I don't think Bettman is the problem. Bettman doesnt control the league, he works for the owners. For example if the owners wanted a team in Quebec Bettman would come out and say that Quebec is getting a team. If we want change we need to get new owners in the league
The blackouts are the worst. I live in Texas, 4 hours from Dallas. It's not like it's even easy for me to get to a game, as it requires time off from work, gas, hotel, dining out, etc. Why punish actual fans who want to support their team? This makes absolutely zero sense.
I live in B.C, but I am a Canadiens fan, games are at least a 5 or 6 day drive away and yet are blacked out here. Our provincial team, the Canucks, 9 hr. drive, Edmonton, 10 hrs., Calgary 7 hrs. and Seattle is I think 9 hrs., and all but Seattle will be blacked out. I gave up and got rid of my tv a few years ago, I just catch the highlights on you tube.
@@gerrylee1687 In the late 1930's Canada had the worst record of any immigrant country for taking in Jewish refugees. Canada took in less than 5,000 refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. One thing both English Canada and Quebec had in common was they were both anti-Semitic. I once saw a film on anti-Semitism in Canada. They showed a film from cottage country in Northern Ontario in 1950. There was a sign that said "For Christians only". No Jews allowed". If I were a Jewish American living in New York City I would not care for Canada. Also Canada is changing. Most of our immigrants come from China, India, the Philippines, and Africa. The good thing is that Canada is producing some good tennis players, soccer players, football players that make the NFL, and basketball players but does not dominate hockey like she used to.
As Hectic alluded to, the best player in the league and arguably the most exciting player in history (McDavid) is very rarely on TV in the US and, if he is, it’s often at 10 or 11 pm Eastern. That’s brutal.
When people compare him to Gretzky they miss one major component, Gretzky was equally awesome off the ice, & helped grow the sport. You put the spotlight on McDavid off the ice & all you get is a shadow, & that's a shame, & he's not the only moderm talent that lacks the character needed to garnish attention. Idk who's grooming these young players into robots, that's something that needs to change.
@@chizorama They’re a different generation and nowadays everyone has to be politically correct and very careful what they say. They also all take media training so that makes them robotic. It’d be nice if they could be completely open and honest but that isn’t going to happen.
McDavid is a great player, one of the best ever, but if you think that he is the most exciting player ever you need to watch more games from years gone by.
I think one of the main problems that is unrated in terms of hockey’s marketability is that of the major North American sports it’s the least accessible. In order to play you not only need to afford the very expensive equipment you also need regular access to an ice rink which aren’t exactly the most convenient or affordable options for either rural or urban kids. Even schools in the middle of the projects or in the boonies have football fields and basketball courts. Meanwhile if you aren’t a rich kid from the suburbs good luck
This... Plus sports like basketball and football/soccer can be played literally at every corner of the earth, whereas hockey requires ice, which is very expensive to maintain esp. in tropical countries.
I personally find the expense thing very ironic given that NHL salaries are dwarfed in comparison to the other major leagues. The NHL superstars make low 8 figures whereas NBA teams will spend that much on a bench player without blinking, so even the upside of possibly making the pros just looks insanely low.
They just recently started a summer ball hockey training program for kids in Pelham alabama (suburb of birmingham and location of the bulls sphl team), and if they can do that in more smaller towns or suburbs near bigger southern cities like atlanta, biloxi and chattanooga, then by 2026 most americans will know the sport way more and most kids will be playing ball hockey during the summer.
I am from Canada, a country that has a strong hockey culture. Their used to be subsidized hockey programs and hockey was more affordable when I was a kid. Now it much harder to get into it, the subsidized programs that let poor kids like me play no longer exist and organizations like hockey Canada tarnished hockey’s image.
It's crazy that as a sport it has pretty much anything a fan could want. And when you ask people typically its perceived as a fast paced, high action sport. Yet even MLB, which fans have complained can be too slow, isn't doing as bad as the NHL. It really does have to be the marketing. I've seen so many videos on RUclips of basketball fans or football/soccer fans (way more popular sports) being wowed by NHL compilations and be completely surprised by the dekes/dangles which remind them of players they love in their sports. It shows people aren't opposed to the idea of hockey as a sport, but their cluelessness shows the league has failed to market itself. The other issue I could see is some of these fans are literally fanatical to where they might not have time to devote to another sport like they do for the one they already follow.
baseball makes a spectacle out of it and charge people like 5 bucks a ticket lol I hate boring ass baseball, but they have been doing something right lol
They should bring back the Olympic and I believe we would definitely see a raise in the fanbase worldwide. Everyone want this to happen! I feel like there are few thing like this they could do to get more fan whitout spending too much money.
They don’t really have special players to market anymore. I know there is a couple but back in the day, you could even market fighters! The NHL chose not to of course but who doesn’t love a throw down in a blowout to send a message or to get your players and fans juiced back up??! The NHL is a wimpy league anymore with nothing special to offer anymore.
The NHL refusing to cooperate with the IIHF to make a World Cup of Hockey happen with McDavid and Crosby still playing at an elite level solely because they're scared of injuries taking away viewership from NHL games is perfect example of how out of touch the NHL is. Time is almost up for our last chance to the two greatest players of the best two decades teaming up for Canada, yet instead of seeing how much spotlight and growth that will bring to the game, the NHL is instead, more concerned about their tv revenue, while still somehow failing to see that their blackouts are the problem. It's the same problem the NHL has with growing the game. The NHL has millions of fans in cities like Quebec City, Milwaukee, and Portland that have been begging for the opportunity to throw their money at the NHL for years now, yet the NHL refuses to expand there in favor of non-traditional markets in effort to introduce the sport to new fans. The success of the Kings, Stars, Hurricanes, Predators, and Lightning are proof that expanding to Southern markets is objectively a good thing, but their refusal to expand up north is alienating their core fanbase. Traditional markets are the markets that grow the game the most because they have the most fans, making hockey front page news over there, introducing the sport to non-hockey fans from media and word of mouth far more than expanding South ever could. There's a reason why Seattle is already a top 5 revenue generator for the NHL. Bettman should've been gone yesterday. It's ridiculous that the same guy has been running this league since 1993, before Google even existed yet. We live in a completely different era now. It's long overdue to be led by a fresh young mind who actually understands this new generation of fans and where the league needs to go.
You seem lost. The IIHF has nothing to do with the World Cup of Hockey. You seem to be talking about the Olympics. Best two decades? You must be very young, haha! Quebec City doesn't even have a population of a million, yet it magically has ''millions of fans''? You're basically talking about three cities with only half a million people each. This isn't a market that interestes the NHL, with the exception of Quebec City, that could in the future become a new Winnipeg. ''There's a reason why Seattle is already a top 5 revenue generator for the NHL'' Source? Bettman has done his job well. The game has grown like never before. What relevance does Google have? How is that a valid comparison? You're beyond lost.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 The NHL has been in discussions with the IIHF to bring back the World Cup of Hockey for years now, so yes, the IIHF is involved. I mentioned multiple hockey markets without teams, yet you're singling out QC. Tell me you barely read my comment without telling me you barely my comment. And besides, the Battle of Quebec was fierce, and just like Winnipeg has a diehard fanbase. They would thrive because they thrived before the Canadian recession kicked them out. When Shane Wright was selected in the 2022 Draft, the commentators said that Seattle was already a top 5 money maker for the league. I'm not lost. It's ridiculous that the same regime has been in control of this league since before Google even existed. That comparison is relevant because the current regime pre-dates the digital age. They're completely out of touch with the younger generation and it shows in how little young people today care about hockey. The league never markets itself. It still relies on TV deals like we're still in the 2000's making it impossible to watch most of the games. The league cowardly banned all themed celebrations to keep the neckbeards and bigots happy. Player safety is a joke. The blatant favoritism for certain markets over others (Ottawa getting punished over a minor inconvenience harder than Chicago ever was for covering up a SA). Bettman fumbling the chance to have a best-on-best tournament 3 consecutive times. Bettman refusing to expand to cities that are literally on their knees begging for teams. The list goes on and on.
@@gabetalks9275 Wrong again. The World Cup of Hockey has exactly zero relation to the IIHF. You're still talking about the Olympics, but pretend to know what you're talking about. Show me a source where the NHL is in talks with the IIHF concerning the World Cup of Hockey. I touched on all three cities with adequate detail. You're confused and do not comprehend how the world around you works. ''They would thrive because they thrived before the Canadian recession kicked them out.'' If that was true, then they would have made it, other teams did too. Obviously it's not true. ''When Shane Wright was selected in the 2022 Draft, the commentators said that Seattle was already a top 5 money maker for the league.'' Hearsay. What has Google got to do with it? That last much later. Zero relevance as mentioned, yet you keep mentioning it. The 90s was already the digital age. You're lost, you're just not willing to admit it. ''The blatant favoritism for certain markets over others'' What is your source for this information? ''Bettman fumbling the chance to have a best-on-best tournament 3 consecutive times'' How is it three times? Also, how is that Bettman's fault? ''Bettman refusing to expand to cities that are literally on their knees begging for teams'' So any city that begs for a team should automatically get one? You already explained how little you understand about this as you mentioned cities that are completely unrealistic. You have no idea what is going on, yet you're pointing fingers like a child. Grow up.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 Wtf are you a Lawyer? 😭 Bro open your fucking eyes the NHL is DYING because the big execs refuse to do any sort of marketing with the players or the teams. You can ask anyone in America what they think about hockey as a sport and they'll probably tell you that it's entertaining. I would know. I moved from Canada to the U.S in 2018 and I've had MANY people say that EXACT thing to me. Even if you don't know jack shit about hockey rules you can still be entertained. It's rare to have a sport like that. So why is hockey so dead? The only people to blame are the executives in charge of the NHL who refuse to make any major changes out of fear AND people like you who want to preserve outdated traditions.
The NHL's war on fighting has been damaging. Most of the NHL's interesting characters were goalies and grinders. Also said this at the time, Skipping the 2018 Korea Olympics, when Korean NHL fanbase was growing, hurt not only in Korea but all of Asia
Interest enough, NHL tried to attract in China when they hosted there and some Chinese aren't familiar with that sports and also it 3 years. They have a KHL team for instance, but the sports is lacking there.
@@JakeStevyson most Chinese outside of major cities won't know what it is, but Teir 1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai have a hockey base. I even saw a girl in Chengdu wearing a Sabres jersey, and I was pretty stoked. China is also a 3rd world country that pretends to be a 1st world country, so it is too expensive for a lot of kids to play, where as basketball is nearly free to get into. So exposure is key, and the NHL fails to provide that
@@codyge18 You will soon see a couple in Qingdao wearing Oilers jersey because Chinese- Canadian visiting their homeland. What makes them standout other than a 97 McDavid jersey. lol
The NHL primarily made its money directly from fans (ticket sales, merchandise, vending sales) prior to the 90s. In addition to that, the NHL made a little money from selling physical ad space and radio ads, which was basically just free money so long as it didn't negatively affect the fans' enjoyment of the game. But in the 90s they grew the sport to a point where advertisers and TV providers were willing to offer massive upfront contracts to where the NHL owners totally changed their priorities away from fans and towards advertisers. That, in and of itself, might have been fine if they had gone all in on that strategy, but they got too greedy and they still wanted to treat fans as customers. They still wanted to sell outrageously priced tickets, beers, hot dogs, jerseys, and they wanted to sell monopolistic TV broadcasting rights to regional providers to ensure that it wasn't too easy for fans to consume the game. On one hand, the modern NHL fan is a customer, but on the other hand the NHL fan is a product to be sold to advertisers, and it's always at the convenience of what NHL owners want in a given moment.
I used to be all about football and basketball, but as of 2020, Hockey has completely taken over. It’s such an exciting sport that I don’t even keep up with any other sports anymore, they are all just snooze fests to me at this point. I really wish hockey had more recognition because I think it is one of the highest skilled sports out there and the things these guys can do in the league is just incredible. Anyone can catch a ball and run with it, but how many people can skate, while maneuvering a 6 foot stick, and tracking a little puck, and avoiding 6’5 guys trying to smoke you, while taking a shot with only inches open on a net. It’s ridiculous.
I love this comment because it validates how I felt when I first fell in love with hockey after having grown up playing only basketball and soccer and baseball. Have love for all sports in general, but I agree with your comment - hockey is jaw-dropping, every single second of NHL hockey for me is miles above any other sport. It's such a shame so few people get exposed to watching it or attending games for prolonged periods of time, to gain an appreciation and understanding for the nuances of the game, the rules and when they are reinforced versus when they are not, the sub-plots/storylines, hero-villain arcs that play out all in a single game. It is a far more engaging sport for me on a three dimensional level than any other sport.
@@Melitonen You can actually play sports like football and basketball, no one plays ice hockey growing up as a kid. People are excited by sports they grew up with
It's funny that you mentioned all this because Nascar has the same marketing problem the NHL fanbase too. They also have an older fanbase and have a hard time attracting to a younger audience. I'm a big fan of both and want to see both leagues succeed.
The NHL made a terrible mistake skipping the last two Winter Olympics. Hockey has 15 days of free worldwide publicity every four years and somehow someway the NHL just threw that on trash for no reason.
they are afraid of injuries they couldn't control also those last two Olympics weren't for the west- they were for China and South Korea to increase and EXPOSE their games. South Korea couldn't give less of a shit and China is more amusing- Kunlun Redstar is composed of players majority from WESTERN CANADA... yeah...China doesn't give a shit either.
It’s the fault of the owners, not Bettman, until people understand that it won’t be fixed. Bettmans job is to be the leagues mascot and spokesman. He does not make decisions. The owners are who makes the decisions, which is why the boys club mentality thrives so well in the league. Until they are held accountable for what they have done nothing will change. Not to mention, the entire “fall” here that is being described is comparing viewing stats from COVID to now. Comparing a time when there is nothing better to do to normal life isn’t exactly fair. Not to mention using a playoffs with two extremely hated teams in the finals to show the decline. The NHL isn’t in decline, it’s merely stopped growing because of the garbage it has become. Not to mention, the only good way to watch it now is piracy which doesn’t show up on the books.
I'd say by FAR the worst factor in the decline in popularity is how expensive this sport is. It's absolutely ridiculous and if the NHL wants to grow the game it needs to pull it's head out of it's own ass and start doing something to at the very least try to decrease the cost of playing the game. The other major problem is marketing. Yeah blackouts are a problem but people will find a way to watch the games illegally, something that TV numbers don't take into account. The marketing of the league is so fucking atrocious that ESPN, one of the league's broadcast partners, is airing one of their most popular personalities on one of their most popular fucking shows groaning when hockey is mentioned and saying "Football, baseball, basketball. Hockey doesn't count" or something like that.
decline in popularity based off what? revenue is higher than ever. tv numbers. are irrelevant less people watch tv . its going keep going down . popularity of the nhl and hockey is bigger than ever before, more money is made, more money is spent, more people play it, more people watch it.
I am a huge NHL fan since I am 5 years old. I live in Europe and I can "never" watch the NHL draft live!! I have an NHL TV membership and evrytime there is a game at a decent hour, the game is blacked out because it is presented on pay tv... Pretty sad!!
I always get taken aback a bit when I hear someone say "The NHL is in decline!". "The NHL is becoming irrelevant!". Or how they say "it was so much better when...". Really? Listen, not to lecture but I've been watching hockey since at least the 70's. Back then you had no national TV coverage in the US, since at least the 75-76 season. If you didn't have a team in your area that made the playoffs, you didn't get to see them unless you lived along the US-Canada border. In 1980 CBS did broadcast the clinching Game 7 between the Islanders and the Flyers, but when the game went to OT they actually warned the audience that at five thirty PM, they would SWITCH to golf and you would MISS the end of the game. It wasn't until the early 80's when USA network and ESPN got involved that the NHL had some more national TV exposure. As far as the player personalities, these kids mostly from rural Canada. They're going to be more humble and soft spoken than the more brash NBA players. That's just a fact of life. The NHL is never going to have a Dieon Sanders or LeBron James. They CAN have the next Wayne Gretzky in one Connor Bedard. Everyone in the draft was touting the kid as a generational talent, and he's playing in a major media market like Chicago. I agree that he needs more exposure. But he's not going to pull up in a limo with sunglasses and big gold chains. That doesn't strike me as his personality. As for MLS... Look, I've been hearing since I was a kid in the 70's "just you wait, in 20 years soccer will dominate the US! In the year 1975... in the 1985... in 1995... in 2005... in the year 2525... If Man U. is still alive...". We're still waiting. Is soccer more popular now? Yes, certainly. But it's only popular with hipsters who want to be British Soccer Fan Jr., and tell the rest of us "you just don't understand soccer... Oh, I mean futbol". The only thing that's happened since I was a kid is that the people that swore they knew the future of soccer in America, and I didn't know what the hell I was talking about, all went from being 20 years older than me to being 20 years YOUNGER than me. The real reason why MLS seemingly has gained more popularity is because they were GIVING AWAY tickets for a very long time. That was the only way they could get anyone to go to games. Kids actually when surveyed said they liked the FIFA video games, but they didn't actually like the MLS, and couldn't name a player. The big reason soccer will probably never become a big time sport in the US at least, is there's no money in it. Rookie salaries in all the other major sports exceed a million dollars. The average MLS salary is $200,000. How do you convince a kid to dedicate his life to a sport he'll never become rich playing? And yes, I agree that cost of youth hockey is outrageous. It was outrageous when I wanted play, which is why I didn't unfortunately. That can only be rectified with more sponsorships, and if communities build more rinks. Does the NHL have its work cut out for itself? Yes, absolutely. But this idea that the league is sliding into irrelevancy is a bit hyperbolic. You have more interest in hockey now than ever, and mind you I come from the era where there were only 22 teams, and a team (the Cleveland Barons) actually FOLDED. The league can always be better, but it's a far cry from where it was, even in the 90's.
I said the same thing to some other fool on another channel. He tried to tell me there hadn't been a superstar since Gretzky. And strangely, bases popularity off of how many SNL appearances players make. Hell, you couldn't even watch all of the games back in the '80s and '90s. Teams were in such bad shape, several moved. I know the Coyotes just left, but far fewer teams bolt today than they did way back when.
I come from non-traditional market (South Florida, and yes, Go Panthers). I'm not invested much to the sport nor any other. I'm getting older and now follow casually. But I always respect the sport of hockey. My opinion about is that ice hockey is very limited when it comes to marketing and growth as the growing population of North America is coming from the south. Have you notice one thing about hockey and all other sports with the new stars coming to the leagues? Most of them are coming from wealthy families. I think all major sports are going to decline in ratings as it's losing relation with the working-class.
The NHL could help itself out by promoting other forms of hockey (street, inline ) the NFL did this years ago with flag football as it realized contact sports is not for everyone. Elite travel soccer in the US is just as expensive as Hockey but it still has a lot of kids who play rec ball till about age 13. The point is the NHL could do a lot more to bring the game to the main stream. Would these kids become elite college players no but they would become fans.
So long as Hockey Canada is using membership fees as hush money to cover SA, and the hawks being rewarded Bedard after the Kyle Beach situation, expect interest to continue to decline.
Im sorry to say this but as horrible as that Kyle Beach incident was i don't think most people cares as long as sports contiues, the NFL is a league filled with murders, wife beaters and gangbangers no one cares and it's the biggest sports league in world when it comes to generating money (thought it would be the preimer league but nope nfl)
It’s pathetic. Blackouts, games ending at 1am on a Monday night, taking out hits and fights…yet another example of a corporation telling us what we should want and force feeding it.
Instead of putting teams where they have a market like Quebec City who rightfully deserves their team back or maybe even Hartford depending on who you ask they’re putting them in such obscure places. That’s also damaging the league because people are getting tired of it after years and years
And not only that, it's as if the league is going to extremes to make sure these teams in non-hockey cities are relevant year after year by any means necessary (Tampa, Vegas). And then when a team is a complete failure like Arizona they keep them there instead of moving the team to a true hockey city like Quebec.
@@jmill3147Vegas is a hockey city now whether you like it or not. I live here. Almost every single car on the road has a VGK bumper sticker on it, when you wear a jersey around town people stop you and say “go knights !” , during the playoffs this year I would walk around my neighborhood and listen to the games in my headphones and walked by house after house of people watching the game in their garage . When Stone got his hat trick in game 5 of the SCF I was walking and heard cheering come from multiple different houses all over the neighborhood. People absolutely love this team here and have become a hockey city. They also lead the league in attendance every year since they’ve existed . Just not true that they’re not a hockey town.
@@joeydrummer7929 I feel like that’s what the commissioner wanted. He wants to turn these places into hockey towns, but in places like Arizona, it has failed. Btw living there with such a devoted community sounds super fun. Coming from a caps fan, it’s clear to see what a cup win does to a town
@@joeydrummer7929 We'll see how much of a hockey town Las Vegas is once the league loses interest in pushing them to the front and moves on to their next pet project.
I’ll agree with you about Arizona being a hot mess that should have relocated years ago, but Vegas alone should prove to you how wrong you are about that.
I completely agree with what your saying man. I feel like if hockey was cheaper and more appealing to teens around the world. Hockey would be back in the top 3. Its getting really bad with the new generation. The high school league in my city is closing down cus kids would rather play soccer or basketball. I definitely hope a resurgence will happen soon. Anyways great job dude! You earned a new supporter
Yeah I mean just look at Football (Soccer). Sure there's actual equipment if you play officially games on teams, but at its very basics all you need to play is a ball and your feet. It's easily one of the most accessible sports out there. Whereas even if you can afford all the hockey equipment every time you want to play you have to spend time strapping yourself up with armor essentially. Not to mention you have to have ice to play on. For most people not living in a cold area with frozen ponds that means you gotta go to a local rink (which is not very possible in some areas such as where I'm at I would need to drive over an hour to Tampa). Football can be practiced in your back yard. I don't ever expect the NHL to be the most popular because of these reasons but they could certainly market themselves better, the sport has a lot to offer and I truly think in my opinion its the best.
There's also the salaries that go with the sports. If a kid is asked "hey would you rather be a superstar in the NHL and make about 13 million or be a superstar in other leagues and make bare minimum at least twice that much?", it's probably an easy decision for them.
I'm a hockey fan but the sport's popularity is what it is. It's obviously the biggest sport in Canada, but it just isn't that popular in the US. Look at the TV ratings. and they keep trying to expand into warm weather regions that aren't interested. the NHL thinks it's something that it isn't.
You missed a key aspect. They've slowly taken the hockey out of hockey. Hockey use to be a blue collar sport. A hard hitting, fighting, league. Now it's a White collar, business mans, league. They've all but eliminated both fighting and hard hitting. The two things most blue collar fans loved about the game. Marketing may have a little to do with it, but the NHL abandoned its traditional fan base.
@@williamlacombe8958he’s just stating the obvious. It’s not just fighting, it’s the physical play in general, they just let whoever has the puck do what they want, there is no 100% given to take the puck away, which would require a pancake into the boards.
@@williamlacombe8958 How many greats have been kept off the ice due to concussions? It was mostly enforcers, with a select few other players retiring because of concussions. I don't see it.
I big reason why they lean heavily on those Tuesday/Thursday game slots is because many NHL teams share arenas with the NBA which conversely has a heavy leaning towards Monday/Wednesday games which makes it easier for arena conversions between the two sports.
I tried for years to pay the NHL money to watch Maple Leaf hockey games, but they kept blacking out so many games I eventually dropped them and went to illegal streaming, never looked back. They don't want my money or viewership.
its sad but true. I went to a Canadian highschool and almost everyone followed basketball or at least knew a few players but we never talked much about hockey. The NHL could start by letting players dress how they want. NBA players get posted all the time on social media with their pregame outfits whether its good or bad and it catches people’s attention while also getting recognized for it.
Remember Brent Burns and his tuxedo t-shirt ? Probably not, that's why the way players dress is not an issue and by the way that's not on the league that's an organisation decision, I think the Arizona Coyotes decided to stop that restriction a few years ago and it's still the most irrelevant team in the entire league
U sure u were in Canada? I'm 4 years removed from highschool but NHL was the only sport anyone ever talked about, teachers included. It's like the NBA and MLB never existed. And still now everyone around my age only ever brings up hockey for conversation. Go to any local bar during a Raptors game nobody is actually there to watch the Raptors. Go when the Leafs r playing and the bars are packed with leaf jerseys??? Maybe ur in the "basketball people neighbourhoods" if you know what I mean lmao.
considering it from a foreign point of view (hockey fan in France) NHL is almost invisible here... I should say Hockey in general is absent. Back in the time I remember watching 1980 lake placid miracle on public TV and world championships! today you can't watch hockey unless you pay and abandon sleep.
I remember paying for a monthly subscription, could have been sportsnet, only to find out that the games of the team I support can’t be watched in my region. I promptly cancelled my subscription and don’t pay to watch anymore.
Two Words: Gary Buttman! 🤣 I heard some rumors/conspiracies that he was an NBA plant sent in to sabotage the NHL (since back in the early 1990s, the two leagues weren't too far apart as far as popularity in the USA went)... 🤷♂️
Fans are part of the problem. They are elitist gatekeepers. They only think certain places deserve team - mostly Canada cities. Also they hate casual fans. They are unnecessary mean and nasty to them
Truth. I stopped following hockey 20 years ago. I grew up supporting Detroit (my home team), but grew disinterested. Getting back into the NHL this season I realized how the worst fans in all of US-Canada sports (hockey “Ultras”) kill the fun of the game and drove me away from the sport. Too bad, considering most hockey and NHL fans are first-class. Looking forward to interacting with real hockey fans like you and RUclipsrs like The Hockey Guy.👌🏼👍🏼
You really want to talk about a decline? Go back to say, 1991, ‘92, ‘93 etc. The NHL was on fire and Sports Illustrated predicted it would overtake the NBA. The 1994 lockout, throttling down on goal scoring, and terrible business decisions led to a drastic decline by the turn of the millennium. Anything happening now is just a decline from the decline.
8:36 - "And it doesn't help that international competitions featuring NHL players occur infrequently." Actually, there's a World Championship that occurs every year that features NHL players. However, the NHL fanbase seems to have a hatred towards it for whatever reason.
Because rather than watch their country lose sometimes they need to tell themselves it doesn’t mean anything. Any rosters that dont look like my video game with injuries turned off arnt worth watching.
When one person called the game it was a lot more exciting. A good play-by-play injected excitement into the game as his voice would rise as the puck entered the opponents end of the ice. You always knew who had the puck, and who was in goal. Now two commentators are used and they droll on reciting boring stats and meaningless histories often when the puck is in play, dragging down the tempo of the game. Sadly, on some occasions they would break off the chatter and say "we have a goal." This broadcasting style was likely adopted from baseball where there was time between pitches. But hockey is all about action and the commentator should focus totally on the play.
I mean where do we even start… 1. Nobody knows what the hell a penalty is 2. Stars have 0 personality and marketability 3: the playoff format sucks ass and is detrimental to the quality of the product see this past scf. 4. The nhl doesn’t look to improve its product it looks to make money off the current product. Ive been a lightning fan and hockey fan hardcore for almost a decade. Its sad to see its decline compared to thriving upencoming leagues like MLS and F1. I dont often agree with Steve dangle but he is 100% right with this… Its not a legitimate league. Its rinky dink and borderline amateur.
And, if I remember correctly, St. Wayne and the McNugget from the Oilers are both actively promoting it, but you won’t hear one peep of criticism about it.
*This is what the NHL gets for devoting 30 years of focus, care and investment to american cities.* Outside of a few places like Minnesota, there are virtually 0 hockey fans. Sure, people are fans of the team in their city but if that team didn't exist they wouldn't know what hockey is. The NHL playoffs are still carried by Canadian viewers, even when Canadian teams are knocked out because Canadians are fans of the sport, while americans are mere fans of their city. Outside of rich retirement cities full of people with too much time and money, american teams struggle to fill their arena when they aren't cup contenders. It's hard to say how long the NHL's luck will last if they continue throwing real fans under the bus for fleeting attention and the illusion of relevancy in cities that had never seen ice before the NHL arrived.
Absolute facts. And honestly the best analysis I've read here. Americans just don't take to the game well. And this is true about established hockey cities like Detroit and Boston. I don't think they ever will. And a lot of the new bandwagon fanbases from Vegas and the south will die out quickly if their city teams don't succeed in the league.
And that's a good thing. A strong "support your local team" culture is healthy and prevents a handful of regular favorites from stealing the spotlight from everyone else.
@@Pol-xu4onpeople supporting their local teams are the exact opposite of "bandwagon fans" (also known as "glory hounds"), who are "fans" of the team that's at the top at the moment and regularly change it.
@@HecticHockey you hit the nail on the head. So much star talent, American star talent, that the NHL needs to market to the populace. As a black hockey fan, the NHL would thrive if they could market to African Americans. I mean look at black people Twitter and pop culture in general. We have literal skin in the game and we make things cool.
@@coastaku1954 I love Pk. One of my fav players. Dustin Byfuglien too. But PK is Canadian. It’d be a lot better if he was an African American. I can guarantee you most people don’t know who PK Subban is but everyone knows Lebron James
I’m a huge hockey fan, I coached youth hockey for 20 years, and I have season tickets to Quinnipiac University’s hockey team. But I haven’t paid any attention to the NHL since the Whalers left Hartford. I know that the NHL’s problems wouldn’t be solved by bringing a team back here, but the league has turned off a lot of fans by moving teams around. Fortunately, there are other ways to enjoy the game without the NHL.
A thing that I’ve long noticed is that hockey is also pretty hostile towards players of color. I’ve never had a bad experience as a fan going to a game and it’s honestly the best sport to watch live, but even ignoring the cost I don’t know if I would want my kids to play hockey. Every player of color from the scrubs to HOF guys like grant fure and Jerome iginla have their own horror stories of racism at every level from the pros to juniors
''grant fure'' Hahaha! Hockey is very much a middle class sport and is dominated by northern countries. It shouldn't surprise anyone that few non Caucasoids play the game. Why are you so concerned about the lack of color on the ice? Does it make any difference what nationality, race and ethnicity the players are? I say let them be.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 the issue isn’t that hockey is a sport played predominantly by white players or even that it’s predominantly played by middle to upper class people. Like I said I love hockey. I genuinely think it’s one of the best sports on earth but it’s hard for the game to grow when it’s so hostile towards new types of people. As much as I love hockey there is no way in hell that I would let my kids consider junior hockey.
@@saydaddy91 Have you considered that maybe you're the racist. How is taking a few stories and acting like everyone is doing it in anyway different then someone thinking all black people are criminals cause they saw some black people commit crimes a few times.
Bro I live in Edmonton and half the people I talk to don't even know who McDavid is, and half of the people that do know who he is cant even say his name correctly. The funnier thing too is that if I were to talk about a missed foul call in a preseason NBA game, I would have those results flipped around. The NHL is irrelevant even in the city with the best player in it, its sad and funny at the same time.
I live in Edmonton, too. Look at where our immigrants are coming from. They come from China, India, the Philippines, and Africa. Hockey is not in their culture. I am an immigrant myself. I was born in Japan but grew up in Canada. At work Punjabi is the number two language. We need immigrants as Canada's birth rate is too low but they would rather follow soccer and basketball.
@@roberteaston6413 the amount of immigrants is extremely low why wouldn't punjabi be the second biggest language at work nobody speaks french out west. your acting like its 1/3 of the population its not even 10% ... most people in Edmonton know who he is quit lying why do u guys have to lie go around asking people you'll see im right
I agree with the local blackouts are a headache and being on TNT sucks. But to say the NBA is killing it is ridiculous. They have been bleeding viewers for years with their social activism. The NHl should just play the game and drop all the woke stuff and the NHL will come back stronger.
@@MattM-oe6qs No they won’t. Just look at the ratings drop for NBA, NFL and MLB. People want to not have social activism shoved down their throat when they just want to watch a game. Look at Marvel and Stars Wars with strong female leads shoved down people’s throat, they are all flops. Marvels was worse Marvel movie ever in terms of ticket sales, it was a woke crap show. Because the economy is in the crapper with inflation, everyone has less money to spend on entertainment. Why spend my hard earned money on woke crap, I will just stay home or not watch it on TV.
Good. I’m sick of the NHL’s shenanigans. They are greedy and corrupt. I’m a lifelong hockey fan with nothing but love in my heart for the game, but to hell with the NHL
Something Real Madrid did in I think 2004 when aquiring David Beckham, it was solely a Media presence aquiring, not saying he is a great player but they didnt really need him, they had a tour in Asia that pulled MILLIONS upon MILLIONS new fans and sold shirts and stuff of all their star players like it was candy.
The difference between the NBA and NHL is that the NHL doesn’t have enough mainstream star players. They need to change the rules to facilitate goal scoring, in a 32 team league there needs to be at least 15-20 players with 50+ goals a year. People will show up and pay to see goal scorers.
as a fan in the uk, i dont get too many opportunities to watch hockey, but there is a clear difference between watching a game in person and watching it on tv. at the finland games last year, the energy was palpable, people were excited and the arena kept things interesting between periods with music, interviews, etc. watching a game on tv, i was bored out of my mind seeing old men on my screen describing exactly what i just saw happen in the game. they NEED to invest in new personalities in tv!
Well, they did have one of the most colorful analysts in the game with don cherry be he had to be let go because of #muh-racism. Then they let roenick go because of #muh-sexism.
that's EXACTLY how I feel about watching english soccer for the record....you think the personalities are INTERESTING????? You think Canadians care what Thierry Henry thinks???? It goes both ways. Canadians couldn't care less. UNLESS YOU LOVE THE PREMIER LEAGUE....then you care. Pretty sure you don't ACTUALLY LIKE HOCKEY you just watched a game a handful of times.
@@sampicano uhh dude i hate soccer. its my least favourite sport. not sure what all the aggressiveness is for, when theres a bunch of people in the comments that agreed with me that the tv personalities in hockey are uninteresting. i watch nba, nfl, wnba, mlb, and nhl. i watch all of these as consistently as i can with the time difference. this is not to shit on the sport as i said, ive loved every single hockey game ive watched and attended, im only speaking on the tv program, which i think is subpar compared to other sports
The owners need to can Bettman. He’s the main culprit of this issue and largely out of touch for what is needed to advance the league in a positive direction.
The NHL needs to make their product more assessable. Figure out the blackouts and scheduling mishaps first, then focus on growing your brand. Focus on your current fans staying interested, then focus on growing the game in non traditional markets.
My criticism on the NHL is how corporate everything has gotten since Covid. They removed teams logo from helmets and later turned the boards into a distracting form of advertisement
Every sport is moving to have ads on their teams’ uniforms. MLB and the NBA have ads on their jerseys and I don’t think it’ll be too long before MLB has ads on the caps and helmets as well.
I sold sporting goods between 1999 and 2005 and parents were gradually taking their kids out of hockey because of the blood thirsty violence at the time which raised their kids' insurance rates every year and the cost of a player was 3 grand and for a goalie it was 5 grand when everything was factored in. There's less violence today because those of us who were against fighting and dirty play were proven RIGHT after the CTE scandal that plagued both the NHL and NFL. The game is faster and cleaner today but the NHL simply isn't marketing the game properly.
How can you ship drop 22% between 2021 and 2022? Crazy it's almost like people were stuck at home in 2021 with nothing to do and then 2022 they were able to move about freely again
@@Matanumi greedy no its called being a business the goal is to profit as much as possible . if they were greedy their would be no other option nobody is stopping u from watching junior hockey or the sphl or any small european league u choose to support these guys u tool
Clickbait title.. highest salaries ever, cost of franchise highest ever.. highest viewership.. irrelevant how? Most important measure.. USA hockey most competitive ever
DEI hires, any DEI involvement, seizure promoting digital ads whoring out my eyes, 177 teams with unknown players, a pathetically goofy all star game, local TV blackouts and so on will continue to ruin the most beautiful sport…..SAD.
This all began 30 years ago when they started installing club suites amd luxury boxes, raised ticket prices, and left free over the air TV for pay-cable. Many working class families were left behind. Since then it is exponentially worse. $80 for a ticket? $12 for a beer? Plus parking? Plus $70 month for cable TV subscription? Like everything else in this country, only the upper crusty 1% can afford this, and all the working class clowns making less than $30 hour are struggling to pay their rent, purchase groceries, buy diapers and put gas in their truck. NHL MLB NFL NBA don't care about their fans, they just want to Maximize Revenue.
The equipment/cost issue is really hard to understand for anyone who never went through it or is not planning to put their kid through it. This is why its so hard for people to understand all modern NHL'ers come from a wealthy family (or a country like Russia where you are a state sponsored athlete). You did a good job to mention 'keeping up with gearing' but its not really that simple as kids grow rapidly. Hockey is a sport where you have significant advantages the earlier you begin - also increasing that cost per growth. If you do get good and succeed - each one of those equipment resizes will be into better and better equipment. This is at the same time as paying normal league costs. House league the very base level, still cost more than every other sport base league because the need for ice, enclosing that ice in a physical building and paying to maintain it all throughout the day. Every step you increase in level those costs also go up. Then they also add in travel costs - with individual trips costing as much as a whole year of playing. The sticks should not be understated either because they don't just cost $400 and you need one and that's it. Generally players will try to keep 2 of the same (one for backup) if they can afford it. Whenever one breaks they need to go replace it, that could be as many as one a week to one a month - its total luck. Realistically it's easily into the six figures for a successful career path just with all the mandatory costs - then many/majority parents will pay much much more for 'extras' such as private training and private sports schools - you're talking millions of dollars. Imagine the stress of needing to succeed under those circumstances.
@@Michael-d2r4o How does that argument even make sense? This is a league wide problem, has nothing to do w/ a specific player you dislike.. But since you want to focus on him sure.. Owen power allegedly materialized at the age of 14 and there is no record of him going to private sports school. He only has record of three years playing AAA If anything he is an example of someone using as little money as possible (hence how your argument makes little sense) - however in reality I am willing to bet his rookie career cost a shit load more then his elite prospects page gives off. He likely was just kept in lower leagues where he dominated all the while getting shit tons of private training. There are several years of his rookie career missing as well as what high school he attended. His whole story is how he is just physically gifted and essentially how every team wanted him for size alone, which sounds nice and all..
@@Michael-d2r4o That's not to mention that his 3 years in AAA hockey probably cost his parents anywhere from 10-30k per year, for league+travel costs alone. Not including his premium equipment while going through growth spurts or all the $400+ sticks he is breaking, or equipment he is literally wearing out playing so often in his 6ft 5" frame
Because it's not being aired on free TV like it used to when it was on NBC, NBC is aired over broadcast so people who don't have cable can still watch the channel for free so I didn't watch hockey on TV at all this year because NHL games no longer air over the air ways major reason viewership is down
so how is that a loss more profit is not a loss and the exposure is pointless hear me out,. people fall in love from playing hockey not watching a sport they don't understand why do u think cricket has failed over here nobody has easy access to play or learn the sport their not going to watch it same applies to hockey in afghanistan cricket is popular their because the people understand it and can have access to it
For more hatred that betting may have brought to the league, I as a latino started watching NHL only after outing money on the line. Im a Panthers fan now, I play NHL and I love hockey. I look forward to this love hate relationship but hockey is not dead. There is a HUGE market down south. BELIVE ME.
Although defensive at first, I think you have alot of this correct. Separating the Stanley Cup several days apart and scheduling after pre-season baseball and competitive deck shuffling on ESPN (doesn't seem very important to them), I found that those bizzare times always fell while I was busy... I missed a few of the games completely, and just caught a period or two here and there... And yes, scheduling 14 regular season games on the same day at the same time doesn't help. And I also remember the commercial where Ovechkin calls room service and orders like 200 items, and when asked his name says "Crosby"... which cuts to Crosby looking at all the food and shouting "Ovechkin!"... funny stuff - and it builds the names of the players for the viewers... You are correct. There is so much the league could do - but doesn't.
I Have to say that your international assesment was little off... Hockey has lots of international players compared to other sports and there has Been long tradion of that. Oveckin, datsyk, Hasek, Kurri, Forsberg, Selänne etc. Biggest problem with hockey IS The cost. Only The upper middle class cab has IT as a hobby. Other problem IS The lack of international tournaments like NHL WC and NHL not allowing players play on olympics.
It’s Bettmans fault. He made it an owners league so he can’t get voted out and is killing the league in the process. Also I thought nbc was bad but ESPN says hold my beer. I bet that viewership would go up if the just took Leah Hextall off lol
Another thing. I’m a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Watching on television. I can view the season opener, the game after the all star break, and playoff games (if I’m lucky), on services like Hulu which gives you games based on your selected teams. The NHL doesn’t do that.
Going with an all speed and skill league has killed the excitement for casual fans, let alone most of us diehards. Basically all 700 players in the league have the same scouting report and it took away what was once a unique sport.
@@incumbentvinyl9291you are correct. as a casual fan, who is quickly becoming a devoted one, I would much rather see Nikita Kucherov make a sick pass than some bully beat a guy up.
@@tomault3063 Indeed. It's a completely different sport for you than it is for people who have played competitive hockey and been around the game for decades in nothing short of a devout manner. Old habits die hard, and as we grew up with and in a tough game, it's natural for us to view the ballerinas of today as soft when for us the ice was a battlefield. I wasn't the biggest or toughest guy out there in my day, and I had to mentally prepare for every game in order to get more grit out of myself as it didn't come naturally. I put my heart and soul into being a wrecking ball on the ice. This is not required in the same way as before. Intimidation and fear is no longer part of the game, and in my opinion that reduces the sport's value greatly. It's not nearly as competitive.
So is that why NHL players aren’t usually marketable? The culture looks down on individual personalities? That make sense because the only hockey player that had national fame,in my lifetime, was Wayne Gretzky
Gary Bettman and his lackies must go. There MUST be a great change of NHL officials who can take the sport of hockey and market it more international. I remember in the 90's hockey had a great swing that was all the way up til the 2005 NHL lockout....then it cam slowly down to where wer are now.
Why and how should it be more international? It's a sport played on ice, not on sand in the desert. People have to comprehend the limitations of a game that is dependant on weather to thrive in the community.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 True, but the entertainment value and quality beats soccer, baseball and football any day for example and even if I also love basketball, I rather pick hockey at first hand if I'm forced to choose.
@@WarioSaysSo Obviously. That's not hard to do. The truth however is that football requires something round and two rocks. It can be played even in the most impoverished corners of the Earth.
Playoff viewership is at an all time high. Also, hockey has never been ran well. Even during the original 6. There was a reason the Leafs and Habs got all the cups. Owners owned multiple teams. The Rangers were a farm team.
As a hockey fan, what is making me lose interest is the irregularities with regards to the referee's. It feels like every game follows a different rule book
There is no decline here. NHL was irrelevant around late 1999's to early 2000's until 2003. Several terrible draft classes and low overall scoring, and also the Greztky's era when he played against hundreds of beer leaguers and goons. If the NHL is able to raise their salary cap when EVERY TEAM ICES 18 SKATERS AND TWO GOALIES ON THE ICE EVERY GAME, thinking there's any decline there is just you being delusional.
as a hockey crazy Canadians Fan living in Toronto i hardly get to watch a game by my team. And over the last 40 yrs have lost much interest in watching regular season hockey games. When it comes to the playoff it takes much to long and too many days off during the playoffs, it is crazy to think Canadian in the start of summer want to watch a hockey games when winter is so cold !!!
you touched on it a bit and the key to saving the NHL or hockey in general is for all of the NHL and AHL teams to be reinvesting in the youth development programs. They need to figure out a way to replicate the success of the MN community based hockey system. The state has a population of 5.7 million and has roughly 60k youth hockey players from age 3 through HS. There are only a couple states close to that but they have much larger populations. One of the key success of the MN model is it quite a bit more affordable than anywhere else. The NHL should really be looking at doing something similar to what the MLB did where they built ball fields and started youth programs all across the country. Lets be real hockey will never be able to compete with Basketball and Soccer. Those sports can be played anywhere and mostly for free. Almost every single town has at least 1 park with a field and basketball hoop. Same could be said about touch football or baseball. American football is highly subsidized as well. I played from 7-12th grade and never bought a single piece of equipment. It was all provided by the school. You have to live in a cold state or country to be able to play pick up hockey on the ODR. Maybe the NHL starts pushing roller hockey and ball hockey in the warm states. That said I do believe that last year the US youth participation numbers surpassed that of Canada so maybe they are doing something right.
We dont here about McDavid on american broadcasting because McDavid plays in a Canadian Meduim sized market. Crosby played in a east coast market in the heartland of the states and Ovi is in the capital. Its no suprise more people know who they are than McDavid I think its safe to say the low viewership this year was because the finals was between 2 teams the border NHL don't care for as much. Same happened in 07 with the ducks and sens. While the blackouts aren't helping its safe to say the increased amount of games broadcasted diluted the market a bit. Bad scheduling is an issue but they can fix that pretty easily. Those are my only points
The real issue is groupthink that is pervasive among the entire leadership group from the President/CEO etc to the NHL owners, board of governors etc they have to change their mindset of how they run league.
I'm Mexican and just got into hockey last year during the Stanley cup playoffs but it always seemed like a rad sport since I was a kid like fr there were many movies and tv shows where I could see hockey represented (my fav ones are in Malcolm in the middle) but when I tried to watch a game they were nowhere to be seen, not a single match in public tv and when I got cable television I didn't even knew they broadcasted NHL games, it was until 2023 where I found a match zapping trough channels, like wtf is going on at the marketing department bro. During this season at least they're trying to advertise the games a lil more but they only broadcast 1 match a day. I know hockey ain't the most popular sport here but bro I would watch way more hockey if only they could add 2 or 3 channels exclusively made for NHL to watch my team like they do for La Liga and the Bundesliga, hell nah man even MLB and NFL have Mexican fans, it ain't like we don't like American sports, it's more like they don't make an effort to advertise them here. Anyways thanks for reading my longass Tedx talk lmao 😤👊
yea the mlb has mexican baseball fans mexico is arguably the 3rd best country in the world at the sport and they have the 3rd best league which is crazy when u think about how poor the country is compared to japan and america the league wouldn't be good if it couldn't pay its players its not millions but its good money . if it had the money america did mexico would have a baseball league that rivals the mlb almost
Sorry to all the modern day NHLers, but they collectively have little personality. It's not like these guys don't get enough time in front of the microphone or that their teams aren't giving enough opportunity to show off on social media to grab fans. They are. When they're not playing hockey, they're boring. I blame it on the economic realities of raising a kid to be an NHLer today. If your parents can afford to pay for all that equipment, all those road trips, and all those ice sessions, you're probably a spoiled kid who really only sees obstacles on the ice. Being raised wealthy shelters people from having to take risks, and risks are what help people develop unique, entertaining personalities. When your biggest fear growing up is that your sister will get to ride the jet ski longer than you, you don't really have the suffering needed to become an outside-of-the-box thinker. In that kind of environment, your best play is to be polite, wait your turn, and follow the path that’s been paved for you to get to the top of the mountain.
The scheduling sucks, and a lot of the channels like ESPN sometimes don't carry the games. Like who the hell is gonna pay for TNT to watch the NHL??? Most of baseball games, soccer, and american football are on a lot of streaming services unlike the NHL. The choices are abysmal sometimes.
I've been a fan for 40 years, and I have almost completely lost interest the last 5 years. Too many teams, a diluted product, once great clubs like the Montreal Canadians, have been reduced to middling franchises. We need the original 6 and other great clubs to dominate at the top. Clubs like Vegas come into the league and win the cup is a joke.
I am a new fan, and it's solely because someone I know is great at storytelling and got me really into their team. I don't remember ever seeing NHL marketing as an adult and never felt it was something I needed to look into. I grew up right next to DC in the Crosby/Ovechkin era so you would think I'd have heard a little more, but no... I was talking to my little brother the other day and he didn't even know who Ovechkin was. They only won that cup five years ago, how is that even possible? He would have still been in high school! It should have been one of the most interesting things going on that year... I ended up getting espn+ assuming I could watch the playoffs. It's so disappointing and confusing just trying to figure out HOW TO WATCH! I don't care at all about the only team near where I live now so blackouts wouldn't even have been an issue to me. How can an organization with this much money be so bad at this?? Maybe if we're all lucky, there'll be some new leadership soon. Bettman's over 70, right?
Then it's puzzling why the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals was the most watched since 2013. It was much more interesting than watching the same old teams again. And I'm sure Gretzky was quite happy to be "stuck" with the Oilers winning all those titles.
I’m a traditionalist. This is not a sport for everybody. The rules are many and the nuances too. If the NHL has to tweak anything that’s been part of the game forever, like fighting and open ice hits, just to get more fans, then I’ll be glad to stay in obscurity. Most young kids today don’t have the attention span for sports.
The latest TV deal was dumb. Especially in Canada... sportsnet is way more expensive than tsn to get all the games for just your local team.. new TV deal next year should hopefully fix that..
It is not like there are only infrequent international competitions featuring NHL players, IIHWC happens every year and it features NHL talent in most of trs but since it coincides with play-offs, only guys that did not qualify for play-offs come and also many just choose to take a rest, since it is every year it aldo is treated by bigger nations as not that much of a deal… not talking about North America which dors not care much about it, but even Sweden, Finland, Czechs can field luckluster teams oftentimes
If the NHL were a college marketing class project, it would be an F. Sad to say, but I've been watching since I was 10, but the blackouts and ridiculous streaming crap you must go through just isn't worth it. I only watched the playoffs this year, through the WCF . The softening of the game doesn't help either.
bettmen has to go
It’s Really that simple , everyone has their time & departure. His departure is here.
Yep!
The anchor being chosing fanatics of all possible choices as the next jersey creators league wide due to adidas contract expiring .
I don't think Bettman is the problem. Bettman doesnt control the league, he works for the owners. For example if the owners wanted a team in Quebec Bettman would come out and say that Quebec is getting a team. If we want change we need to get new owners in the league
@@colesonlamb5981 you are bettmans burner account & im not reading all that
Totally mismanaged, they are focused on expansion when they need to focus on fans
Fans are a part of expansion.. 😂
@@AttilatheThrillathey have to actually keep caring.
You basically just described Formula 1
@@Windyyyyyyyyy That’s why Vegas won the cup this year
Ayyy history is repeating itself!
The NHL just cannot get out of it's own way.
Leaving NBC, where they were THE star attraction, was a colossal mistake.
*its
The NHL left NBC because NBC wanted to lock all hockey content behind Peacock. They wanted to keep NHL hockey on national television.
@@gabetalks9275 ...and yet now that's gonna fuckin happen anyway with amazon prime! during the playoffs!
are you fuckin kidding me?
The blackouts are the worst. I live in Texas, 4 hours from Dallas. It's not like it's even easy for me to get to a game, as it requires time off from work, gas, hotel, dining out, etc. Why punish actual fans who want to support their team? This makes absolutely zero sense.
As a canes fan who lives 3 hours from Raleigh I feel this
Blame bettman. Remember he is Jewish
@@gerrylee1687bro stfu how many times are you gonna comment the same ignorant ass anti semitic shit
I live in B.C, but I am a Canadiens fan, games are at least a 5 or 6 day drive away and yet are blacked out here. Our provincial team, the Canucks, 9 hr. drive, Edmonton, 10 hrs., Calgary 7 hrs. and Seattle is I think 9 hrs., and all but Seattle will be blacked out. I gave up and got rid of my tv a few years ago, I just catch the highlights on you tube.
@@gerrylee1687 In the late 1930's Canada had the worst record of any immigrant country for taking in Jewish refugees. Canada took in less than 5,000 refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. One thing both English Canada and Quebec had in common was they were both anti-Semitic. I once saw a film on anti-Semitism in Canada. They showed a film from cottage country in Northern Ontario in 1950. There was a sign that said "For Christians only". No Jews allowed". If I were a Jewish American living in New York City I would not care for Canada. Also Canada is changing. Most of our immigrants come from China, India, the Philippines, and Africa. The good thing is that Canada is producing some good tennis players, soccer players, football players that make the NFL, and basketball players but does not dominate hockey like she used to.
As Hectic alluded to, the best player in the league and arguably the most exciting player in history (McDavid) is very rarely on TV in the US and, if he is, it’s often at 10 or 11 pm Eastern. That’s brutal.
hes also one of the worst interviews to listen to ever
When people compare him to Gretzky they miss one major component, Gretzky was equally awesome off the ice, & helped grow the sport. You put the spotlight on McDavid off the ice & all you get is a shadow, & that's a shame, & he's not the only moderm talent that lacks the character needed to garnish attention. Idk who's grooming these young players into robots, that's something that needs to change.
@@chizorama They’re a different generation and nowadays everyone has to be politically correct and very careful what they say. They also all take media training so that makes them robotic. It’d be nice if they could be completely open and honest but that isn’t going to happen.
McDavid is a great player, one of the best ever, but if you think that he is the most exciting player ever you need to watch more games from years gone by.
@@nathanadrian7797 As I said... arguably the most exciting ever lol.
I think one of the main problems that is unrated in terms of hockey’s marketability is that of the major North American sports it’s the least accessible. In order to play you not only need to afford the very expensive equipment you also need regular access to an ice rink which aren’t exactly the most convenient or affordable options for either rural or urban kids. Even schools in the middle of the projects or in the boonies have football fields and basketball courts. Meanwhile if you aren’t a rich kid from the suburbs good luck
Spot on.
This... Plus sports like basketball and football/soccer can be played literally at every corner of the earth, whereas hockey requires ice, which is very expensive to maintain esp. in tropical countries.
I personally find the expense thing very ironic given that NHL salaries are dwarfed in comparison to the other major leagues. The NHL superstars make low 8 figures whereas NBA teams will spend that much on a bench player without blinking, so even the upside of possibly making the pros just looks insanely low.
They just recently started a summer ball hockey training program for kids in Pelham alabama (suburb of birmingham and location of the bulls sphl team), and if they can do that in more smaller towns or suburbs near bigger southern cities like atlanta, biloxi and chattanooga, then by 2026 most americans will know the sport way more and most kids will be playing ball hockey during the summer.
I am from Canada, a country that has a strong hockey culture. Their used to be subsidized hockey programs and hockey was more affordable when I was a kid. Now it much harder to get into it, the subsidized programs that let poor kids like me play no longer exist and organizations like hockey Canada tarnished hockey’s image.
My biggest gripe is I pay for espn+ hockey all season long, only to not be able to watch one playoff game. Stupid
And games blacked out because it's on "the NHL Network". I mean really???
It's crazy that as a sport it has pretty much anything a fan could want. And when you ask people typically its perceived as a fast paced, high action sport. Yet even MLB, which fans have complained can be too slow, isn't doing as bad as the NHL. It really does have to be the marketing. I've seen so many videos on RUclips of basketball fans or football/soccer fans (way more popular sports) being wowed by NHL compilations and be completely surprised by the dekes/dangles which remind them of players they love in their sports. It shows people aren't opposed to the idea of hockey as a sport, but their cluelessness shows the league has failed to market itself. The other issue I could see is some of these fans are literally fanatical to where they might not have time to devote to another sport like they do for the one they already follow.
baseball makes a spectacle out of it and charge people like 5 bucks a ticket lol I hate boring ass baseball, but they have been doing something right lol
They should bring back the Olympic and I believe we would definitely see a raise in the fanbase worldwide. Everyone want this to happen! I feel like there are few thing like this they could do to get more fan whitout spending too much money.
They don’t really have special players to market anymore. I know there is a couple but back in the day, you could even market fighters! The NHL chose not to of course but who doesn’t love a throw down in a blowout to send a message or to get your players and fans juiced back up??! The NHL is a wimpy league anymore with nothing special to offer anymore.
Baseball is trying to destroy itself.
@@Paul-ud7ptThe MLS is giving all the leagues a run for it's money!
The NHL refusing to cooperate with the IIHF to make a World Cup of Hockey happen with McDavid and Crosby still playing at an elite level solely because they're scared of injuries taking away viewership from NHL games is perfect example of how out of touch the NHL is. Time is almost up for our last chance to the two greatest players of the best two decades teaming up for Canada, yet instead of seeing how much spotlight and growth that will bring to the game, the NHL is instead, more concerned about their tv revenue, while still somehow failing to see that their blackouts are the problem.
It's the same problem the NHL has with growing the game. The NHL has millions of fans in cities like Quebec City, Milwaukee, and Portland that have been begging for the opportunity to throw their money at the NHL for years now, yet the NHL refuses to expand there in favor of non-traditional markets in effort to introduce the sport to new fans. The success of the Kings, Stars, Hurricanes, Predators, and Lightning are proof that expanding to Southern markets is objectively a good thing, but their refusal to expand up north is alienating their core fanbase. Traditional markets are the markets that grow the game the most because they have the most fans, making hockey front page news over there, introducing the sport to non-hockey fans from media and word of mouth far more than expanding South ever could. There's a reason why Seattle is already a top 5 revenue generator for the NHL.
Bettman should've been gone yesterday. It's ridiculous that the same guy has been running this league since 1993, before Google even existed yet. We live in a completely different era now. It's long overdue to be led by a fresh young mind who actually understands this new generation of fans and where the league needs to go.
Literally bro the baseball international tournaments have done wonders for its sport why can’t they take notes
You seem lost.
The IIHF has nothing to do with the World Cup of Hockey. You seem to be talking about the Olympics.
Best two decades? You must be very young, haha!
Quebec City doesn't even have a population of a million, yet it magically has ''millions of fans''? You're basically talking about three cities with only half a million people each. This isn't a market that interestes the NHL, with the exception of Quebec City, that could in the future become a new Winnipeg.
''There's a reason why Seattle is already a top 5 revenue generator for the NHL''
Source?
Bettman has done his job well. The game has grown like never before. What relevance does Google have? How is that a valid comparison?
You're beyond lost.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 The NHL has been in discussions with the IIHF to bring back the World Cup of Hockey for years now, so yes, the IIHF is involved.
I mentioned multiple hockey markets without teams, yet you're singling out QC. Tell me you barely read my comment without telling me you barely my comment. And besides, the Battle of Quebec was fierce, and just like Winnipeg has a diehard fanbase. They would thrive because they thrived before the Canadian recession kicked them out.
When Shane Wright was selected in the 2022 Draft, the commentators said that Seattle was already a top 5 money maker for the league.
I'm not lost. It's ridiculous that the same regime has been in control of this league since before Google even existed. That comparison is relevant because the current regime pre-dates the digital age. They're completely out of touch with the younger generation and it shows in how little young people today care about hockey. The league never markets itself. It still relies on TV deals like we're still in the 2000's making it impossible to watch most of the games. The league cowardly banned all themed celebrations to keep the neckbeards and bigots happy. Player safety is a joke. The blatant favoritism for certain markets over others (Ottawa getting punished over a minor inconvenience harder than Chicago ever was for covering up a SA). Bettman fumbling the chance to have a best-on-best tournament 3 consecutive times. Bettman refusing to expand to cities that are literally on their knees begging for teams. The list goes on and on.
@@gabetalks9275 Wrong again. The World Cup of Hockey has exactly zero relation to the IIHF. You're still talking about the Olympics, but pretend to know what you're talking about. Show me a source where the NHL is in talks with the IIHF concerning the World Cup of Hockey.
I touched on all three cities with adequate detail. You're confused and do not comprehend how the world around you works.
''They would thrive because they thrived before the Canadian recession kicked them out.''
If that was true, then they would have made it, other teams did too. Obviously it's not true.
''When Shane Wright was selected in the 2022 Draft, the commentators said that Seattle was already a top 5 money maker for the league.''
Hearsay.
What has Google got to do with it? That last much later. Zero relevance as mentioned, yet you keep mentioning it.
The 90s was already the digital age. You're lost, you're just not willing to admit it.
''The blatant favoritism for certain markets over others''
What is your source for this information?
''Bettman fumbling the chance to have a best-on-best tournament 3 consecutive times''
How is it three times? Also, how is that Bettman's fault?
''Bettman refusing to expand to cities that are literally on their knees begging for teams''
So any city that begs for a team should automatically get one? You already explained how little you understand about this as you mentioned cities that are completely unrealistic. You have no idea what is going on, yet you're pointing fingers like a child.
Grow up.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 Wtf are you a Lawyer? 😭
Bro open your fucking eyes the NHL is DYING because the big execs refuse to do any sort of marketing with the players or the teams. You can ask anyone in America what they think about hockey as a sport and they'll probably tell you that it's entertaining. I would know. I moved from Canada to the U.S in 2018 and I've had MANY people say that EXACT thing to me. Even if you don't know jack shit about hockey rules you can still be entertained. It's rare to have a sport like that. So why is hockey so dead? The only people to blame are the executives in charge of the NHL who refuse to make any major changes out of fear AND people like you who want to preserve outdated traditions.
The local blackouts are absolutely absurd and frustrating
NBA ratings are horrible too
The NHL's war on fighting has been damaging. Most of the NHL's interesting characters were goalies and grinders. Also said this at the time, Skipping the 2018 Korea Olympics, when Korean NHL fanbase was growing, hurt not only in Korea but all of Asia
Interest enough, NHL tried to attract in China when they hosted there and some Chinese aren't familiar with that sports and also it 3 years.
They have a KHL team for instance, but the sports is lacking there.
@@JakeStevyson most Chinese outside of major cities won't know what it is, but Teir 1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai have a hockey base. I even saw a girl in Chengdu wearing a Sabres jersey, and I was pretty stoked. China is also a 3rd world country that pretends to be a 1st world country, so it is too expensive for a lot of kids to play, where as basketball is nearly free to get into. So exposure is key, and the NHL fails to provide that
@@codyge18 You will soon see a couple in Qingdao wearing Oilers jersey because Chinese- Canadian visiting their homeland. What makes them standout other than a 97 McDavid jersey. lol
What have they ever done to stop fighting?
People unfamiliar with hockey see it as a sideshow kind of like wrestling. It's all because of fighting. It looks like a trailer park brawl.
Lmao and Gary Bettman says what he's doing with the NHL now is "growing the game"
Yeah, how's that working out for you, old man? 💀
He grew the game in Arizona and Florida, and yet the markets don’t give a damn 😂
Gary bettman is Jewish remember. You know what they are
They are arrogant
6 billion dollars in revenue, Say that Nhl is declining is pretty dumb
@@gerrylee1687 my uncles jewish >:(
I can’t think of anything genuinely dumber for your product than knowingly limiting where it can be watched.
The NHL primarily made its money directly from fans (ticket sales, merchandise, vending sales) prior to the 90s. In addition to that, the NHL made a little money from selling physical ad space and radio ads, which was basically just free money so long as it didn't negatively affect the fans' enjoyment of the game. But in the 90s they grew the sport to a point where advertisers and TV providers were willing to offer massive upfront contracts to where the NHL owners totally changed their priorities away from fans and towards advertisers. That, in and of itself, might have been fine if they had gone all in on that strategy, but they got too greedy and they still wanted to treat fans as customers. They still wanted to sell outrageously priced tickets, beers, hot dogs, jerseys, and they wanted to sell monopolistic TV broadcasting rights to regional providers to ensure that it wasn't too easy for fans to consume the game. On one hand, the modern NHL fan is a customer, but on the other hand the NHL fan is a product to be sold to advertisers, and it's always at the convenience of what NHL owners want in a given moment.
I used to be all about football and basketball, but as of 2020, Hockey has completely taken over. It’s such an exciting sport that I don’t even keep up with any other sports anymore, they are all just snooze fests to me at this point. I really wish hockey had more recognition because I think it is one of the highest skilled sports out there and the things these guys can do in the league is just incredible. Anyone can catch a ball and run with it, but how many people can skate, while maneuvering a 6 foot stick, and tracking a little puck, and avoiding 6’5 guys trying to smoke you, while taking a shot with only inches open on a net. It’s ridiculous.
I love this comment because it validates how I felt when I first fell in love with hockey after having grown up playing only basketball and soccer and baseball. Have love for all sports in general, but I agree with your comment - hockey is jaw-dropping, every single second of NHL hockey for me is miles above any other sport. It's such a shame so few people get exposed to watching it or attending games for prolonged periods of time, to gain an appreciation and understanding for the nuances of the game, the rules and when they are reinforced versus when they are not, the sub-plots/storylines, hero-villain arcs that play out all in a single game. It is a far more engaging sport for me on a three dimensional level than any other sport.
Hockey is a snooze fest
@@ninjaman815 you’re so wrong
@@Melitonen You can actually play sports like football and basketball, no one plays ice hockey growing up as a kid. People are excited by sports they grew up with
Hockey is the third most played sport in the entire world, ahead of baseball, basketball, and american football@@ninjaman815
It's funny that you mentioned all this because Nascar has the same marketing problem the NHL fanbase too. They also have an older fanbase and have a hard time attracting to a younger audience. I'm a big fan of both and want to see both leagues succeed.
If the Rangers end up playing the Oilers in the Cup Final this season it will see very high ratings in both countries
Dang close man!😁
The NHL made a terrible mistake skipping the last two Winter Olympics.
Hockey has 15 days of free worldwide publicity every four years and somehow someway the NHL just threw that on trash for no reason.
they are afraid of injuries they couldn't control
also those last two Olympics weren't for the west- they were for China and South Korea to increase and EXPOSE their games. South Korea couldn't give less of a shit and China is more amusing- Kunlun Redstar is composed of players majority from WESTERN CANADA...
yeah...China doesn't give a shit either.
It’s the fault of the owners, not Bettman, until people understand that it won’t be fixed.
Bettmans job is to be the leagues mascot and spokesman. He does not make decisions.
The owners are who makes the decisions, which is why the boys club mentality thrives so well in the league. Until they are held accountable for what they have done nothing will change.
Not to mention, the entire “fall” here that is being described is comparing viewing stats from COVID to now. Comparing a time when there is nothing better to do to normal life isn’t exactly fair. Not to mention using a playoffs with two extremely hated teams in the finals to show the decline.
The NHL isn’t in decline, it’s merely stopped growing because of the garbage it has become. Not to mention, the only good way to watch it now is piracy which doesn’t show up on the books.
BETTMANS a mascot alright..
Most Americans have never played hockey.
All play football, baseball and basketball and even soccer now.
even soccer now are u mentally slow soccer has been in gym class for decades get out of your bubble
and the areas that DO PLAY hockey...are ignored by the NHL....
Milwaukee, Quebec City, Hamilton, Portland, Baltimore, Hartford, Cleveland....no teams.
I'd say by FAR the worst factor in the decline in popularity is how expensive this sport is. It's absolutely ridiculous and if the NHL wants to grow the game it needs to pull it's head out of it's own ass and start doing something to at the very least try to decrease the cost of playing the game. The other major problem is marketing. Yeah blackouts are a problem but people will find a way to watch the games illegally, something that TV numbers don't take into account. The marketing of the league is so fucking atrocious that ESPN, one of the league's broadcast partners, is airing one of their most popular personalities on one of their most popular fucking shows groaning when hockey is mentioned and saying "Football, baseball, basketball. Hockey doesn't count" or something like that.
What's worse about the expense is NHL players don't make nearly as much as the other sports, so it just looks flat out not worth it.
decline in popularity based off what? revenue is higher than ever. tv numbers. are irrelevant less people watch tv . its going keep going down . popularity of the nhl and hockey is bigger than ever before, more money is made, more money is spent, more people play it, more people watch it.
Ice rinks are expensive, especially in warm climates.
@@jasonanderson5034everybody loves their doomer taeks.
espn is the worst sports net and it's not even close
I am a huge NHL fan since I am 5 years old. I live in Europe and I can "never" watch the NHL draft live!! I have an NHL TV membership and evrytime there is a game at a decent hour, the game is blacked out because it is presented on pay tv... Pretty sad!!
pirate the streams fuck paying for anything if they black you out
I always get taken aback a bit when I hear someone say "The NHL is in decline!". "The NHL is becoming irrelevant!". Or how they say "it was so much better when...".
Really? Listen, not to lecture but I've been watching hockey since at least the 70's. Back then you had no national TV coverage in the US, since at least the 75-76 season. If you didn't have a team in your area that made the playoffs, you didn't get to see them unless you lived along the US-Canada border. In 1980 CBS did broadcast the clinching Game 7 between the Islanders and the Flyers, but when the game went to OT they actually warned the audience that at five thirty PM, they would SWITCH to golf and you would MISS the end of the game. It wasn't until the early 80's when USA network and ESPN got involved that the NHL had some more national TV exposure.
As far as the player personalities, these kids mostly from rural Canada. They're going to be more humble and soft spoken than the more brash NBA players. That's just a fact of life. The NHL is never going to have a Dieon Sanders or LeBron James. They CAN have the next Wayne Gretzky in one Connor Bedard. Everyone in the draft was touting the kid as a generational talent, and he's playing in a major media market like Chicago. I agree that he needs more exposure. But he's not going to pull up in a limo with sunglasses and big gold chains. That doesn't strike me as his personality.
As for MLS... Look, I've been hearing since I was a kid in the 70's "just you wait, in 20 years soccer will dominate the US! In the year 1975... in the 1985... in 1995... in 2005... in the year 2525... If Man U. is still alive...". We're still waiting. Is soccer more popular now? Yes, certainly. But it's only popular with hipsters who want to be British Soccer Fan Jr., and tell the rest of us "you just don't understand soccer... Oh, I mean futbol". The only thing that's happened since I was a kid is that the people that swore they knew the future of soccer in America, and I didn't know what the hell I was talking about, all went from being 20 years older than me to being 20 years YOUNGER than me. The real reason why MLS seemingly has gained more popularity is because they were GIVING AWAY tickets for a very long time. That was the only way they could get anyone to go to games. Kids actually when surveyed said they liked the FIFA video games, but they didn't actually like the MLS, and couldn't name a player. The big reason soccer will probably never become a big time sport in the US at least, is there's no money in it. Rookie salaries in all the other major sports exceed a million dollars. The average MLS salary is $200,000. How do you convince a kid to dedicate his life to a sport he'll never become rich playing? And yes, I agree that cost of youth hockey is outrageous. It was outrageous when I wanted play, which is why I didn't unfortunately. That can only be rectified with more sponsorships, and if communities build more rinks.
Does the NHL have its work cut out for itself? Yes, absolutely. But this idea that the league is sliding into irrelevancy is a bit hyperbolic. You have more interest in hockey now than ever, and mind you I come from the era where there were only 22 teams, and a team (the Cleveland Barons) actually FOLDED. The league can always be better, but it's a far cry from where it was, even in the 90's.
I said the same thing to some other fool on another channel. He tried to tell me there hadn't been a superstar since Gretzky. And strangely, bases popularity off of how many SNL appearances players make. Hell, you couldn't even watch all of the games back in the '80s and '90s. Teams were in such bad shape, several moved. I know the Coyotes just left, but far fewer teams bolt today than they did way back when.
I come from non-traditional market (South Florida, and yes, Go Panthers). I'm not invested much to the sport nor any other. I'm getting older and now follow casually. But I always respect the sport of hockey. My opinion about is that ice hockey is very limited when it comes to marketing and growth as the growing population of North America is coming from the south. Have you notice one thing about hockey and all other sports with the new stars coming to the leagues? Most of them are coming from wealthy families. I think all major sports are going to decline in ratings as it's losing relation with the working-class.
They need to let NHL player go to the olympics again
The NHL could help itself out by promoting other forms of hockey (street, inline ) the NFL did this years ago with flag football as it realized contact sports is not for everyone. Elite travel soccer in the US is just as expensive as Hockey but it still has a lot of kids who play rec ball till about age 13. The point is the NHL could do a lot more to bring the game to the main stream. Would these kids become elite college players no but they would become fans.
So long as Hockey Canada is using membership fees as hush money to cover SA, and the hawks being rewarded Bedard after the Kyle Beach situation, expect interest to continue to decline.
Im sorry to say this but as horrible as that Kyle Beach incident was i don't think most people cares as long as sports contiues, the NFL is a league filled with murders, wife beaters and gangbangers no one cares and it's the biggest sports league in world when it comes to generating money (thought it would be the preimer league but nope nfl)
It’s pathetic. Blackouts, games ending at 1am on a Monday night, taking out hits and fights…yet another example of a corporation telling us what we should want and force feeding it.
Instead of putting teams where they have a market like Quebec City who rightfully deserves their team back or maybe even Hartford depending on who you ask they’re putting them in such obscure places. That’s also damaging the league because people are getting tired of it after years and years
And not only that, it's as if the league is going to extremes to make sure these teams in non-hockey cities are relevant year after year by any means necessary (Tampa, Vegas). And then when a team is a complete failure like Arizona they keep them there instead of moving the team to a true hockey city like Quebec.
@@jmill3147Vegas is a hockey city now whether you like it or not. I live here. Almost every single car on the road has a VGK bumper sticker on it, when you wear a jersey around town people stop you and say “go knights !” , during the playoffs this year I would walk around my neighborhood and listen to the games in my headphones and walked by house after house of people watching the game in their garage . When Stone got his hat trick in game 5 of the SCF I was walking and heard cheering come from multiple different houses all over the neighborhood. People absolutely love this team here and have become a hockey city. They also lead the league in attendance every year since they’ve existed . Just not true that they’re not a hockey town.
@@joeydrummer7929 I feel like that’s what the commissioner wanted. He wants to turn these places into hockey towns, but in places like Arizona, it has failed.
Btw living there with such a devoted community sounds super fun. Coming from a caps fan, it’s clear to see what a cup win does to a town
@@joeydrummer7929 We'll see how much of a hockey town Las Vegas is once the league loses interest in pushing them to the front and moves on to their next pet project.
I’ll agree with you about Arizona being a hot mess that should have relocated years ago, but Vegas alone should prove to you how wrong you are about that.
I completely agree with what your saying man.
I feel like if hockey was cheaper and more appealing to teens around the world. Hockey would be back in the top 3.
Its getting really bad with the new generation.
The high school league in my city is closing down cus kids would rather play soccer or basketball.
I definitely hope a resurgence will happen soon.
Anyways great job dude! You earned a new supporter
Yeah I mean just look at Football (Soccer). Sure there's actual equipment if you play officially games on teams, but at its very basics all you need to play is a ball and your feet. It's easily one of the most accessible sports out there. Whereas even if you can afford all the hockey equipment every time you want to play you have to spend time strapping yourself up with armor essentially. Not to mention you have to have ice to play on. For most people not living in a cold area with frozen ponds that means you gotta go to a local rink (which is not very possible in some areas such as where I'm at I would need to drive over an hour to Tampa). Football can be practiced in your back yard. I don't ever expect the NHL to be the most popular because of these reasons but they could certainly market themselves better, the sport has a lot to offer and I truly think in my opinion its the best.
@@Nichaelas agreed dude
There's also the salaries that go with the sports. If a kid is asked "hey would you rather be a superstar in the NHL and make about 13 million or be a superstar in other leagues and make bare minimum at least twice that much?", it's probably an easy decision for them.
back in the top 3 it was never in the top 3 lol are uslow
I'm a hockey fan but the sport's popularity is what it is. It's obviously the biggest sport in Canada, but it just isn't that popular in the US. Look at the TV ratings. and they keep trying to expand into warm weather regions that aren't interested. the NHL thinks it's something that it isn't.
Because Canadian expansion teams sell tickets but contribute little to revenue growth.
You missed a key aspect. They've slowly taken the hockey out of hockey. Hockey use to be a blue collar sport. A hard hitting, fighting, league. Now it's a White collar, business mans, league. They've all but eliminated both fighting and hard hitting. The two things most blue collar fans loved about the game. Marketing may have a little to do with it, but the NHL abandoned its traditional fan base.
Oh right we need to ruin careers of the great most exciting players in hockey history .look at the talent lost to concussions alone
@@williamlacombe8958he’s just stating the obvious. It’s not just fighting, it’s the physical play in general, they just let whoever has the puck do what they want, there is no 100% given to take the puck away, which would require a pancake into the boards.
*white collar, businessman's league.
@@williamlacombe8958 How many greats have been kept off the ice due to concussions? It was mostly enforcers, with a select few other players retiring because of concussions. I don't see it.
@@incumbentvinyl9291Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya have entered the Chat.
I big reason why they lean heavily on those Tuesday/Thursday game slots is because many NHL teams share arenas with the NBA which conversely has a heavy leaning towards Monday/Wednesday games which makes it easier for arena conversions between the two sports.
I noticed that too. And you can't have NBA and NHL teams playing at home on the same night.
I tried for years to pay the NHL money to watch Maple Leaf hockey games, but they kept blacking out so many games I eventually dropped them and went to illegal streaming, never looked back. They don't want my money or viewership.
its sad but true. I went to a Canadian highschool and almost everyone followed basketball or at least knew a few players but we never talked much about hockey. The NHL could start by letting players dress how they want. NBA players get posted all the time on social media with their pregame outfits whether its good or bad and it catches people’s attention while also getting recognized for it.
Where tf did you live?😂 I don’t think it was Canada
Dress first class you play first class. Hockey's a classy game
Its true, I was the door 🤣🤣🤣
Remember Brent Burns and his tuxedo t-shirt ? Probably not, that's why the way players dress is not an issue and by the way that's not on the league that's an organisation decision, I think the Arizona Coyotes decided to stop that restriction a few years ago and it's still the most irrelevant team in the entire league
U sure u were in Canada? I'm 4 years removed from highschool but NHL was the only sport anyone ever talked about, teachers included. It's like the NBA and MLB never existed. And still now everyone around my age only ever brings up hockey for conversation. Go to any local bar during a Raptors game nobody is actually there to watch the Raptors. Go when the Leafs r playing and the bars are packed with leaf jerseys???
Maybe ur in the "basketball people neighbourhoods" if you know what I mean lmao.
considering it from a foreign point of view (hockey fan in France) NHL is almost invisible here... I should say Hockey in general is absent. Back in the time I remember watching 1980 lake placid miracle on public TV and world championships! today you can't watch hockey unless you pay and abandon sleep.
I remember paying for a monthly subscription, could have been sportsnet, only to find out that the games of the team I support can’t be watched in my region. I promptly cancelled my subscription and don’t pay to watch anymore.
Two Words: Gary Buttman! 🤣
I heard some rumors/conspiracies that he was an NBA plant sent in to sabotage the NHL (since back in the early 1990s, the two leagues weren't too far apart as far as popularity in the USA went)... 🤷♂️
Fans are part of the problem. They are elitist gatekeepers. They only think certain places deserve team - mostly Canada cities.
Also they hate casual fans. They are unnecessary mean and nasty to them
Truth.
I stopped following hockey 20 years ago.
I grew up supporting Detroit (my home team), but grew disinterested.
Getting back into the NHL this season I realized how the worst fans in all of US-Canada sports (hockey “Ultras”) kill the fun of the game and drove me away from the sport.
Too bad, considering most hockey and NHL fans are first-class.
Looking forward to interacting with real hockey fans like you and RUclipsrs like The Hockey Guy.👌🏼👍🏼
You really want to talk about a decline? Go back to say, 1991, ‘92, ‘93 etc. The NHL was on fire and Sports Illustrated predicted it would overtake the NBA. The 1994 lockout, throttling down on goal scoring, and terrible business decisions led to a drastic decline by the turn of the millennium. Anything happening now is just a decline from the decline.
8:36 - "And it doesn't help that international competitions featuring NHL players occur infrequently."
Actually, there's a World Championship that occurs every year that features NHL players. However, the NHL fanbase seems to have a hatred towards it for whatever reason.
Because rather than watch their country lose sometimes they need to tell themselves it doesn’t mean anything.
Any rosters that dont look like my video game with injuries turned off arnt worth watching.
When one person called the game it was a lot more exciting. A good play-by-play injected excitement into the game as his voice would rise as the puck entered the opponents end of the ice. You always knew who had the puck, and who was in goal. Now two commentators are used and they droll on reciting boring stats and meaningless histories often when the puck is in play, dragging down the tempo of the game. Sadly, on some occasions they would break off the chatter and say "we have a goal." This broadcasting style was likely adopted from baseball where there was time between pitches. But hockey is all about action and the commentator should focus totally on the play.
Eh I disagree. There’s plenty of really great commentators in the league.
broadcasters definitely make or break the experience. I'm and Oilers fans, and we love our broadcasters, they are amazing!
@@joeydrummer7929 Hell, TSN has most of the good ones.
Give me Gord on ESPN, please!
I mean where do we even start…
1. Nobody knows what the hell a penalty is
2. Stars have 0 personality and marketability
3: the playoff format sucks ass and is detrimental to the quality of the product see this past scf.
4. The nhl doesn’t look to improve its product it looks to make money off the current product.
Ive been a lightning fan and hockey fan hardcore for almost a decade. Its sad to see its decline compared to thriving upencoming leagues like MLS and F1. I dont often agree with Steve dangle but he is 100% right with this… Its not a legitimate league. Its rinky dink and borderline amateur.
It’s still a professional sport. It’s just because Gary bettman and his board are a bunch of lazy fvcks
How does the playoff format ''suck ass''? What's your suggestion?
*up and coming
F1 isn't a league.
Something tells me you're not very bright.
Playoffs are the same as NBA and MLB so what are you talking about? 😂
@@incumbentvinyl9291"almost a decade" lol
@@chickenalaking1319 Yeah, what a comedian, haha!
Sports gambling ads are a major turn off for me. No chance I would risk kids getting wrapped up in that nonsense.
And, if I remember correctly, St. Wayne and the McNugget from the Oilers are both actively promoting it, but you won’t hear one peep of criticism about it.
I’ll refer to an oldie but goodie regarding Hockey’s perceived decline…The puck is too small and hard to follow…
*This is what the NHL gets for devoting 30 years of focus, care and investment to american cities.* Outside of a few places like Minnesota, there are virtually 0 hockey fans. Sure, people are fans of the team in their city but if that team didn't exist they wouldn't know what hockey is. The NHL playoffs are still carried by Canadian viewers, even when Canadian teams are knocked out because Canadians are fans of the sport, while americans are mere fans of their city. Outside of rich retirement cities full of people with too much time and money, american teams struggle to fill their arena when they aren't cup contenders.
It's hard to say how long the NHL's luck will last if they continue throwing real fans under the bus for fleeting attention and the illusion of relevancy in cities that had never seen ice before the NHL arrived.
Absolute facts. And honestly the best analysis I've read here. Americans just don't take to the game well. And this is true about established hockey cities like Detroit and Boston. I don't think they ever will. And a lot of the new bandwagon fanbases from Vegas and the south will die out quickly if their city teams don't succeed in the league.
And that's a good thing. A strong "support your local team" culture is healthy and prevents a handful of regular favorites from stealing the spotlight from everyone else.
@@Pol-xu4onpeople supporting their local teams are the exact opposite of "bandwagon fans" (also known as "glory hounds"), who are "fans" of the team that's at the top at the moment and regularly change it.
I just got into hockey……
Stick around we need you!
Ur a dying breed my man
@@HecticHockey you hit the nail on the head. So much star talent, American star talent, that the NHL needs to market to the populace. As a black hockey fan, the NHL would thrive if they could market to African Americans. I mean look at black people Twitter and pop culture in general. We have literal skin in the game and we make things cool.
@@gabrielidusogie9189 PK Suban mean nothing to you?
@@coastaku1954 I love Pk. One of my fav players. Dustin Byfuglien too. But PK is Canadian. It’d be a lot better if he was an African American. I can guarantee you most people don’t know who PK Subban is but everyone knows Lebron James
I’m a huge hockey fan, I coached youth hockey for 20 years, and I have season tickets to Quinnipiac University’s hockey team. But I haven’t paid any attention to the NHL since the Whalers left Hartford. I know that the NHL’s problems wouldn’t be solved by bringing a team back here, but the league has turned off a lot of fans by moving teams around. Fortunately, there are other ways to enjoy the game without the NHL.
A thing that I’ve long noticed is that hockey is also pretty hostile towards players of color. I’ve never had a bad experience as a fan going to a game and it’s honestly the best sport to watch live, but even ignoring the cost I don’t know if I would want my kids to play hockey. Every player of color from the scrubs to HOF guys like grant fure and Jerome iginla have their own horror stories of racism at every level from the pros to juniors
Don't forget Willie O'Ree thought
''grant fure''
Hahaha!
Hockey is very much a middle class sport and is dominated by northern countries. It shouldn't surprise anyone that few non Caucasoids play the game. Why are you so concerned about the lack of color on the ice? Does it make any difference what nationality, race and ethnicity the players are? I say let them be.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 the issue isn’t that hockey is a sport played predominantly by white players or even that it’s predominantly played by middle to upper class people. Like I said I love hockey. I genuinely think it’s one of the best sports on earth but it’s hard for the game to grow when it’s so hostile towards new types of people. As much as I love hockey there is no way in hell that I would let my kids consider junior hockey.
@@saydaddy91 How is it hostile towards ''new types of people''?
Good, the game doesn't need your kids. Be an imbecile.
@@saydaddy91 Have you considered that maybe you're the racist.
How is taking a few stories and acting like everyone is doing it in anyway different then someone thinking all black people are criminals cause they saw some black people commit crimes a few times.
You have to get the American black youth into hockey and wearing NHL gear thing for it to blow up.
Bro I live in Edmonton and half the people I talk to don't even know who McDavid is, and half of the people that do know who he is cant even say his name correctly. The funnier thing too is that if I were to talk about a missed foul call in a preseason NBA game, I would have those results flipped around. The NHL is irrelevant even in the city with the best player in it, its sad and funny at the same time.
Wow!!! 😮
I live in Edmonton, too. Look at where our immigrants are coming from. They come from China, India, the Philippines, and Africa. Hockey is not in their culture. I am an immigrant myself. I was born in Japan but grew up in Canada. At work Punjabi is the number two language. We need immigrants as Canada's birth rate is too low but they would rather follow soccer and basketball.
your just lying
@@Michael_RareZebra no take that wow back he is a liar even old ladies who don't watch hockey know mcdavid
@@roberteaston6413 the amount of immigrants is extremely low why wouldn't punjabi be the second biggest language at work nobody speaks french out west. your acting like its 1/3 of the population its not even 10% ... most people in Edmonton know who he is quit lying why do u guys have to lie go around asking people you'll see im right
I agree with the local blackouts are a headache and being on TNT sucks. But to say the NBA is killing it is ridiculous. They have been bleeding viewers for years with their social activism. The NHl should just play the game and drop all the woke stuff and the NHL will come back stronger.
If someone likes the game they will watch regardless of social media off-ice things.
@@MattM-oe6qs No they won’t. Just look at the ratings drop for NBA, NFL and MLB. People want to not have social activism shoved down their throat when they just want to watch a game. Look at Marvel and Stars Wars with strong female leads shoved down people’s throat, they are all flops. Marvels was worse Marvel movie ever in terms of ticket sales, it was a woke crap show. Because the economy is in the crapper with inflation, everyone has less money to spend on entertainment. Why spend my hard earned money on woke crap, I will just stay home or not watch it on TV.
Good. I’m sick of the NHL’s shenanigans. They are greedy and corrupt. I’m a lifelong hockey fan with nothing but love in my heart for the game, but to hell with the NHL
every single sports league is ..
Something Real Madrid did in I think 2004 when aquiring David Beckham, it was solely a Media presence aquiring, not saying he is a great player but they didnt really need him, they had a tour in Asia that pulled MILLIONS upon MILLIONS new fans and sold shirts and stuff of all their star players like it was candy.
The difference between the NBA and NHL is that the NHL doesn’t have enough mainstream star players. They need to change the rules to facilitate goal scoring, in a 32 team league there needs to be at least 15-20 players with 50+ goals a year. People will show up and pay to see goal scorers.
as a fan in the uk, i dont get too many opportunities to watch hockey, but there is a clear difference between watching a game in person and watching it on tv. at the finland games last year, the energy was palpable, people were excited and the arena kept things interesting between periods with music, interviews, etc. watching a game on tv, i was bored out of my mind seeing old men on my screen describing exactly what i just saw happen in the game. they NEED to invest in new personalities in tv!
Well, they did have one of the most colorful analysts in the game with don cherry be he had to be let go because of #muh-racism. Then they let roenick go because of #muh-sexism.
I find all halftime shows that don't involve Prince boring. Haven't watched one in decades, and I've been a pretty big sports fan all my life.
When I'm watching the game at home, I set a timer and go do something else for 18 minutes between periods.
that's EXACTLY how I feel about watching english soccer for the record....you think the personalities are INTERESTING?????
You think Canadians care what Thierry Henry thinks???? It goes both ways. Canadians couldn't care less. UNLESS YOU LOVE THE PREMIER LEAGUE....then you care.
Pretty sure you don't ACTUALLY LIKE HOCKEY you just watched a game a handful of times.
@@sampicano uhh dude i hate soccer. its my least favourite sport. not sure what all the aggressiveness is for, when theres a bunch of people in the comments that agreed with me that the tv personalities in hockey are uninteresting. i watch nba, nfl, wnba, mlb, and nhl. i watch all of these as consistently as i can with the time difference. this is not to shit on the sport as i said, ive loved every single hockey game ive watched and attended, im only speaking on the tv program, which i think is subpar compared to other sports
The lack of the rivalries between teams is a major problem also.
The owners need to can Bettman. He’s the main culprit of this issue and largely out of touch for what is needed to advance the league in a positive direction.
Bettman doesn't dictate to the owners. The owners dictate to Bettman. Bettman is their employee.
The NHL needs to make their product more assessable. Figure out the blackouts and scheduling mishaps first, then focus on growing your brand. Focus on your current fans staying interested, then focus on growing the game in non traditional markets.
My criticism on the NHL is how corporate everything has gotten since Covid. They removed teams logo from helmets and later turned the boards into a distracting form of advertisement
Every sport is moving to have ads on their teams’ uniforms. MLB and the NBA have ads on their jerseys and I don’t think it’ll be too long before MLB has ads on the caps and helmets as well.
Have you watched any league outside North America in the past 40 years?
Corporatism sucks, but pick your battles sheesh.
I sold sporting goods between 1999 and 2005 and parents were gradually taking their kids out of hockey because of the blood thirsty violence at the time which raised their kids' insurance rates every year and the cost of a player was 3 grand and for a goalie it was 5 grand when everything was factored in. There's less violence today because those of us who were against fighting and dirty play were proven RIGHT after the CTE scandal that plagued both the NHL and NFL. The game is faster and cleaner today but the NHL simply isn't marketing the game properly.
How can you ship drop 22% between 2021 and 2022? Crazy it's almost like people were stuck at home in 2021 with nothing to do and then 2022 they were able to move about freely again
video game markets saw a decrease as well- the reality is these corporations are greedy and hate seeing ANY numbers in the decline
@@Matanumi greedy no its called being a business the goal is to profit as much as possible . if they were greedy their would be no other option nobody is stopping u from watching junior hockey or the sphl or any small european league u choose to support these guys u tool
Clickbait title.. highest salaries ever, cost of franchise highest ever.. highest viewership.. irrelevant how? Most important measure.. USA hockey most competitive ever
Perusing the comments are fun though😂
People acting like NHL isn’t the #5 sports league in the world…🤦🏼🤷🏼
DEI hires, any DEI involvement, seizure promoting digital ads whoring out my eyes, 177 teams with unknown players, a pathetically goofy all star game, local TV blackouts and so on will continue to ruin the most beautiful sport…..SAD.
Don't forget the Fanatics official NHL jerseys
This all began 30 years ago when they started installing club suites amd luxury boxes, raised ticket prices, and left free over the air TV for pay-cable. Many working class families were left behind. Since then it is exponentially worse. $80 for a ticket? $12 for a beer? Plus parking? Plus $70 month for cable TV subscription? Like everything else in this country, only the upper crusty 1% can afford this, and all the working class clowns making less than $30 hour are struggling to pay their rent, purchase groceries, buy diapers and put gas in their truck. NHL MLB NFL NBA don't care about their fans, they just want to Maximize Revenue.
Tickets for pens games are $90+ keep it niche and small lmao
couldn't get a ticket for less then 100CAD in vancouver.... yea it's not gonna work for the middle class person (whos struggling anyway on CoL)
Keep the prices too low, then you'll have to ban alcohol, enforce dress codes, and have security checkpoints with drug sniffing dogs.
The equipment/cost issue is really hard to understand for anyone who never went through it or is not planning to put their kid through it. This is why its so hard for people to understand all modern NHL'ers come from a wealthy family (or a country like Russia where you are a state sponsored athlete). You did a good job to mention 'keeping up with gearing' but its not really that simple as kids grow rapidly. Hockey is a sport where you have significant advantages the earlier you begin - also increasing that cost per growth. If you do get good and succeed - each one of those equipment resizes will be into better and better equipment. This is at the same time as paying normal league costs. House league the very base level, still cost more than every other sport base league because the need for ice, enclosing that ice in a physical building and paying to maintain it all throughout the day. Every step you increase in level those costs also go up. Then they also add in travel costs - with individual trips costing as much as a whole year of playing. The sticks should not be understated either because they don't just cost $400 and you need one and that's it. Generally players will try to keep 2 of the same (one for backup) if they can afford it. Whenever one breaks they need to go replace it, that could be as many as one a week to one a month - its total luck. Realistically it's easily into the six figures for a successful career path just with all the mandatory costs - then many/majority parents will pay much much more for 'extras' such as private training and private sports schools - you're talking millions of dollars. Imagine the stress of needing to succeed under those circumstances.
its not expensive bro talk like that is why u have guys like owen power who basically sucks
@@Michael-d2r4o How does that argument even make sense? This is a league wide problem, has nothing to do w/ a specific player you dislike.. But since you want to focus on him sure.. Owen power allegedly materialized at the age of 14 and there is no record of him going to private sports school. He only has record of three years playing AAA If anything he is an example of someone using as little money as possible (hence how your argument makes little sense) - however in reality I am willing to bet his rookie career cost a shit load more then his elite prospects page gives off. He likely was just kept in lower leagues where he dominated all the while getting shit tons of private training. There are several years of his rookie career missing as well as what high school he attended. His whole story is how he is just physically gifted and essentially how every team wanted him for size alone, which sounds nice and all..
@@Michael-d2r4o That's not to mention that his 3 years in AAA hockey probably cost his parents anywhere from 10-30k per year, for league+travel costs alone. Not including his premium equipment while going through growth spurts or all the $400+ sticks he is breaking, or equipment he is literally wearing out playing so often in his 6ft 5" frame
I'm old school, I *listen* to NHL games on the radio streams.
I love hockey, but hate the NHL. No wonder they've slowly slid it into irrelevancy in the past 20, 25 years.
Because it's not being aired on free TV like it used to when it was on NBC, NBC is aired over broadcast so people who don't have cable can still watch the channel for free so I didn't watch hockey on TV at all this year because NHL games no longer air over the air ways major reason viewership is down
so how is that a loss more profit is not a loss and the exposure is pointless hear me out,. people fall in love from playing hockey not watching a sport they don't understand why do u think cricket has failed over here nobody has easy access to play or learn the sport their not going to watch it same applies to hockey in afghanistan cricket is popular their because the people understand it and can have access to it
For more hatred that betting may have brought to the league, I as a latino started watching NHL only after outing money on the line. Im a Panthers fan now, I play NHL and I love hockey. I look forward to this love hate relationship but hockey is not dead. There is a HUGE market down south. BELIVE ME.
If you’re a local fan there’s a brand new rink on the way in WPB, brother! Go Cats!
Although defensive at first, I think you have alot of this correct. Separating the Stanley Cup several days apart and scheduling after pre-season baseball and competitive deck shuffling on ESPN (doesn't seem very important to them), I found that those bizzare times always fell while I was busy... I missed a few of the games completely, and just caught a period or two here and there... And yes, scheduling 14 regular season games on the same day at the same time doesn't help. And I also remember the commercial where Ovechkin calls room service and orders like 200 items, and when asked his name says "Crosby"... which cuts to Crosby looking at all the food and shouting "Ovechkin!"... funny stuff - and it builds the names of the players for the viewers...
You are correct. There is so much the league could do - but doesn't.
*a lot
I Have to say that your international assesment was little off... Hockey has lots of international players compared to other sports and there has Been long tradion of that. Oveckin, datsyk, Hasek, Kurri, Forsberg, Selänne etc. Biggest problem with hockey IS The cost. Only The upper middle class cab has IT as a hobby. Other problem IS The lack of international tournaments like NHL WC and NHL not allowing players play on olympics.
It’s Bettmans fault. He made it an owners league so he can’t get voted out and is killing the league in the process. Also I thought nbc was bad but ESPN says hold my beer. I bet that viewership would go up if the just took Leah Hextall off lol
Another thing. I’m a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Watching on television. I can view the season opener, the game after the all star break, and playoff games (if I’m lucky), on services like Hulu which gives you games based on your selected teams. The NHL doesn’t do that.
Going with an all speed and skill league has killed the excitement for casual fans, let alone most of us diehards. Basically all 700 players in the league have the same scouting report and it took away what was once a unique sport.
What an ignorant thing to say.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 no, he's right. The NHL now has only 1 meta/blueprint for winning, which eliminates much of traditional hockey values
@@rayanomar4832 He said for casual fans.
He is under no circumstances right.
@@incumbentvinyl9291you are correct. as a casual fan, who is quickly becoming a devoted one, I would much rather see Nikita Kucherov make a sick pass than some bully beat a guy up.
@@tomault3063 Indeed.
It's a completely different sport for you than it is for people who have played competitive hockey and been around the game for decades in nothing short of a devout manner.
Old habits die hard, and as we grew up with and in a tough game, it's natural for us to view the ballerinas of today as soft when for us the ice was a battlefield.
I wasn't the biggest or toughest guy out there in my day, and I had to mentally prepare for every game in order to get more grit out of myself as it didn't come naturally. I put my heart and soul into being a wrecking ball on the ice.
This is not required in the same way as before. Intimidation and fear is no longer part of the game, and in my opinion that reduces the sport's value greatly. It's not nearly as competitive.
So is that why NHL players aren’t usually marketable? The culture looks down on individual personalities? That make sense because the only hockey player that had national fame,in my lifetime, was Wayne Gretzky
Gary Bettman and his lackies must go. There MUST be a great change of NHL officials who can take the sport of hockey and market it more international.
I remember in the 90's hockey had a great swing that was all the way up til the 2005 NHL lockout....then it cam slowly down to where wer are now.
Why and how should it be more international? It's a sport played on ice, not on sand in the desert.
People have to comprehend the limitations of a game that is dependant on weather to thrive in the community.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 True, but the entertainment value and quality beats soccer, baseball and football any day for example and even if I also love basketball, I rather pick hockey at first hand if I'm forced to choose.
@@WarioSaysSo Obviously. That's not hard to do. The truth however is that football requires something round and two rocks. It can be played even in the most impoverished corners of the Earth.
@@incumbentvinyl9291 True!
Playoff viewership is at an all time high. Also, hockey has never been ran well. Even during the original 6. There was a reason the Leafs and Habs got all the cups. Owners owned multiple teams. The Rangers were a farm team.
As a hockey fan, what is making me lose interest is the irregularities with regards to the referee's. It feels like every game follows a different rule book
*referees
I disagree.
There is no decline here. NHL was irrelevant around late 1999's to early 2000's until 2003. Several terrible draft classes and low overall scoring, and also the Greztky's era when he played against hundreds of beer leaguers and goons. If the NHL is able to raise their salary cap when EVERY TEAM ICES 18 SKATERS AND TWO GOALIES ON THE ICE EVERY GAME, thinking there's any decline there is just you being delusional.
as a hockey crazy Canadians Fan living in Toronto i hardly get to watch a game by my team. And over the last 40 yrs have lost much interest in watching regular season hockey games. When it comes to the playoff it takes much to long and too many days off during the playoffs, it is crazy to think Canadian in the start of summer want to watch a hockey games when winter is so cold !!!
Not to be that guy, but aren’t the playoffs the highest rated of all time this year?
Can’t stand Gary lol
thank you
you touched on it a bit and the key to saving the NHL or hockey in general is for all of the NHL and AHL teams to be reinvesting in the youth development programs. They need to figure out a way to replicate the success of the MN community based hockey system. The state has a population of 5.7 million and has roughly 60k youth hockey players from age 3 through HS. There are only a couple states close to that but they have much larger populations. One of the key success of the MN model is it quite a bit more affordable than anywhere else. The NHL should really be looking at doing something similar to what the MLB did where they built ball fields and started youth programs all across the country. Lets be real hockey will never be able to compete with Basketball and Soccer. Those sports can be played anywhere and mostly for free. Almost every single town has at least 1 park with a field and basketball hoop. Same could be said about touch football or baseball. American football is highly subsidized as well. I played from 7-12th grade and never bought a single piece of equipment. It was all provided by the school. You have to live in a cold state or country to be able to play pick up hockey on the ODR. Maybe the NHL starts pushing roller hockey and ball hockey in the warm states. That said I do believe that last year the US youth participation numbers surpassed that of Canada so maybe they are doing something right.
Have faith...its not the VS or OLN era. If you were watching during that era you wouldn't hop on this train so easily.
I fully agree with showing the player's personality. You can clearly see how popular is Pastrnak just because of his outgoing and cheerful demeanor...
This is happening to all pro sports
No irrelevance here. Love the NHL. Checked out of MLB and NBA long time ago. No better postseason than the Stanley Cup playoffs.
We dont here about McDavid on american broadcasting because McDavid plays in a Canadian Meduim sized market. Crosby played in a east coast market in the heartland of the states and Ovi is in the capital. Its no suprise more people know who they are than McDavid
I think its safe to say the low viewership this year was because the finals was between 2 teams the border NHL don't care for as much. Same happened in 07 with the ducks and sens.
While the blackouts aren't helping its safe to say the increased amount of games broadcasted diluted the market a bit. Bad scheduling is an issue but they can fix that pretty easily.
Those are my only points
The real issue is groupthink that is pervasive among the entire leadership group from the President/CEO etc to the NHL owners, board of governors etc they have to change their mindset of how they run league.
I'm Mexican and just got into hockey last year during the Stanley cup playoffs but it always seemed like a rad sport since I was a kid like fr there were many movies and tv shows where I could see hockey represented (my fav ones are in Malcolm in the middle) but when I tried to watch a game they were nowhere to be seen, not a single match in public tv and when I got cable television I didn't even knew they broadcasted NHL games, it was until 2023 where I found a match zapping trough channels, like wtf is going on at the marketing department bro. During this season at least they're trying to advertise the games a lil more but they only broadcast 1 match a day. I know hockey ain't the most popular sport here but bro I would watch way more hockey if only they could add 2 or 3 channels exclusively made for NHL to watch my team like they do for La Liga and the Bundesliga, hell nah man even MLB and NFL have Mexican fans, it ain't like we don't like American sports, it's more like they don't make an effort to advertise them here.
Anyways thanks for reading my longass Tedx talk lmao 😤👊
yea the mlb has mexican baseball fans mexico is arguably the 3rd best country in the world at the sport and they have the 3rd best league which is crazy when u think about how poor the country is compared to japan and america the league wouldn't be good if it couldn't pay its players its not millions but its good money . if it had the money america did mexico would have a baseball league that rivals the mlb almost
Sorry to all the modern day NHLers, but they collectively have little personality. It's not like these guys don't get enough time in front of the microphone or that their teams aren't giving enough opportunity to show off on social media to grab fans. They are. When they're not playing hockey, they're boring.
I blame it on the economic realities of raising a kid to be an NHLer today. If your parents can afford to pay for all that equipment, all those road trips, and all those ice sessions, you're probably a spoiled kid who really only sees obstacles on the ice. Being raised wealthy shelters people from having to take risks, and risks are what help people develop unique, entertaining personalities. When your biggest fear growing up is that your sister will get to ride the jet ski longer than you, you don't really have the suffering needed to become an outside-of-the-box thinker. In that kind of environment, your best play is to be polite, wait your turn, and follow the path that’s been paved for you to get to the top of the mountain.
The scheduling sucks, and a lot of the channels like ESPN sometimes don't carry the games. Like who the hell is gonna pay for TNT to watch the NHL??? Most of baseball games, soccer, and american football are on a lot of streaming services unlike the NHL. The choices are abysmal sometimes.
I've been a fan for 40 years, and I have almost completely lost interest the last 5 years. Too many teams, a diluted product, once great clubs like the Montreal Canadians, have been reduced to middling franchises. We need the original 6 and other great clubs to dominate at the top. Clubs like Vegas come into the league and win the cup is a joke.
I am a new fan, and it's solely because someone I know is great at storytelling and got me really into their team. I don't remember ever seeing NHL marketing as an adult and never felt it was something I needed to look into. I grew up right next to DC in the Crosby/Ovechkin era so you would think I'd have heard a little more, but no... I was talking to my little brother the other day and he didn't even know who Ovechkin was. They only won that cup five years ago, how is that even possible? He would have still been in high school! It should have been one of the most interesting things going on that year...
I ended up getting espn+ assuming I could watch the playoffs. It's so disappointing and confusing just trying to figure out HOW TO WATCH! I don't care at all about the only team near where I live now so blackouts wouldn't even have been an issue to me. How can an organization with this much money be so bad at this??
Maybe if we're all lucky, there'll be some new leadership soon. Bettman's over 70, right?
Bettman said that he's not going to be the commissioner into his 80's, so is tenure in its twilight years.
Gerry bettman should step down
Let's not mince words. McDavid isn't more known because he's stuck in a market literally nobody cares about or even knows/remembers exists.
Then it's puzzling why the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals was the most watched since 2013. It was much more interesting than watching the same old teams again. And I'm sure Gretzky was quite happy to be "stuck" with the Oilers winning all those titles.
I’m a traditionalist. This is not a sport for everybody. The rules are many and the nuances too. If the NHL has to tweak anything that’s been part of the game forever, like fighting and open ice hits, just to get more fans, then I’ll be glad to stay in obscurity. Most young kids today don’t have the attention span for sports.
The latest TV deal was dumb. Especially in Canada... sportsnet is way more expensive than tsn to get all the games for just your local team.. new TV deal next year should hopefully fix that..
It is not like there are only infrequent international competitions featuring NHL players, IIHWC happens every year and it features NHL talent in most of trs but since it coincides with play-offs, only guys that did not qualify for play-offs come and also many just choose to take a rest, since it is every year it aldo is treated by bigger nations as not that much of a deal… not talking about North America which dors not care much about it, but even Sweden, Finland, Czechs can field luckluster teams oftentimes
If the NHL were a college marketing class project, it would be an F. Sad to say, but I've been watching since I was 10, but the blackouts and ridiculous streaming crap you must go through just isn't worth it. I only watched the playoffs this year, through the WCF . The softening of the game doesn't help either.
billion dollar companies don't get fs
@@jasonanderson5034 😂😂😂