The overnight guy Andrew is hard to take serious so I never listen to him anyways, but while I was waiting for the score updates he said he couldn’t respect a sport where the players wear ice skates. Is this kind of ignorance a badge of honor?
Rest of lineup don’t even try to learn about the sport. They fall back on old tired cliches of the sport.
Never mind the fact in markets that where always big Hockey has gotten greater ratings and attendance then the basketball team. Not to mention there are Hockey markets where people wouldn’t watch an NBA game if it was in their drive way.
Colin Cowherd on ESPN is another rabid Hockey Hater who thinks ESPN dropped the sport, because it is a dead sport. So that begs the question is Bowling taking the nation by storm or that ESPN made Arena Football so popular it had to shut down for the year or go into bankruptcy.
Lastly Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt have decided to just ignore the sport. Scott Van Pelt seems to think he’s too cool for school to be talking hockey. I bet if the New York Rangers where in the Stanley CUP he would be trying to jump on the band wagon. Because that’s all those ESPN guys seem to talk about 1994 and when Wayne Gretzky.
was playing.
Hey how about this when was the last time you heard of a Hockey player shooting people in a night club or a strip joint?
Just the other day in a college basketball game a guy got his face stomped on that just shows you how cowardly basketball players are. On top of that NBA is famous for fights spilling into the stands and yet somehow Hockey is a thug or violent sport love the double standard.
I’m no fan of Bettman either, but I would remind you that FOX was the network of the glowing red puck. ABC really didn’t show that much more Hockey then NBC.
Look I said this many times people need to be patient with Versus as there still only in their early years. I remember back in the day when ESPN had to show frisbee sports , AFL, and IVY league Football.
At least VS gives you more games come playoff time, even from Canada with CBC or TSN, something that ESPN-ESPN2 would never do. Remember they are to busy showing snow mobiles flying off of roof tops, spelling bee, hot dog eating contests and bass fishing.
The owners left ESPN & the other networks with a bunch of open (read that unpaid) time when they staged their lockout a few years ago.
It will be a long time before the networks forgive them for that.
Any “sport” that stops the game to brawl, till they fall to the ice, will only appeal to a limited number of creeps. clean up the game if you want a wider appeal.
Hate is a strong word .. but it’s clear they don’t show much interest in the sport. Part of it is also that, like many things in life, it’s hard for them to show passion for something they don’t understand.
I don’t listen to NSR enough to hear the lack of coverage however I can sense the feeling as it stems from the lock out and money and more money and so on. There’s a lot of animosity in a time where I think both could benefit by putting their differences aside.
At my age, I have seen and listened to a fair share of sports reporters and I can’t say I’m fond of some of the newer national and some of the younger journalists. So it makes sense that guys like Cowherd aren’t big fans of hockey to begin with, having never grown up in a hockey market, having a background broadcasting minor league baseball in Vegas and focusing his shows regionally and around football and baseball mainly. He is helping to suppress hockey because he has a greater love for other sports. I did a search and there are a butt load of negative comments. Here is a link to a caller calling in on his show…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abql36J550s
Just as a I suspected, a classless, Bozo shock-jock. Exactly the kind of personality that has little talent and probably shouldn’t even be on the air
I do know there’s a former Detroiter, Mark Madden, (not related to John or the other John-which is sometimes a joke on the show) who broadcasts/hosts on FM Radio in Pittsburgh, (not national however) a mix of music and Steelers and Pens talk. Those local programs are very rare I believe and welcome to me as a newer resident of Pitt.
By no means is bowling taking the country by storm. Just because it is being broadcast on ESPN means they can provide more programming for wider audience and older folks. It also helps that ESPN and the PBA have a mutually satisfying deal in place. Remember ABC was a long time sole provider of the PBA and WPBA. as well.
Some of those ESPN guys like Van Pelt never got into the game as well. Some fans and sportscasters will never let the lock out go and those that grew up around it will always have an ill-feeling towards the game just like their employer does. It makes hockey an easy target for negative sports talk. He must have the same view as Tiger towards hockey, I wonder? I could see him jumping on the proverbial bandwagon should a team from the Northeast win the Cup as you suggest, but I don’t see a team in the East yet capable of providing the bandwagon.
Lastly, some of the ESPN’ers make it seem like hockey died years ago because nobody has matched or even come close to what Gretzky did.
The Rags haven’t had such hype since 94 (except in the last couple of years) because they haven’t repeated. There are 2 well known figures that are no longer either….Jagr and Avery. No real hollywood story there. Just a team that is trying to gain some respect in a tough market.
damn haters
Here we go…
The number of people from ESPN who have actually put on a pair of skates can be counted on one hand. As we know, it’s easy to criticize that which you don’t know or understand. I’ll go further and say that, on some level, they view hockey as a “foreign” game.
ESPN made a strategic decision to ignore hockey after they lost the rights to Versus/NBC back in 2005. Their own ombudsman has criticized their decision. Make of that what you will.
ESPN has been quick to ignore that which they do not cover. So golf fans…unless it’s the Masters or the US Open (for which they have early round rights)…don’t expect to hear anything. However, like magic, once they acquired NASCAR, all of a sudden their coverage on the news side spiked. Same with the NBA (however, ESPN was fairly quick to act as an apologist over a referee who was shaving points; proud moment of journalism there).
Ratings for NASCAR have tanked, as have poker. Hockey ratings are up despite the oft-heard decry of ESPN (and its mouth-breathing affilitates and surrogates) that Versus (owned by Comcast, one of the largest cable providers in the US) is somehow this rinky-dink network (even though their market penetration has grown exponentially since 2005).
If you look at Versus’ portfolio, it’s a decent body of work geared at attracting a younger male viewer:
-NHL (ratings are up significantly)
-MMA (say what you will about this sport, it gets ratings)
-Bullriding (ESPN also shows this sport)
-US college football (ditto ESPN)
-US college basketball (ditto ESPN)
-Rugby (if you look at the American rugby fan…the average income is close to that of golf)
Compare that with ESPN having grossly overpaid for NASCAR, poker,and have gotten into a cabal with US college conferences regarding coverage (overpaying for conference rights, and were you aware how many bowl games ESPN actually owns outright?) leading them to play hardball with cable companies over carriage (companies like…Comcast); in essence, charging the highest rates and requiring cable companies to carry all of their channels despite ratings that, frankly, are not in line (in short, when your cable company keeps increasing your bill, a good chunk of that is because ESPN makes you buy “the ocho” so you can watch poker, figure skating, and billiards).
ESPN and talk radio in general have completely missed the boat on hockey. They talk about it being a “regional” sport (throw out the NCAA tournament, and the same applies to US college football and basketball). Meanwhile, hockey fans have sought out “other” avenues (see “internet, the”) that the NBA and NASCAR have not begun to understand.
Sports talk radio has a very limited audience, and the demographic is old. Just listen to the radio ads (as they say…there’s yer clue). Sound like stuff 18-35 men want? Didn’t think so.
Ever since the NHL went away from ESPN, they treat it like a second-hand sport. I don’t get it myself. They are in so much love with the NBA, just because they have a contract with the NBA, it makes me sick!
Did you hear Bob Ryan on The Sports Reporters on Sunday Morning. “Watching the NHL All-Star Game without Sidney Crosby is like watching the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger. What’s the Point?” I wanted to throw something at the TV when I heard that!
Mike and Mike, PTI and Around the Horn acknowledge that they don’t talk much hockey. When someone on ATH tries to talk hockey, the rest of the guys mock him and make jokes. I’m like are you kidding me??
It’s true. I blame Bettman and his band of merry men in midtown Manhattan. He is a blowhard lawyer with no love of the sport himself; just cash. The deal to take hockey telecasts from FOX to ESPN was bad; the one relegating hockey in U.S. to VS. and NBC intermittently was WORSE. Hockey gets no respect because it’s keepers are lunatics out to squeeze dollars and leave the sport dry.