheaper rate, according to the report. An ESPN spokesman refused to confirm the report. SportsTicker is owned by ESPN. Before their five-year, $600 million deal with the NHL expired at the end of the 2003-04 campaign, ESPN and ABC Sports reached a one-year agreement with options for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons in May 2004. While ESPN and ESPN2 covered a plethora of games during its previous contract, the new deal called for ESPN2 to air just 40 regular-season contests. The cable sports network also held exclusive rights to the conference finals and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals. Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the 2004-05 campaign on February 16, making the NHL the first major North American sports league to have an entire season wiped out due to a labor dispute. In March, the league officially canceled the 2005 draft, which was slated to take place in Ottawa in June. ? 2005 SportsTicker Enterprises, LP
May 28, 200519 yr When will NHL games end? :mischief2 786608[/snapback] When Sergei Gonchar returns my hockey puck and stick :banghead
May 28, 200519 yr Yay, if NHL ever comes back, I don't have to bother with having to avoid ESPN during hockey season.
May 28, 200519 yr Yay, if NHL ever comes back, I don't have to bother with having to avoid ESPN during hockey season. 786646[/snapback] Werd.
May 28, 200519 yr Poor Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. At least this is only for the 2005-06 season, which probably won't even happen. This isn't a huge loss since 99% of games are on FSN or regional networks anyways. The only thing i'm going to miss in NHL 2 Night. Rumor has it that Fox is going to be having two nationally televised games per week on top of the NBC deal which will be showing a couple of nationally televised games per week as well, and both networks will share duties for the nationally televised playoff games. ESPN's hockey coverage f***ing sucked unless you were a bandwagon Avs or Wings fan.
May 28, 200519 yr It's a big deal if you're a hockey fan not because of ESPN's coverage, but because of the $60 million contract the NHL had with ESPN. It's a blow to an already struggling sport. That being said -- they arent "officially announcing" it until next week -- the timing of this whole deal is strange with the reported progress the two sides were having -- It wouldn't surpise me if this was ESPN's way of scaring the NHL & NHLPA to get the deal f*cking done already or you're going to lose out on $60 million next season.
May 28, 200519 yr I expect the NHL and NBC Universal to make a cable deal now. USA and Bravo need some sports in the portfolio and if hockey does well on their networks, then NBC can put Olympic Hockey on there in 2006. NBC would likely use the ESPN guys to call the games because they are the best in the USA right now.
May 28, 200519 yr Can NHL recover from all of this? 786727[/snapback] We would all be amazed if they did. And I highly doubt you ever see hockey on ESPN again, nobody is going to watch it when they come back, and ESPN knows that (they could get better ratings with some Stump the Schwab re-runs). This is very sad, but the NHL has nobody to blame but themself.
May 28, 200519 yr Can NHL recover from all of this? 786727[/snapback] We would all be amazed if they did. And I highly doubt you ever see hockey on ESPN again, nobody is going to watch it when they come back, and ESPN knows that (they could get better ratings with some Stump the Schwab re-runs). This is very sad, but the NHL has nobody to blame but themself. 786760[/snapback] I think it all depends on the rule changes they are reportedly going to implement. If you remember in the early 90's, the NHL was arguably the fastest rising sport in the US. From magazine covers to front pages in nationwide newspapers, hockey was the talk of the country. Wayne Gretzky was on top of his game, the sport was just simply exciting to watch. The '94 lockout killed all of the momentum the NHL had going for itself, then combine that with the trap that spread like a venereal disease, the NHL went from hot to not. If they somehow can make the sport attractive to the casual fan, not a sport that has a five whistles a minute, I think it can recover. After all, the only people following the NHL to begin with were the diehards like myself that would continue watching regardless of how bad Gary Bettman butchers the sport. Most of those fans should come back -- hopefully they can market the "New NHL" to the casual fan and build up a strong fanbase. Something that could/should really help the NHL is the increasing possibility of an NBA lockout. Alot of fans will watch hockey because it's the only sport they can watch. Using myself for an example -- I can't stand basketball but tuned into more than a dozen games this year and attended a few just because there simply was nothing else I could watch. Alot of people that used to follow hockey, or just dont know much about it will tune in to see what the "New NHL" is like. Some changes they've been talking about: -Getting rid of the red line (more open ice/less whistles) - Bringing back the touch up rule (ALOT less whistles) - Making the bluelines bigger (less whistles) - Making the nets bigger (more scoring) - Cutting down on obstruction (more whistles at first, but if it works, ALOT more open ice which will lead to nonstop scoring chances...) - Shootouts if score remains tied after OT - Making goalie equipment smaller (more scoring, more rebounds) - Reducing limitations of stick curves (makes shots alot trickier for goalies, which probably will lead to huge rebounds and more scoring) - Getting rid of the instigator rule (ALOT more fights) - Making the ice light blue instead of white (supposedly makes the game easier on the eye on television) - Making all PP's two minutes long regardless of a goal scored (more scoring..?) - Not letting shorthanded teams ice the puck (alot harder to kill penalties...alot more scoring) And thats just on the top of my head -- there's probably alot more that I forgot to name. As you can see, the game is going to be alot different when it comes back, hopefully the NHL has a good marketing campaign ready to go :shifty
May 28, 200519 yr Can NHL recover from all of this? 786727[/snapback] We would all be amazed if they did. And I highly doubt you ever see hockey on ESPN again, nobody is going to watch it when they come back, and ESPN knows that (they could get better ratings with some Stump the Schwab re-runs). This is very sad, but the NHL has nobody to blame but themself. 786760[/snapback] thats sad. and hockey is not even that bad of a sport. even floridas team was a good team in that leage too. i feel bad for tha nhl fans though.
May 29, 200519 yr The NHL keeps appearing in random news articles, it should just die already. 787582[/snapback] :plain
May 29, 200519 yr The NHL keeps appearing in random news articles, it should just die already. 787582[/snapback] What an insightful post -- not sure what we would have ever done if you haven't shared that with us.
May 29, 200519 yr The NHL keeps appearing in random news articles, it should just die already. 787582[/snapback] word.
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