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Talk about crying in your beer! Sid and Hank are hurt, Roberto’s wife needs him more, and the Lake Webegone Channel is the flagship of the NHL. Gary still hasn’t a clue about what’s wrong with his marketing plan. This writer is wagering that this year’s game of stars will draw fewer viewers than last year’s abysmal showing. After all, Gary’s been betting the house on Sid da Kid and the channel without vowels that appears in every 500th household. Yes sir, Gary’s marketing is a real trend setter; all downward! And those attendance figures… The only great thing about attending an NHL game now is the fact that the lines to the bathroom are shorter. Thank you Gary! We love you for screwing up our favorite sport! Hope you and Craig L. enjoyed your little back-room tryst. ($40 mil loss for what favors?) Hey owners; how about installing a commissioner with a little integrity and intelligence? FIRE the PYGMY BRAIN!!!
Archive for the 'Versus' Category
Gary’s Almost-Stars Game
Published by 6 months ago in Bettman, Versus, Blog Entries and TV. 2 Comments
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You pay for what you don’t get…
Published by 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, Bettman, Versus and TV. 16 Comments The Detroit Red Wings played the Nashville Predators at 7:30 EST tonight (11/7/07).
Anyone and everyone who has paid the $100+ for the NHL Center Ice package (which is supposed to broadcast every NHL regular season game) planned on watching the game.
Well, surprise surprise… the game was not listed on the Center Ice channel line-up (8 channels in all), and was never shown on Center Ice, even though many of the designated NHLCI channels had no games showing tonight due to the light schedule.
Come to find out, the Wings/Predators game was only being showed on the new, Gary Bettman wet dream NHL Network channel, which hardly anyone gets through their cable or satellite provider. Some dish subscribers have commented that they do receive the channel, but the majority of hockey fans do not. And if you do want the new NHL Network on a lot of cable systems, you have to pay even more as part of a sports package to be able to view it. To top it off, there were a lot of reports that the game wasn’t even being shown on the NHL Network due to “technical difficulties”.
Talk about screwing over and turning off your fans. Gary Bettman, what the heck is going on here? You make your fans pay for a service that guarantees them the ability to watch every regular season game, and then you create a new NHL Network which is another pay channel, and broadcast games on it, leaving fans on your original subscriber network in the dark.
How the hell are we supposed to watch hockey? Currently you have a two-night-per-week contract with Vs. (the network that no one gets or has heard of, but still requires a cable/satellite subscription if they want to see any games at all), NHL Center Ice (which costs at least $140), NHL Center Ice Online (which costs $169), NHL Network (which has a varied rate, and many people can’t even pay to get at this point), and then a pathetic contract with NBC (which shows one game a week during church hours only late in the season, and they don’t the NHL anything)…
and FANS STILL CAN’T WATCH A GAME that they’ve paid to see???!!! How is this helping hockey? Where is the logic? My only logic is that the NHL is hurting for money so bad that they have to try to use everyone third-world TV outlet possible to bring in revenue, because the league can’t be marketed to big name networks like ABC, ESPN, FOX, or any network that any hockey fan gets… because the NHL is in such rough shape due to Gary Bettman’s terrible (mis)management of the league. How do you expect to maintain and grow a fan base when you deny a hockey fan the ability to watch a game, even after they have paid hundreds of dollars to view the sport that they love??!
Who knows, maybe Gary Bettman is trying to let Nashville fade slowly from the public eye, before they are relocated to a place where there are hockey fans who will notice the game isn’t being shown on TV. Next time he should do it when the Predators are playing a team such as Phoenix, because this dim-witted move has Red Wings fans up in arms.
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There are some reports coming out that the NHL is in talks with ESPN to return games to the ESPN2 network in the 2008-2009 season. Gary Bettman and the NHL must be paying some attention to our polls here at FireBettman, as the latest poll shows that most fans believe NHL hockey should be televised on ESPN. We’re waiting to receive thanks for our scientific research. 
Apparently, NBC is not very interested in renewing its contract with the NHL following next year, after receiving terribly low ratings in viewership last season.
However, there are some things that would need to be worked out with the oh-so-wonderful Versus Network, which Bettman had banked on as being the next greatest thing for the NHL. Versus holds all cable rights for NHL games until the 2011 season, after Bettman and his brilliant mind decided to give them an extended contract last year. Note that the Vs. airing of the NHL All-Star game last year received a .7 rating… a 76% drop from the 2004 season game, and their regular season games averaged only a 0.2 Nielson rating. So, Versus would have to give up their exclusive cable rights in order for this deal to go through.
This deal looks possible… but note that even if it does happen, the games will be shown on ESPN2 (not ESPN), and they will be only the weekend games that were shown on NBC and the late playoff games. Furthermore, remember that Gary Bettman represents the NHL here, and there is a very good chance that his ego or his lack of brains will get in the way and the deal will fall through.
The most interesting part of this breaking news is the talk about an NHL Network TV channel starting… according to the article, the network would be a 24 hour television channel dedicated to the NHL, and would broadcast 50 live NHL games in the 2007-2008 season. So, we may have our own NHL Network starting this fall! Let’s just hope that Bret Hull and/or Gary “The Prick” Thorne do not anchor the new NHL Network.
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Anaheim Head Hunters
Published by 1 year, 2 months ago in Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, Versus, Videos, Penalties and Suspensions. 29 Comments Post Update @ 5:45p.m.: Chris Pronger has been suspended for one game by the NHL.
Just in case you missed it - which is very likely, since VS. is only available in about 60% of American households - here is the video of Rob Niedermayer and Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks, simultaneously throwing high elbows and crushing the Red Wings’ Tomas Holmstrom’s head into the glass in the second period of game 3:
As a result, Niedermayer was immediately given a game misconduct, and the Red Wings received a 5 minute power play. However, Chris Pronger did not receive any discipline for his illegal and dirty hit. And as you can see in the video, Pronger actually threw a higher and harder elbow than Niedermayer. So why was Pronger not penalized or given a game misconduct?
These cheap, blind-sided, unsportsmanlike hits on opposing players are nothing new to this year’s NHL. Some of the highlights this year included the Chris Simon baseball swing to the face of Ryan Hollweg, Jordin Tootoo’s knockout punch on Stephane Robidas, and Jamie McLennan’s impersonation of Simon on Johan Franzen. The NHL has handed out some suspensions, fines, warnings, and the usual slap on the wrist…
There are a lot of arguments for why the NHL needs to come down harder on players and teams for such unsportsmanlike actions. Many feel that since the players are the largest investments for owners, the league needs to do more to protect those investments. With Chris Pronger not being disciplined at all after his high elbow on Holmstrom last night, it leaves us wondering which players the league is trying to protect…
Do you think Pronger and Nidermayer should be suspended? Will Colin Campbell and the NHL finally say enough is enough, and let the players know that they aren’t free to try to take opposings player out with a cheap shot?
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NHL signs TV deal with Food Network
Published by 1 year, 4 months ago in Bettman, Versus, Blog Entries and TV. 6 Comments
Hah, leave it to The Onion for an article like this.
Heck, the NHL might be better off on the Food Network. It might pick up some new fans, since I’m sure way more people know of the Food Network and actually watch it, compared to Versus.
I like this part:
Though Bettman maintained that the Food Network was always the league’s first choice, sources close to the commissioner confirmed that the NHL also considered broadcasting games on E!, the Golf Channel, and Cartoon Network before eventually deciding to go with the network offering the best combination of financial incentives and airtime.
Which network do you think the NHL should have their contract with???
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Bettman on Internet broadcasts…
Published by 1 year, 5 months ago in Bettman, Versus and Blog Entries. 3 CommentsThe New York Times had a quick little bit called “With Gary Bettman” published today. They ask him about his decision to put NHL games up on YouTube.com and Google Video… he says that the younger people these days are consuming sports differently (”multitasking”). Bettman doesn’t understand tha people are still watching hockey the same way…
In front of TVs and often with their friends, while drinking beer!!
I admit that it’s cool you can watch games over the Internet, but who really sits in front of their computer these days to watch a whole game??? I don’t know many people with great set-ups who can watch TV/movies from their computer, on their giant TVs yet. Apple’s getting us there… but I’m sure the average hockey fan could afford such a set-up.
Hockey should bring people together in front of a television, and not pull people apart and put them behind their own, individual computers. Doing so would hurt the game, by hurting the community that is built around the game.
Bettman has to get the NHL games on a TV network that more people get on their cable and satellite, and more importantly, a network that all people have heard of. I mean, come on, USA or FX, or Oxygen would be better!!! I don’t think it helped that the Outdoor Life Network changed its name to Versus either… that probably confused people even more.
Get it together Bettman… get in touch with your average hockey fan, and realize what the people want… not what NBA fans would want!!!!
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Bettman says he’s not going away…
Published by 1 year, 5 months ago in Bettman and Versus. 1 CommentThis article at Sportsnet.ca has been all over the place today.
Obviously Bettman is in the hot seat, and some of his quotes here put him in it more. Who cares if the number of households that get Versus has gone up from 64 million to 72 million? Who says those 8 million are watching the hockey games? And more importantly, what about the millions of households who don’t have Versus in their home? And still, I know people who have never even heard of Versus.
Let’s hope this media coverage continues, as it could place more pressure on Bettman and the owners to make a change…
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