Abel to Yzerman
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You’re An Idiot
by IwoCPO on 10/15/07 at 08:39 AM ET
Comments (11)
I told you I wasn’t going to talk about attendance anymore, so I will today. But only because my hand has been forced...again. Apparently, there’s a guy in Grand Rapids who hosts some show on some radio station that some people probably listen to.
I don’t know if Bill Simonson is genetically an idiot, or if today was the exception. I don’t know because I’ve never heard of him before.
He has a theory you’ve heard before, and it’s best that I show you the end first. Here’s how he closes his blog today.
God bless American sports and the Americans who play the games we love.
Patriotic. Nice. Too bad it’s misguided and ridiculous when you look at the paragraph that preceded it.
NHL scouts need to find the next great American player and make him a star in this country to save the league.
There is nothing wrong with rooting for your countrymen. Every other country in the world takes pride in its athletes and teams. Most people still fly the flags of their respective nations on American soil when their national teams do well. Why can’t Americans celebrate their sports stars and teams from this country?
Good point. When hockey was popular in the states back in the 90’s, 80’s, 70’s, etc; the league was chock full of American stars. The Gretzky family in Kansas can’t keep the stalkers away. The Lemieuxs in Kentucky are hockey royalty. Amazing that a relatively small town like Little Rock could produce two of the greatest players hockey has ever known: Steve Yzerman and Bobby Orr.
Oh, but Simonson has more. Yes he does.
What is with hockey in America? The Red Wings can’t draw, NHL TV ratings are some of the worst in sports and a great organization such as the Grand Rapids Griffins—the Red Wings’ top farm affiliate—can’t find a way outside Saturday-night promotions to put people in the seats in downtown Grand Rapids.
Hockey purists might just have to deal with the fact that the game on ice never will be a major player on the sports landscape in America. Too many established pro and college sports in front of hockey.
I also think the lack of born-and-bred American hockey stars hurts the sport in the United States. TV ratings in America have the NFL and NASCAR as the top two TV draws for sports fans.
What is similar with these two leagues? The NFL and NASCAR lineups are dominated by Americans.
NHL TV ratings are bad because they play on a network unknown to most and not available to millions. NHL TV ratings are down because the league has no concept how to market their players. Alexander Ovechkin is one of the most engaging, dynamic athletes in the world but maybe, MAYBE, five percent of the country has heard of him or heard him utter a word.
Here’s what really gets me. He doesn’t come out and say it, but he’s inferring that Americans won’t watch a sport largely populated by Canadiens, which it has been forever. Stupid. How many Americans played on the ‘97 Wing team? Doug Brown? Who else? Was Chris Chelios the reason Chicago Stadium was filled nightly with drunken Hawk fans in the late 80’s, early 90’s? Partly, sure.
He’s also claiming, without saying it, that the Europeans on the Wings aren’t drawing the way Steve Yzerman did. Newsflash: NO ONE is going to draw the way #19 did.
In golf, when Tiger isn’t making a run on Sunday, we grow tired of watching golfers who don’t have a U.S. citizenship.
I’m a US citizen. If I end up playing the US Open next year, throwing clubs and drinking my way around the back nine before I pass out on the cart path next to 17, will that draw more viewers?
Stupid question. Of course it would.
Get hockey back on ESPN where they know how to market a sport. That’s the only solution. Start with the outdoor game, right after you move the date from January 1st to January whatever. My god. Is there a frigging brain cell to be found anywhere in the NHL front office? Of all the days NOT to schedule that game. Only 6 frigging bowl games that day. Geniuses. Ass.
Filed in: | Abel to Yzerman | Permalink
Tags: Attendance, Mainstream+Idiots,
Comments
I’m appalled. They’ll give a blog to anyone these days.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 10/15/07 at 08:45 AM ET
Posted by w2j2 on 10/15/07 at 09:25 AM ET
)
Is there a frigging brain cell to be found anywhere in the NHL front office? Of all the days NOT to schedule that game. Only 6 frigging bowl games that day. Geniuses. Ass.
That is pretty much encapsulates EVERYthing that is wrong with the NHL. Assinine stupidity in the front orifice runs absolutely rampant.
Mr. Hockey, The Rocket, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman - I don’t care what country any of them are from. I’m a fan of hockey played well, and that they did. Others have championed this here, but the league truly is diluted.
Fix the schedule - yesterday.
Get the quality of the game back (see HockeyTownTodd).
Give a rat’s derriere about the fan base.
Market the leagues gems.
Only Mr. Obvious (aka Little Gary) could muck that stuff up.
Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 10/15/07 at 10:12 AM ET
Thank you for writing this. I was thinking about this very issue this morning. I am not buying “the Wings are not drawing a crowd because of the lack of US/Canadian players” argument. This year’s Wings team is fast and very exciting. Are there any less Americans/Canadians on the team than during the Cup years? I don’t know the exact breakdown but I think it is pretty close to the same.
I believe the problem lies with the NHL, the way they have(n’t) marketed the sport and its stars, the lack of a tv channel that most people have heard of (or can even find), the lockout, and the publicity of bad on ice incidents (McSorley, Bertuzzi, etc.). Like you said, is there even one brain cell active in the NHL front office?
Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 10/15/07 at 10:14 AM ET
I’m sure people will tune into NBC to watch the outdoor game. Sports fans like something new and innovative. Many will be turned off by the meaningless bowl games and will probably be too hungover to care about them. It’s a good chance for the NHL to see how it can do against a broader audience on national television. If people don’t choose to watch, then that’s their choice. As long as there is hockey on TV for us diehards, then that’s all that should matter.
Posted by Jeremy from Bowling Green, OH (GO FALCONS!) on 10/15/07 at 11:06 AM ET
I don’t care if anyone else watches or pays attention to hockey, I do. It’s just like the 1980’s again, not many people cared, but the us die hard fans will always be there.
When the 90’s rolled around, the “bandwagon fans” did too. All of a sudden everyone’s a hockey fan. Detroit starts winning, claiming a few championships, and people think it’s the norm. Well, after the success, the team and it’s fans are still here, it’s just those 90’s fans that are gone. No Steve Yzerman, no marketable players, and those “fans” dissapear.
And noone will draw a crowd, or be a face of a franchise like Steve Yzerman was. Forget it, that guy was one in a million. Who’d would you rather have had, Pat Lafontaine?
I’ll still watch the games, because I’m a fan of the team.
As for Americans in the sport, who cares? I don’t care what country a player is from as long as the team does well.
Screw Gary and his regime, they will be gone sooner or later, but the sport will remain.
Posted by Aaron from PHX on 10/15/07 at 11:59 AM ET
I’m sick of these types of arguments. How ethnocentric do we have to be?
As for rooting for national teams, I root for Swedish hockey whenever I can. I really enjoyed watching them with the world championships and the Olympics, because they have many great hockey players that I love to watch, and they play very well.
Posted by BuzzFledderjohn on 10/15/07 at 12:56 PM ET
The most ludicrous thing about the “argument” is that most “Americans” trace their heritage to some other country...often a European country! Many Canadians are in the same boat.
So does that mean that only Canadians who are of Italian extraction can cheer for Roberto Luongo?
Does that mean that my favorite players have to be Americans of German, Polish, or Irish extraction, and I can’t root for Swedes because I don’t have any ethnic ties, so of course I can’t appreciate their talents?
What a stoopid thing to get into print.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/15/07 at 04:19 PM ET
I hate ethnocentric arguments. If they were true, I would have started cheering the Wings in ‘02, and switched to the Poultry this year, because Schneider is the only Jewish hockey player I know of.
I have a soft sport for Hank Greenberg, but that’s mostly due to his history with the Tigers...although I’m proud of his respect for Yom Kippur.
Go Tre Kronor!
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from Hebrew School on 10/16/07 at 03:47 AM ET
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As stupid as Simonson is, I do tend to agree that an American-born version of Sidney Crosby probably would be a boon to the NHL when trying to appeal to that “God bless America” audience. Keep in mind the times we live in now, after all, where it’s all about being patriotic to the point of irrational behavior.
Still, he takes it way, way too far.
Posted by Michael from Columbus, OH on 10/15/07 at 08:41 AM ET