I remember back in 1994 my buddy and I speaking with his mother about the OJ Simpson trial. She said in her Danish accent
“its ridiculous to see all this craziness and media attention given to this OJ Simpson stuff”
My buddy said “well, its because people like you, mom, watch it all day”
To which she responded
“Well, I have to ….he could be innocent”
While many people may decry the greed and avarice in the game today with its inflated salaries we all love to watch the games on TV. And its the TV revenues that drive the league revenues.
All I can think of right now is how happy Gary Bettman must be in delivering on his promise to the new NBC sports network….a $2 billion dollar deal over 10 years, signed a couple of years before the $5.2b deal with Rogers in Canada.
In the conference finals he has teams from the 3 major population centers …and hence three biggest media markets in the US – New York, Chicago and LA. It’s complemented by one of the big 3 Canadian markets in Montreal. And we all know that Canadian interest in hockey isn’t necessarily dependent on a particular team’s success but equally by a general love of the game driven by our culture.
If it was Toronto, and not Montreal, the broadcasters and the NHL league management could have been sitting in their offices, cigars in their mouths like Glen Sather the other night in Montreal, celebrating that they have hockey in May in the 4 largest markets in North America.
Ah….its a good time for professional hockey and it business leaders! I can smell the Borkum Riff in the air!
pucksense 