the NHL is the WORST professional sport when it comes to marketing and publicity.
I was in the mall last night and I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole rack of Reebok EDGE jerseys, including both home and away Sabres jerseys (I'm in the DC area so Sabres merch is practically non-existent in retail outlets around here). I was disappointed when I saw the price tag: $114 for a BLANK REPLICA JERSEY. That's insane- I don't know how the NHL thinks they can get away with having the most expensive jersey of the 4 major American sports leagues (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB) when they're the LEAST popular.
Fast forward to a few minutes ago- I was looking through my DVR guide to find the game tonight, since the Sabres are playing the Capitals. It's not on- both Comcast SportsNet and HDNet went with the DC UNITED ****ING SOCCER GAME over the hockey game. That's how bad the NHL is at marketing- pre-empted by SOCCER in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. That's just insane. We don't play or watch soccer here, but somehow it's more of a draw than hockey. WTF?
This is, of course, a "chicken or the egg" problem. Hockey's not on TV because it's not popular, but it's not going to get more popular if it retains such low visibility that it's pre-empted for ****ing SOCCER.
I don't know how the NHL expects to win new fans of even keep the current ones when they can't afford the merch or even watch the local team's games. Bettman is the WORST commissioner in pro sports and he could learn a lot from Stern, Tagliabue, Goodell and Selig. He better learn fast before the league goes under- the other 3 sports are constantly growing while hockey remains stagnant.
I was in the mall last night and I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole rack of Reebok EDGE jerseys, including both home and away Sabres jerseys (I'm in the DC area so Sabres merch is practically non-existent in retail outlets around here). I was disappointed when I saw the price tag: $114 for a BLANK REPLICA JERSEY. That's insane- I don't know how the NHL thinks they can get away with having the most expensive jersey of the 4 major American sports leagues (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB) when they're the LEAST popular.
Fast forward to a few minutes ago- I was looking through my DVR guide to find the game tonight, since the Sabres are playing the Capitals. It's not on- both Comcast SportsNet and HDNet went with the DC UNITED ****ING SOCCER GAME over the hockey game. That's how bad the NHL is at marketing- pre-empted by SOCCER in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. That's just insane. We don't play or watch soccer here, but somehow it's more of a draw than hockey. WTF?
This is, of course, a "chicken or the egg" problem. Hockey's not on TV because it's not popular, but it's not going to get more popular if it retains such low visibility that it's pre-empted for ****ing SOCCER.
I don't know how the NHL expects to win new fans of even keep the current ones when they can't afford the merch or even watch the local team's games. Bettman is the WORST commissioner in pro sports and he could learn a lot from Stern, Tagliabue, Goodell and Selig. He better learn fast before the league goes under- the other 3 sports are constantly growing while hockey remains stagnant.
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