June 9th, 2009 The NHL Hates Hockey Fans & Charities

There are four major sports in North America—football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Hockey is, by far, the little fish in the big sports pond, though. For years players, coaches and NHL execs have commented about how they are trying to grow the sport and put it in front of more people.

I believe it when the players and coaches say it, but not so much coming from the NHL. All they really care about is the business of hockey. The problem is, Gary Bettman & Company don’t seem to have a very good business sense. A news report came out today that Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings, are not going to be allowed to run Joe Vision during tonight’s Stanley Cup Finals game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you aren’t familiar with Joe Vision, it is much like viewing parties held for other sports teams while their team is playing on the road. For 15 years, Joe Louis Arena has had giant viewing parties at the Joe at different times, especially during the Stanley Cup Finals.

In the case of Joe Vision, there was a nominal entry fee, which was given to charity. Seems like it would be a win-win. The rabid fans get to watch the game at their home stadium, the charity gets some dough, the NHL could turn it into a real feel-good PR campaign or something like that. If we were talking about the NFL, that’s probably what would happen. The NFL is a marketing machine. They don’t miss too many tricks which a big part of why they are far and away the biggest of the four major sports.

In this case, though, we’re talking about the NHL who have proven again and again that they have little marketing savvy (seriously…Versus?). The NHL requested that NBC and CBC not allow teams to run their broadcasts of the game for viewing parties. Some are suggesting that the networks were involved in the decision, but it was really the NHL’s doing.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this decision was made. The networks have already paid for the rights to broadcast the game so there is no lost revenue. Presumably there would be a small dip in ratings in that market during the game (a sold-out Joe Vision game would shave 1 point off the ratings), but ratings are really the concern of the network, not the NHL.

And not only did the NHL pass up an opportunity to create some good PR, all day long I’ve seen articles and commentary about how pissed people are. Lots of badwill directed at the NHL and NBC.

Great move, NHL. Way to alienate your fan base. Clowns.

Edited to add: The Penguins held viewing parties in Pittsburgh for the first two games of the series. Why didn’t the NHL clamp down on Versus, the way the have with NBC & CBC? Or did Versus just show some spine and let the Penguins use the broadcast over the NHL objections?