The Cup Remains in the Sun Belt
It's now 15 years since the Stanley Cup has been won by a Canadian based team.
And over the past three years now the Cup has not been won by a franchise north of the Mason-Dixon line.
This year's recipients are the Anaheim Ducks (once called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), the first time the Cup has been won by a California-based team (Realizing a dream of some 40 years ago when NHL expansion teams were placed in L.A. and Oakland), and the first West Coast-based team to win it since the Victoria Cougars in 1925.
Wayne Gretzky along time ago referred to the New Jersey Devils as a "Mickey Mouse Operation". Now years later the Stanley Cup will call home the home of Disneyland.
No doubt the Ducks were a solid hockey club. It must be also said that they were helped enormously by their ability to write big checks and lure free agents Scott Niedermayer (who wanted to play with his brother) and Chris Pronger (who for a still undisclosed reason wanted to flee a true hockey hotbed in Edmonton).
NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman reveling in the Ducks win and its impact on his grand scheme to "build the sport" said to the crowd at the Cup presentation: "Sounds like hockey's doing pretty well in California don't you think?"
Notwithstanding a stop by the cup in California and Mr. Bettman's spin, the jury is still very much out for me. Sure, it all sounds good when your team has just won the Cup. But television ratings are non-existent and fan support tends to turn soft when newly found fans quickly jump off the bandwagon as mediocrity or losing re-enter the picture. The "fan base", if indeed there is one in the American south and west, is quite soft.
How bad are things ?
Pat Hickey reports in the Montreal Gazette:
"...On Saturday night, NBC was hit with a double whammy. Its 1.1 rating for Game 3 of the Anaheim-Ottawa final was the smallest U.S.network audience in Stanley Cup playoff history. And Sports Business Journal reports NBC finished the night with the lowest prime-time rating in the network's history. To put things in perspective, NBC attracted 1.6 million viewers, and 1.963 million watched a B movie called Meltdown Days of Destruction on the cable Sci-Fi network.
But if you want a real chuckle, check out the ratings on Versus for the first two games. Game 1 drew 567,000 viewers at the same time 807,000 viewers were learning to Build a Better Burger on The Food Channel. Fifty-eight shows drew better than Game 1. Two nights later, 73 shows drew better than Game 2...".
But that's not all. Bettman Inc. apparently wants to expand further in the U.S. - this time to such hockey hotbeds as Kansas City (which failed with the Scouts) and Las Vegas. Owners can't get enough of those expansion fees , which don't ruan against the salary cap.
See: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=f031c162-e2cd-4191-afd9-996e7d0a163b
As for Canada, I suppose folks can comfort themselves with the thought that the Cup's true home remains Toronto (The Hockey Hall of Fame) and that at least half the players, management and officials still hail from Canada. Finally, notwithstanding Bettman & Company's best efforts the game's "heritage" and culture remain Canadian.
And perhaps in this drought of Cup winners (since the 1993 Canadiens) there might even be a silver lining. Maybe , just maybe there's enough guilt present this time to result in a Canadian landing (i.e. Winnipeg) for a stray franchise (Predators) when the dust settles.
As for me, what I'm going to do is grab a cold beverage (Labatt Blue) and pop in the "Too Many Men on the Ice" game video (Canadiens-Boston) of 1979 before going to sleep.
See you when the Autumn frost comes, fellow old time hockey fans.
BTW, here is this year's Stanley Cup Playoff highlight for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmDAoEuaK3U&mode=related&search=
And over the past three years now the Cup has not been won by a franchise north of the Mason-Dixon line.
This year's recipients are the Anaheim Ducks (once called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), the first time the Cup has been won by a California-based team (Realizing a dream of some 40 years ago when NHL expansion teams were placed in L.A. and Oakland), and the first West Coast-based team to win it since the Victoria Cougars in 1925.
Wayne Gretzky along time ago referred to the New Jersey Devils as a "Mickey Mouse Operation". Now years later the Stanley Cup will call home the home of Disneyland.
No doubt the Ducks were a solid hockey club. It must be also said that they were helped enormously by their ability to write big checks and lure free agents Scott Niedermayer (who wanted to play with his brother) and Chris Pronger (who for a still undisclosed reason wanted to flee a true hockey hotbed in Edmonton).
NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman reveling in the Ducks win and its impact on his grand scheme to "build the sport" said to the crowd at the Cup presentation: "Sounds like hockey's doing pretty well in California don't you think?"
Notwithstanding a stop by the cup in California and Mr. Bettman's spin, the jury is still very much out for me. Sure, it all sounds good when your team has just won the Cup. But television ratings are non-existent and fan support tends to turn soft when newly found fans quickly jump off the bandwagon as mediocrity or losing re-enter the picture. The "fan base", if indeed there is one in the American south and west, is quite soft.
How bad are things ?
Pat Hickey reports in the Montreal Gazette:
"...On Saturday night, NBC was hit with a double whammy. Its 1.1 rating for Game 3 of the Anaheim-Ottawa final was the smallest U.S.network audience in Stanley Cup playoff history. And Sports Business Journal reports NBC finished the night with the lowest prime-time rating in the network's history. To put things in perspective, NBC attracted 1.6 million viewers, and 1.963 million watched a B movie called Meltdown Days of Destruction on the cable Sci-Fi network.
But if you want a real chuckle, check out the ratings on Versus for the first two games. Game 1 drew 567,000 viewers at the same time 807,000 viewers were learning to Build a Better Burger on The Food Channel. Fifty-eight shows drew better than Game 1. Two nights later, 73 shows drew better than Game 2...".
But that's not all. Bettman Inc. apparently wants to expand further in the U.S. - this time to such hockey hotbeds as Kansas City (which failed with the Scouts) and Las Vegas. Owners can't get enough of those expansion fees , which don't ruan against the salary cap.
See: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=f031c162-e2cd-4191-afd9-996e7d0a163b
As for Canada, I suppose folks can comfort themselves with the thought that the Cup's true home remains Toronto (The Hockey Hall of Fame) and that at least half the players, management and officials still hail from Canada. Finally, notwithstanding Bettman & Company's best efforts the game's "heritage" and culture remain Canadian.
And perhaps in this drought of Cup winners (since the 1993 Canadiens) there might even be a silver lining. Maybe , just maybe there's enough guilt present this time to result in a Canadian landing (i.e. Winnipeg) for a stray franchise (Predators) when the dust settles.
As for me, what I'm going to do is grab a cold beverage (Labatt Blue) and pop in the "Too Many Men on the Ice" game video (Canadiens-Boston) of 1979 before going to sleep.
See you when the Autumn frost comes, fellow old time hockey fans.
BTW, here is this year's Stanley Cup Playoff highlight for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmDAoEuaK3U&mode=related&search=
posted by eric model | 12:01 AM
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