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I think one of the problems with the NHL is it's hard to market players
I think that many Americans simply do not understand hockey enough at this point to jump on it full force... The 80s were high scoring and much more "violent" than today's NHL relatively speaking.
The same 80s where the NHL responded to a game-changing situation in regards to hockey in the US by going cable-only when few people had cable and by being forced to abandon the south and Rocky Mountain regions? The same one that ended with most of the US outside of NHL markets being unable to watch games AT ALL?
If the NHL wanted to grow the game in the US, they would have pursued a broadcast TV deal post-Miracle on Ice rather than have gone cable before most people had cable then have regressed with the SportsChannel America debacle. They had a chance to pin the NBA while it was down and ignorantly punted. Imagine Gretzky or Lemieux if they had modern US TV exposure...
Speaking of black players, some people may wonder about the lineup of the Winnipeg Jets, up in "the great white north". Remember that last year they were the Atlanta Thrashers, who were trying to appeal to the local market. That's why the Jets have players like...
Evander Kane
Dustin Byfuglien
Johnny Oduya
Actually at the beginning of the season they had under contract:
Anthony Stewart
Dustin Byfuglien
Evander Kane
Johnny Oduya
Nigel Dawes
and picked up Donald Brashear (which never played for them)
You can't say if they had any marketing progress I'd say. They have stayed only one more year and always had their usual bad "will they move?" press. Thats not enough time for attraction or commercial effort.
Actually at the beginning of the season they had under contract:
Anthony Stewart
Dustin Byfuglien
Evander Kane
Johnny Oduya
Nigel Dawes
and picked up Donald Brashear (which never played for them)
It's disappointing Dawes wasn't a member of the Thrashers when they relocated here to Winnipeg. He's a Winnipegger. He would have been a fan favourite.
Also, at the beginning of this season they had Kendall McArdle as well, not to mention a few other black players in their minor league system. As a Jets fan, I don't care what racial/ethnic background our players are. The whole team could be Asian, for all I care (right now we only have one Asian guy, Tim Stapleton, who is half-Filipino). When they're in a Jets uniform, they're Winnipeggers -- whether they're originally from Canada, the US, Sweden, Kazakhstan (like Antropov), Russia or anywhere else.
The Thrashers strategy of "let's get black players to attract black fans" is idiotic, in my opinion. I'm a white guy. I'm not going to watch the NBA because I don't like basketball. There could be a team full of white players, and I'm not going to be any more or less interested. I'm still not going to be a basketball fan.
I'm sure there were a number of black hockey fans in Atlanta, just like there are a number of black hockey fans in Winnipeg. Instead of going out of their way to hire players with a specific background, the Thrashers should have tried to increase the appeal of the sport in general. Using my NBA example, if Winnipeg had a basketball team and they went out of their way to market it to me with a "look at all the white people we have" strategy, I'd probably be insulted, but I still wouldn't like the sport. Those white fans who do like basketball would probably be even more insulted.
Anyway, Dawes would have been cool, and the black guys on the Jets are just as awesome as the white guys and the Asian guy. Actually, Antropov probably counts as more "Asian" than even Stapleton, because Antropov is literally from Asia (Kazakhstan).
It's disappointing Dawes wasn't a member of the Thrashers when they relocated here to Winnipeg. He's a Winnipegger. He would have been a fan favourite.
Also, at the beginning of this season they had Kendall McArdle as well, not to mention a few other black players in their minor league system. As a Jets fan, I don't care what racial/ethnic background our players are. The whole team could be Asian, for all I care (right now we only have one Asian guy, Tim Stapleton, who is half-Filipino). When they're in a Jets uniform, they're Winnipeggers -- whether they're originally from Canada, the US, Sweden, Kazakhstan (like Antropov), Russia or anywhere else.
The Thrashers strategy of "let's get black players to attract black fans" is idiotic, in my opinion. I'm a white guy. I'm not going to watch the NBA because I don't like basketball. There could be a team full of white players, and I'm not going to be any more or less interested. I'm still not going to be a basketball fan.
I'm sure there were a number of black hockey fans in Atlanta, just like there are a number of black hockey fans in Winnipeg. Instead of going out of their way to hire players with a specific background, the Thrashers should have tried to increase the appeal of the sport in general. Using my NBA example, if Winnipeg had a basketball team and they went out of their way to market it to me with a "look at all the white people we have" strategy, I'd probably be insulted, but I still wouldn't like the sport. Those white fans who do like basketball would probably be even more insulted.
Anyway, Dawes would have been cool, and the black guys on the Jets are just as awesome as the white guys and the Asian guy. Actually, Antropov probably counts as more "Asian" than even Stapleton, because Antropov is literally from Asia (Kazakhstan).
I think that Atlanta aim to attract black viewers by having black players should be the same than having french-speaking players in Montreal and Québec.
One problem in marketing on a local scale is "the foreign millionaire factor". It's kind of hard to get people to support a game between "our foreign millionaires", and "their foreign millionaires". Most NHL players are either Canadians or Europeans, i.e. "foreign millionaires" as far as Americans are concerned.
I have literally never heard of anyone not being interested in hockey because their aren't enough American players. It is usually because of falsehoods like "the games are too low scoring" or "it's boring". Another common reason is that they have trouble following the puck or don't understand the rules. Never heard any one say, "I don't like hockey because it's full of Canadians and Europeans".
I think that Atlanta aim to attract black viewers by having black players should be the same than having french-speaking players in Montreal and Québec.
Actually, in marketing it's very helpful to have people who your target audience can relate to.
Kind of like how MZA got a bunch of Norwegians to be ranger fans.
Based on my VERY non-scientific findings, it's generally folks w/o money that crave the violence. In fact, I find most sports fans (who are not hockey fans and actually have money) think the fact that they let them fight shows a complete lack of discipline and honor and is therefor NOT FOR THEM.
We can choose to market to the poor or the wealthy.... I think it's a no-brainer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by htpwn
Ah, yes. Let's change the game to suit the tastes of wealthy individuals in southern markets. That will help the league's image in Canada.
The issue in southern markets isn't that the league doesn't appeal to the wealthy. Who do you think are in the stands every night? Who buys Center Ice and Gamecenter? Who gets NBC Sports Network on the higher cable tier? Who walks around with a $200 jersey or a $30 hat? People who can afford it.
It's those non-wealthy southerners who haven't yet taken to the game full force, and that's why hockey is still a niche sport. There are most definitely avenues for the league to appeal to that demographic, particularly the aspects that it shares with football, but we haven't yet seen a real concentrated effort to spread the game that widely. It's been more of a survival game to this point, appealing primarily to those who represent serious revenues in the short term.
The issue in southern markets isn't that the league doesn't appeal to the wealthy. Who do you think are in the stands every night? Who buys Center Ice and Gamecenter? Who gets NBC Sports Network on the higher cable tier? Who walks around with a $200 jersey or a $30 hat? People who can afford it.
It's those non-wealthy southerners who haven't yet taken to the game full force, and that's why hockey is still a niche sport. There are most definitely avenues for the league to appeal to that demographic, particularly the aspects that it shares with football, but we haven't yet seen a real concentrated effort to spread the game that widely. It's been more of a survival game to this point, appealing primarily to those who represent serious revenues in the short term.
Your idea of wealth is humorous. If the "non-wealthy" can't even afford higher end cable, a hat and sweater..... what the hell good are they going to do the NHL?
Actually, in marketing it's very helpful to have people who your target audience can relate to.
I'm sure that's true, but I don't think a potential audience of black people in Atlanta could necessarily relate to the black players who were on the Thrashers.
I mean, for starters, Byfuglien is the only American among them, and I don't know how much a half-Norwegian from rural Minnesota -- who moved to Canada during his minor league career -- has in common with your average black guy from Atlanta.
It just seems like a silly strategy. Johnny Oduya, for example, is Swedish, also mixed-race, and his black parent is Kenyan. What possible connection does a Swedish guy of African (not "African-American", but direct from Africa) descent have with a black guy in the US?
Evander Kane: Canadian. His parents were amateur hockey and volleyball players. His uncle is apparently in the Canadian Ball Hockey Hall of Fame.
Anthony Stewart: Canadian. Grew up in Scarborough, Ontario.
Nigel Dawes: Canadian. From Winnipeg.
Donald Brashear (who didn't play for them, but was signed and was mentioned in an earlier post): Born in the US, but grew up in Quebec.
So what, if anything, do these guys have in common, culturally, with black people in Atlanta?
It was a stupid strategy. Just hiring players based on skin colour in the hopes it would get more butts in the seats is bizarre.
Among the current players on that list, there are 21 Canadians, one Swede (Oduya) and four Americans (two from Minnesota, one from Massachussetts and one from Illinois), so no matter which black players went down to Atlanta (or any other southern team), I still don't think that, culturally, there'd be much connection with the fanbase.
While I am 100% in favour of diversity in the NHL and think it's fantastic to see non-white players in the league... and I get the concept that a kid in Atlanta would see someone like Evander Kane and think "hey, I can do that too!"... I still don't think that marketing campaign was ever going to work unless there was a homegrown southern black player as a role model. Otherwise, these guys are mainly just Canadians or other foreigners.
Interesting fact: on that same Wikipedia page, there's a listing of black former NHLers, and the numbers are just as skewed in favour of Canadians: 39 Canadians and four Americans. I find that a lot of Americans are under the impression that Canada is entirely white, or that members of minority groups here are less likely to pursue hockey than white kids. I think it's pretty clear that's not true.
