To say this isn't football country is sticking your head in the sand FCM. Friday night go to any high school football game and count heads, then go to either rink and see how many are at the high school hockey games. Now do the same for the colleges. Number 1 primary sport in the southeast is SEC football, followed by the NFL, by a wide margin over any other sport. We as hockey fans don't have to like it, but it is reality. Any paper in the region is going to cover the sports that subscribers want to see and that advertisers want to be associated with.
To say this isn't football country is sticking your head in the sand FCM. Friday night go to any high school football game and count heads, then go to either rink and see how many are at the high school hockey games. Now do the same for the colleges. Number 1 primary sport in the southeast is SEC football, followed by the NFL, by a wide margin over any other sport. We as hockey fans don't have to like it, but it is reality. Any paper in the region is going to cover the sports that subscribers want to see and that advertisers want to be associated with.
You also have to realize coming from NY, with how many pro teams and them all getting proper coverage, ticks me off. I know football is huge down here. Not saying it isn't. The problem I have and have always had is this, if you have pro teams in the area, they get number 1 coverage, period. Sure, SEC football is huge in the southeast but at the end of the day, Vandy doesn't count as an SEC powerhouse and UT is 3 hours away. We have a pro hockey franchise here in town and we get bumped to the side continually?
While it is football country, I come from a place where pro sports take precedent over everything else. They cover 2 baseball teams, 3 hockey teams, 2 football teams and 2 basketball teams. That's 9 pro franchises, a few of which are extremely high profile and are always in the news, yet they are able to cover them all.
It's disappointing that the ignorance of the paper is so short sighted and has been for years that they have barely made the effort to do a better job, even with all the pleas of the fans. Glennon did a good job but got railroaded by Cass and Rau and their one sided stories with skewed facts. Cooper has been doing a great job since he took over and I can only hope that in time he gets to spread his wings even more than he already has.
And in regard to the games and rinks around town on a friday night here in town, if the paper and town got behind the team a little more, I'm sure there'd be more rinks and more hockey going on, much like what happened in Dallas but they lambasted hockey here and want them gone, all because it might infringe on their sissy sport, football.
My point being is there alot more Titans fans then Preds. I don't get it either. Hockey is just as entertaining as football, but what are you gonna do. This is football territory. I personally don't miss a preds home game. So I don't need to read about it in the paper. Same with the titans. There are those people that like to read. Thats why I come here and footballs future. To read what other fans have to say.
I honestly think that an NFL lockout next season will do nothing but good things for the Predators.
Comparing Nashville media market to NY is pointless. SEC football is king of the roost and it's not about Vandy and UT. I know 1 Vandy fan, everyone else is Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn, etc etc.
Just playing devil's advocate for a minute, as the local paper I'm going to pay attention to:
A - Several hundred thousand hardcore football fans
B - A couple of thousand hardcore hockey fans
What do you think is going to happen. It's not the media's job to promote hockey, it's the Preds and they have done a lousy job of that in the past. They have so many inches per day for local sports, they WILL print what the majority of the readership wants to read.
oh come on. it is football country. kids play it, high schools, colleges, etc.
and baseball country. for the same reasons. you can play it outside as a pick up game.
hockey, well....... it's too friggin hot to ice the ponds in the winter. so kids can't go outside and play it.
as far as the yankees.............radio.............there are so many yankee fans here that grew up listening to it on the radio. and then with tv, they were on tv all the time.
the braves didn't start in atlanta until 1965.
now, the tennessean coverage is abysmal. and i think what a lot of us object to more than the lack of coverage, is the piling on by the fishwrap of anything remotely negative about the preds and slanting the coverage.
and when is the last time anyone at the fishwrap wrote about the titans lease on LP field and how bud addams hosed the city....
and poor josh cooper..... i even joked with him about cancelling the tennessean and maybe he could bring some of us back. unfortunately i think he'd already heard it a few times. he was a nice guy, and he's trying.
You know how Monday was Community Day? Well only channel 2 had about 10 seconds in the sports showing Legwand, Weber, Suter signing an autograph at Monroe Childrens Hospital.
But then Tuesday, during the news part, Channel 2 followed 2 titans around for the whole day while they visited patients at a hospital.
All I want to see is a fair share. I mean, the entire Preds team was out in the community and only ONE station covered it (that I saw). But yet when 2 Titans do something they follow them around the entire day!
I know football is going to be covered the most, that's fine, but I don't get why it has to be one or the other. I've never seen a place that is so divided among it's teams. There is no reason the Predators have to be sacrificed in order to report on the Titans.
I don't understand the hostility towards Josh Cooper. He's done a much better job than Glennon. The Tennessean finally gets a decent reporter and all of a sudden he's under attack.
Look, I still don't like the paper overall because of their treatment of the team (see the article on the first game of the preseason), but I think the hostility towards Cooper is way misplaced here.
How about fox17 devoting "news" story time to cover a motorcycle ride in memory of the BROTHER of an EX-titan??? I can't say for sure, but I doubt fox17 gave any mention of Captain Shea's mom losing a 6 year battle to brain cancer this past summer. It is what it is.
I don't understand the hostility towards Josh Cooper. He's done a much better job than Glennon. The Tennessean finally gets a decent reporter and all of a sudden he's under attack.
Look, I still don't like the paper overall because of their treatment of the team (see the article on the first game of the preseason), but I think the hostility towards Cooper is way misplaced here.
To say this isn't football country is sticking your head in the sand FCM. Friday night go to any high school football game and count heads, then go to either rink and see how many are at the high school hockey games. Now do the same for the colleges. Number 1 primary sport in the southeast is SEC football, followed by the NFL, by a wide margin over any other sport. We as hockey fans don't have to like it, but it is reality. Any paper in the region is going to cover the sports that subscribers want to see and that advertisers want to be associated with.
I think you might be suprised at the high school hockey games. It's standing room only a lot of the time...
What do you want to bet that the headlines from tonight's game reads, "Preds only lead in Wednesday's game for 26 seconds". ??
I was going to suggest that it wouldn't be nearly that bad, more like "Preds need comeback to edge Blackhawks". But the current Tennessean online version is:
"Preds Steal Win with Late-Second Goal"
Man, after getting outplayed like that it must feel good for the guys to steal one.
I was going to suggest that it wouldn't be nearly that bad, more like "Preds need comeback to edge Blackhawks". But the current Tennessean online version is:
"Preds Steal Win with Late-Second Goal"
Man, after getting outplayed like that it must feel good for the guys to steal one.
What difference would it make if it said "Preds win the late-second goal?" It's gonna have zero impact on next game's attendance.
Titans v Preds
It's easier to follow football. 16 games a year and all on Sundays. It's one of the reasons why the NFL is king in the US, and in Nashville.
But one of big differences that hasn't been mentioned is PLAYOFF SUCCESS. When the Titans played at Vandy and had mediocre success in 98, there was very little buzz about the team.
And then, they moved into the new stadium (some boost), but they they got the biggest boost they could ever get, going to the Super Bowl. The casual and even non-casual Nashville sports fans had a team to root for.
They are still riding the super bowl wave in some aspects. The won over the fans before the Preds did. Since then, they have made more playoff noise, winning a couple more rounds in a league that's harder to make the playoffs. The buzz had worn off a little bit, but then Chris Johnson goes and creates history, re-igniting the dormant fans.
Bottom line, Preds need to make playoff noise to see noticeable gains at the attendance gate.
What difference would it make if it said "Preds win the late-second goal?" It's gonna have zero impact on next game's attendance.
Titans v Preds
It's easier to follow football. 16 games a year and all on Sundays. It's one of the reasons why the NFL is king in the US, and in Nashville.
But one of big differences that hasn't been mentioned is PLAYOFF SUCCESS. When the Titans played at Vandy and had mediocre success in 98, there was very little buzz about the team.
And then, they moved into the new stadium (some boost), but they they got the biggest boost they could ever get, going to the Super Bowl. The casual and even non-casual Nashville sports fans had a team to root for.
They are still riding the super bowl wave in some aspects. The won over the fans before the Preds did. Since then, they have made more playoff noise, winning a couple more rounds in a league that's harder to make the playoffs. The buzz had worn off a little bit, but then Chris Johnson goes and creates history, re-igniting the dormant fans.
Bottom line, Preds need to make playoff noise to see noticeable gains at the attendance gate.
If the headline was "PREDS win the late second goal", it would re-inforce the fact that editors of this rag aren't paying any attention to anything. The thread is all about how this supposedly major daily newspaper slants stories, headlines, and pictures with only negative bias towards the NASHVILLE PREDATORS hockey team. Since it was brought up, though, it's amazing that even in last year's horrible economic conditions, PREDS attendance actually rose from the previous year.
If the headline was "PREDS win the late second goal", it would re-inforce the fact that editors of this rag aren't paying any attention to anything. The thread is all about how this supposedly major daily newspaper slants stories, headlines, and pictures with only negative bias towards the NASHVILLE PREDATORS hockey team. Since it was brought up, though, it's amazing that even in last year's horrible economic conditions, PREDS attendance actually rose from the previous year.
Yes, THe NASHVILLE PREDATORS are a hockey team in NASHVILLE. The comparison that some are making is to the press coverage of the TENNESSEE TITANS NFL FOOTBALL CLUB.
Actually I don't know what this thread is about. Trying to tell the new Tennessean writer that he shouldn't even bother? And that internet blogs are getting the job done, and we don't want to see his stories? I really don't know.
I think it's just a thread BFC started to offer his opinion on the hole Cooper has to climb out of in order to turn around popular opinion a lot of the Preds faithful share. One that is negative of the Tennessean. It's just that the Tennessean discussion often turns into a "Titanssean" discussion, which will inevitably turn into a comparison of coverage and so forth.
I think it's just a thread BFC started to offer his opinion on the hole Cooper has to climb out of in order to turn around popular opinion a lot of the Preds faithful share. One that is negative of the Tennessean. It's just that the Tennessean discussion often turns into a "Titanssean" discussion, which will inevitably turn into a comparison of coverage and so forth.
Exactly. Thats what makes every game that much more important. I don't understand what people don't get about that. Hockey is a long season. Can you even imagine what it would be like if the Preds got front page headlines after every game they played. I'm as die hard a preds fan as almost anyone on here. I don't get the constant complaigning about this.
My point being is there alot more Titans fans then Preds. I don't get it either. Hockey is just as entertaining as football, but what are you gonna do. This is football territory. I personally don't miss a preds home game. So I don't need to read about it in the paper. Same with the titans. There are those people that like to read. Thats why I come here and footballs future. To read what other fans have to say.
Bit late, but there's an important point to be made... there is a world of difference between playing second fiddle in the news (as the Jackets do for the Buckeyes up here), and being actively maligned and marginalized, which has been the historical direction of the Tennessean.
I'm just hoping guys like Cooper can turn that around and thus get one less advocate for kicking the Preds out. We still haven't gotten our thousand years of revenge yet, and we can't do that if y'all get relocated.
__________________
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Hey guys I am new here and saw this thread about Josh Cooper. I think over all he has done a great job putting out information and news on a daily basis. He has shown signs of being much better than what we have had in the past. Although I do agree both of his headliners on the first two games have been horrible. The team needs to draw more than just casual fans and he plays a big role in this. If you take someone that has never been to a game and they read these two headlines then they think goaltender seriously hurt and they got lucky to win the game. When the fact is they outplayed both teams so far and the home crowd was completely great Saturday night. Cooper could do alot to help sale tickets by just what he prints in the paper.
Here is another thing that I don't understand about all national talk about the Preds attendance. Last season their overall attendance was 614,143. If every ticket was sold last season then the attendance would be 701,633. That is 87% to capacity. Do we as fans want to sale out every game? Do we want to be a team that has 10 to 12 thousand corporate season ticket holders? Do we want our goal zone tickets to cost 100 dollars or higher? The Preds have done a terrific job of building the fan base around the kids, if you take ticket prices that high then most families would not be able to afford tickets and the kids would not be there.
Hey guys I am new here and saw this thread about Josh Cooper. I think over all he has done a great job putting out information and news on a daily basis. He has shown signs of being much better than what we have had in the past. Although I do agree both of his headliners on the first two games have been horrible. The team needs to draw more than just casual fans and he plays a big role in this. If you take someone that has never been to a game and they read these two headlines then they think goaltender seriously hurt and they got lucky to win the game. When the fact is they outplayed both teams so far and the home crowd was completely great Saturday night. Cooper could do alot to help sale tickets by just what he prints in the paper.
Here is another thing that I don't understand about all national talk about the Preds attendance. Last season their overall attendance was 614,143. If every ticket was sold last season then the attendance would be 701,633. That is 87% to capacity. Do we as fans want to sale out every game? Do we want to be a team that has 10 to 12 thousand corporate season ticket holders? Do we want our goal zone tickets to cost 100 dollars or higher? The Preds have done a terrific job of building the fan base around the kids, if you take ticket prices that high then most families would not be able to afford tickets and the kids would not be there.
. Although I do agree both of his headliners on the first two games have been horrible.
Cooper could do alot to help sale tickets by just what he prints in the paper.
Hate to jump in but:
1) Cooper writes the stories, not the headlines. The copy editor in sports would write the headlines.
2) It's not Cooper's job to help sell tickets. It's his job to cover the team and report what he sees. Asking him to shill for the team is like asking the crime reporters to put a nice spin on the crime statistics to support the business community. (Ain't going to happen.)
so kids can't go outside and play it.
