2008 Woodie Awards
Troubles Weigh Down NHL This Season
Larry Eichel/Knight Ridder Tribune
Issue date: 10/24/05 Section: Sports
At a conference in New York earlier this spring, leaders of the sports business community sometimes talked about the three major professional sports. Those three did not include the game of ice hockey.
As the Stanley Cup Finals get under way, the NHL is a troubled organization, with a number of franchises in financial distress and a future clouded by the threat of a damaging work stoppage after next season.
Compared to other sports, hockey sometimes seems to have the worst of everything: high ticket prices, stagnant attendance, a lack of salary restraints, low franchise values, too many teams, and not enough television money.
The picture is not all grim. Even with a soft economy, NHL attendance this year nearly matched that of the NBA and was substantially higher than a decade ago. Total revenues have soared over the years, a core group of fans remains utterly loyal, and several teams already have cut ticket prices for next season.
But hockey is right to be considered in the same breath with football, basketball and baseball seems increasingly tenuous. This season, the game suffered from a scarcity of marketable new stars and the early ouster from the playoffs of marquee clubs such as Detroit and Colorado.
"I've always felt that the NHL has a cult following," Jerry Colangelo, owner of baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks and the NBA's Phoenix Suns, said during that conference. "Their economics have to change dramatically for them to keep going, let alone move forward."
Now come the Stanley Cup Finals matching two teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and New Jersey Devils that usually do not even get top billing in their own markets. The national television audience figures to be modest.
"It's unrealistic to think that as many people would be watching as if the New York Rangers were playing the Detroit Red Wings," said ESPN/ABC hockey analyst Bill Clement. "But there'll be more than people think."
The big stories in hockey during the regular season had little to do with what was happening on the ice. Rather, the focus was on the bankruptcies of the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators and the dismemberment of the Pittsburgh Penguins, done in the name of fiscal survival.
As the Stanley Cup Finals get under way, the NHL is a troubled organization, with a number of franchises in financial distress and a future clouded by the threat of a damaging work stoppage after next season.
Compared to other sports, hockey sometimes seems to have the worst of everything: high ticket prices, stagnant attendance, a lack of salary restraints, low franchise values, too many teams, and not enough television money.
The picture is not all grim. Even with a soft economy, NHL attendance this year nearly matched that of the NBA and was substantially higher than a decade ago. Total revenues have soared over the years, a core group of fans remains utterly loyal, and several teams already have cut ticket prices for next season.
But hockey is right to be considered in the same breath with football, basketball and baseball seems increasingly tenuous. This season, the game suffered from a scarcity of marketable new stars and the early ouster from the playoffs of marquee clubs such as Detroit and Colorado.
"I've always felt that the NHL has a cult following," Jerry Colangelo, owner of baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks and the NBA's Phoenix Suns, said during that conference. "Their economics have to change dramatically for them to keep going, let alone move forward."
Now come the Stanley Cup Finals matching two teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and New Jersey Devils that usually do not even get top billing in their own markets. The national television audience figures to be modest.
"It's unrealistic to think that as many people would be watching as if the New York Rangers were playing the Detroit Red Wings," said ESPN/ABC hockey analyst Bill Clement. "But there'll be more than people think."
The big stories in hockey during the regular season had little to do with what was happening on the ice. Rather, the focus was on the bankruptcies of the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators and the dismemberment of the Pittsburgh Penguins, done in the name of fiscal survival.