NHL is (Almost) Dead - Long Live Hockey! (p.3) - MLN Sports Zone

Continued from page two

Many of the expansion cities, like Dallas, or Phoenix, are the better markets to be in these days than a Buffalo, where a shrinking economy cries out for an AHL or ECHL franchise, but perhaps not an NHL team.

That is not to say though, that the Sabres couldn’t find a home in some of the sunbelt markets that the AHL and the CHL have developed. The minor leagues have paved the way for hockey in rapidly growing markets.

The NHL's only major failure is inability to do what NBA and the NFL did: Move from a blue-collar beer image to a white collar champagne sport. In the eighties, with the likes of the Great One on the ice, moving to the big ticket prices and the cachet of the high-dollar sports world seemed like it would become a reality.

Gretsky was the exception, not a trend. The much sought-after "crossover" player who could sell the league to a wider audience didn't materialize.

What we know now is that hockey is a very regional, live sport. Without a multi-million dollar hype machine developing (softening up) the media outlets, it won’t command the kind of outrageous ticket prices that the NBA gets away with in some of the same buildings. Hockey is still largely a working person’s game.

The Almighty Tube

By its nature, hockey breaks the first commandment of sports: Thou shalt look good on television. For this unpardonable sin they will sink below the radar and NASCAR will fill that coveted “major” sport status.

The question remains: If a puck falls in Cleveland, and it didn’t show up on the SportsCenter highlight reel, did it really happen?

Hockey fans seem immune to the routine dissing of media outlets. Put a good product on the ice, and they’ll show up. It is that loyal fan base that gave the owners the stones to take a year off and wait out the players.

This year, the product at many arenas may be too good, though. Players know that this is an "audition" year. Time on the ice, somewhere, anywhere, puts numbers up that keep them in the running for the NHL's planned re-opening next season. So we've seen NHL players take a few less-than-plum assignments to keep them visible during the lock-out.

Rationing Riches

The class AA Central Hockey League (CHL) is ‘rationing’ NHL players. The new league rule: One major league player per team; No goalies, thank you.

Thus far in the CHL, only two teams, the Fort Worth Brahmas and the Oklahoma City Blazers, have recruited NHL players to meet the one player limit.

Sure, it gives the Bad News Brahmas, whose loyal fan base has endured mediocrity for many seasons, a few rays of hope. What it does for the league as a whole, though, is probably skew a few stats, and give those teams lucky enough to land a major leaguer a more lopsided rink.

The Dreaded Asterisk

In the AHL, the issue of more NHL players is minimal. The AAA league is often populated with players under direct NHL contract. In other lower-level leagues that allow NHL players to play though, will the dreaded asterisk be dragged out for any records broken by major league players?

To have a major leaguer on your ice is a much bigger draw than frozen turkey bowling or chuck-a-puck. The Class AA leagues like the CHL and the ECHL still should have banned players from the NHL altogether. Major league players in the Class AA minors have an effect that skews records and stats.

Sport In Search of its Voice

Hockey’s major league needs to lead, not founder. They require a commissioner who is a hockey guy. Commissioner Bettman is an NBA executive who tried to bring the business of hoops marketing to pucks and sticks. A passionate hockey guy, like the CHL’s Brad Treliving who has demonstrated all of the new markets where fiscally responsible hockey can thrive, would make a far better steward of the sport than gadfly Gary.

The NHL business model is a big bust. The solution? Serve the core hockey fans as well as you can. Hockey run by leagues like the AHL or the CHL is very much in touch with its roots. They serve up good sport at reasonable prices in sensible markets to crowds that appreciate the game.

If they can ever turn hockey into a champagne sport of celebrity players, the Lords of the Puck are going to have to spend millions over years with good PR firms to do the kind of ground-work that the other major league sports, golf and NASCAR have done to secure prime-dollar fans and sponsors.

Better coordination of the sport from top to bottom is also in the interests of a sport that is broader than it is big in places. Linking up hockey towns in regions to their major league clubs has a net benefit on merchandising as well as player development.

Most important, a deal needs to be struck that works for all the layers of players in the NHL, not just the top tier. The replacement player threat is a hollow one: Putting the AHL on the ice as the NHL isn’t going to fly with fans or the media. Radical changes need to be made on both sides. Hockey’s image has been in the penalty box long enough.

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