yeah
let's just pretend that other country with 3 MAJOR markets doesn't exist. yes.
(2011 final, for example... viewership was 18.3 million)
NHL selling out more arenas than the NBA (Yahoo Sports)
- Thread starter entremet
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yeah
let's just pretend that other country with 3 MAJOR markets doesn't exist. yes.
(2011 final, for example... viewership was 18.3 million)
entremet
Member
The big market thing is overblown.
The Knicks are in the number 1 media market they've sucked almost two decades, while the San Antonio have remained competitive for more than a decade in a very small market.
Bigger markets do have an advantage, but it's not a huge one.
Buba Big Guns
Banned
USA has a very good chance of winning gold. You are talking about the world juniors. USA Canada Russia Sweden are all favorites.
I don't think a lot of Americans realize but you guys are very good at hockey.
Also lack of parity is fucking up the NBA. Its a terribly organized league, especially in comparison to the NHL.
Add Clippers to the list until few years ago also.
The Knicks were good until the end of Patrick Ewings career at the end of the millenium and have sucked sincee because of horrible management. The current team was constructed horribly, they are paying the team a ridiculous amount of money, and they gave up too much for Carmelo Anthony would would've just signed with them in free agency.
The Spurs did a good job of tanking for Tim Duncan who is a top 10 player all time when they already had David Robinson, they've done a crazy good job drafting players like Ginobili and Parker, and they have arguably the best coach in the game today. For big market teams its easier to get big name free agents and build around them while smaller market teams have to get lucky in the draft like the Spurs and the Thunder.
The Clippers had a cheap(and racist) owner who only started spending after Blake Griffin revived the franchise and started bring in the marketing dollars.
bonesmccoy
Banned
They have a good chance to medal if they get stellar goal-tending (and they have the tools for that), but gold is a big ask on the big ice.
PK Strawstorm
Member
Make the regular season games in either league matter and I'll pay attention. Both leagues let more than half of the teams into the playoffs. If the NBA playoffs started today, only 3 of 8 teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs would have winning records. There is no reason to pay attention until the playoffs, which the leagues know, because playoffs and playoffs TV is where the money is.
In general I think the NHL has a far better product than the NBA anyway, especially now that HD televisions let viewers see the puck. It's got a great flow as opposed to the start-and-stop, timeout heavy play of professional basketball. But again, when the 82 game regular season is only eliminating half the teams, I simply am not inspired to watch on a nightly basis.
In general I think the NHL has a far better product than the NBA anyway, especially now that HD televisions let viewers see the puck. It's got a great flow as opposed to the start-and-stop, timeout heavy play of professional basketball. But again, when the 82 game regular season is only eliminating half the teams, I simply am not inspired to watch on a nightly basis.
jordan0386
Member
They matter towards making the playoffs? I never understood this argument against sport.
The NFL, tmr, would put two more teams in the playoffs if they could.
Rumor has it that the new NBA commissioner is going to change it to the top 16 teams which will change things quite a bit.
T.M. MacReady
NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
entremet
Member
I could see Eastern Conference owners livid at the thought.
It would make it easier for the east to rebuild by taking up all the spots in the lottery so while they would lose out on money they could potentially get good players in exchange.
bonesmccoy
Banned
Poulin was snubbed!
Evil Rabbit
Banned
Nice article OP. Hockey is one of the most beautiful sports to watch. It's also one that requires toughness , athleticism and skills.
It's not like football, where you could be built a certain way and just pick up the game later in your life, sometimes even making it to the NFL with no prior experience.
Hockey is a game that requires skills developed over a long period of time. You need to play with the best to be the best.
Played hockey all my life and it's stupid to see how it gets treated by sport outlets like ESPN. Now all we need is for the heads of the league to finally increase the ice size to more of an Olympic style and the NHL will really explode
It's not like football, where you could be built a certain way and just pick up the game later in your life, sometimes even making it to the NFL with no prior experience.
Hockey is a game that requires skills developed over a long period of time. You need to play with the best to be the best.
Played hockey all my life and it's stupid to see how it gets treated by sport outlets like ESPN. Now all we need is for the heads of the league to finally increase the ice size to more of an Olympic style and the NHL will really explode
DonasaurusRex
Online Ho Champ
playoff hockey is to credit for this, such a ramp up of intensity. In the past few years we've had low seeds catch fire and go as deep as the Stanley Cup. Football is similar wildcard teams gettin it done.It's nice to have parity.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
It's not so much that is there's no reward for the league to see Indiana, OKC, and SA win big and stay good. That shifty shit mentioned above about the 2002 Kings? Yeah. That's what happened with the NBA's first Dork Age in the 70s.
jordan0386
Member
This has never been true for any free agent. They always follow the money. Whoever can provide the most, gets the player.
Don't let Bron and Bosh fool your eyes.
Every team has about 65 million dollars to spend. Media market talk is just lowest common denominator jargon.
gutter_trash
Banned
when you have players who name themselves King James on their own jerseys in competitive play = cannot take the sport seriously.
As long as the NBA properly promotes the star players like they are doing with OKC it doesn't seem like its exactly a bad deal to them.
Its not true for every player but there are quite a few players that do it in order to either live in a more favorable area or make more endorsement money.
That was just a one game thing so the NBA can jerseys lol.
Iamwolfthing
Member
They won last year going through two very close 7 game series. Destroyed is a bit of hyperbole.
New York Rangers-
Callahan
Girardi
Lundqvist
Del Zotto
Nash
New Jersey Devils-
Brodeur
Schneider
Zubrus
Jagr
Carter
Philadelphia Flyers-
Giroux
Mason
Simmonds
Voracek
Couturier
Pittsburgh Penguins-
Crosby
Malkin
Letang
Kunitz
Fleury
Colorado Avalanche-
Mackinnon
Duchene
Statsny
Valarmov
O'Reilly
Tampa Bay Lightning-
St. Louis
Malone
Lindback
Stamkos
Hedman
Phoenix Coyotes-
OEL
Yandle
Doan
Smith
Hanzal
LA Kings-
Quick
Doughty
Kopitar
Richards
Carter
Chicago Blackhawks-
Sharp
Kane
Toews
Seabrook
Keith
Washington Capitals-
Holtby
Ovechkin
Backstrom
Carlson
Fehr
Toronto Maple Leafs-
Kadri
Bozak
Kessel
JVR
Bernier
Edmonton Oilers
Hall
Nugent-Hopkins
Bryzgalov
Eberle
Yakupov
That's about 12. I don't feel like naming more.
PK Strawstorm
Member
The NFL does want to do that. It's short-sighted thinking that is going to make regular season victories less important. I think it's an obvious argument: The lower the cutoff for making the playoffs, the less incentive there is to be good every regular season game. The teams should be working to put their best product on the floor every night. As of now, teams realize they just need to be mediocre. The Heat lose to a bunch of garbage teams because they realize they don't need to win until the playoffs. Why would a fan want to watch the regular season, when those 82-games are essentially a single round of playoffs, eliminating (less than) half the teams? Do you really get excited by watching your team battle for the 7th seed? If your team is the 7th best in its conference over 6 months, it does not deserve to be put into a playoff scenario whereby history will dub it the best team of that year.
The counter-argument is that by the end of the season, there are a lot of meaningless games between teams eliminated from the playoffs. That's fine by me, as it means their games up to being eliminated were that much more important. I would also favor relegation in US sports, to make games meaningful on both ends of the spectrum, although I'm not sure it's workable with all the publicly-funded stadia/arenas.
mr stroke
Member
all but guaranteed the NFL adds more playoff teams-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...der-serious-consideration-roger-goodell-says/
gutter_trash
Banned
he played tonight against the Nets wearing KING JAMES
I have to imagine this doesn't take into account Canadian viewership for last years Cup?
Why do so many people dump on the Panthers?
They were the worst team in the league last year but ranked 22 out of 30 in attendance (and are generally found around the low 20s each year). They're in South Florida, where nobody grew up playing hockey or ever ice skating. They've been a terrible franchise for the past 15+ years with very little payoff for those who continue to care and follow them.
Considering all the great reasons the Panthers would have to justify having a bad fan base, I'd say they actually have a pretty respectable following.
They were the worst team in the league last year but ranked 22 out of 30 in attendance (and are generally found around the low 20s each year). They're in South Florida, where nobody grew up playing hockey or ever ice skating. They've been a terrible franchise for the past 15+ years with very little payoff for those who continue to care and follow them.
Considering all the great reasons the Panthers would have to justify having a bad fan base, I'd say they actually have a pretty respectable following.
A Serious Man
Member
The NHL is on the rise but it's got a ways to go to get out of "4th place". I think it'll overtake the MLB in my lifetime but the NFL and NBA? Nah.
It was one game where all the players had their nicknames on them...
TurtleSnatcher
Member
ESPN Attendance numbers are actually incorrect. I can't recall but there is another site with the actual reported ones from the clubs.
What ? MLB is 2nd and in a strong 2nd.
I'm a huge hockey fan.. and I live in a market that had sellouts in the late 90's and early 2000's and is now in the bottom 5-10 in the league in attendance. Is it killer? Not really because the franchise actually has a very strong fan base (Dallas Stars) and is one of the more valuable franchises in the league.
Either way - NHL is amazing live in person. NBA is great in person but only for specific pieces/circumstances. The thing really hurting the NBA is also the East being so fragmented in quality over the past few seasons. There is only two great teams with the rest floundering. It is sad. NBA is way better on TV then NHL is for sure.
Oh and I can't believe people think there is a huge seating difference between an NBA configured arena and the same arena in a NHL configuration. What the heck are you guys smoking?
gutter_trash
Banned
nice way to put the individual before the team, sums up the NBA
OriginofHysteria
Banned
Idk why but something about that bugs me. It's almost like it disrespects the jersey and the team for some reason.
Elwood Blues
Member
The NBA Eastern conference is so bad it defies logic. Atlanta is going to be the third seed when their biggest off season move was not resigning Josh Smith.
Northern Lights
Banned
Not that hard to sell more tickets than the Milwaukee Bucks and Bobcats.
tiggerkiddo
Member
So many of these NBA teams are awful by a large margin, why go see them? NBA probably still wins when it comes to TV though.
I don't really see what's so bad about putting the nicknames on the back of the jerseys for one regular season game.
when you have players who name themselves King James on their own jerseys in competitive play = cannot take the sport seriously.
jordan0386
Member
You gotta work on some stuff, bro. Because its not that serious.
jordan0386
Member
Article is about the USA...
jordan0386
Member
You don't have to play in a certain city for endorsement money.
KD is in OKC and on his sixth signature sneaker. Half the league's players are signed to NiKE. 200 plus players spread across 30 cities.
You film your commercials on the off days when near a film centric city like LA or NY.
Its a job. You go where the money is. Or where ever they trade you to. This is for 99 percent of the players in the league.
Squirrel Killer
Member
If you're going to judge quality by points then Grinnell College has the best team in the world.
its NFL ($10bil~) MLB ($7bil~) NBA (>$4bil) NHL (>$4bil)
NHL cap is based on previous season, next year the Canadian TV deal kicks in but we aren't entirely sure if that includes the TV deal or not
its $350 mil/year more than current contract
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