Hockey, The Rodney Dangerfield Of Sports

In the US, there are four major sports; football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Out of the four, hockey gets the least amount of respect. This is something that bothers me as hockey player and fan, and it also bothers other hockey fans around the country. They way that hockey is covered in the newspapers, on television, and not just professional hockey. It goes the same for college hockey and also high school hockey.

Lets start at the top with the NHL. The NHL has a TV deal with ESPN and ABC so that the two companies share the Stanley Cup Finals. The NHL’s championship series. (It should also be noted that ABC owns ESPN). The problem with TV deal is that ESPN is a paid for cable station, which means that you can only watch the finals games on ESPN if you have cable. Because of this, hockey doesn’t get as much exposure as other sports do too a new audience. The World Series is on FOX or NBC, the NBA Finals are on NBC, and the Super Bowl is on FOX, CBS, or ABC. All of those stations are free to a viewer with a television. There is no monthly charge for service of those stations unlike ESPN. This is where hockey gets shafted, the NHL is the only sport that has its champions

These problems aren’t just in the NHL and professional. It also goes down to college hockey. If you live in this area, the only time you will be able to watch c college hockey game is during the Final Four. Which, ironically, is also broadcasted on ESPN only and accessible to a select few. But these are the only games during the entire year that are televised. That means that unless you live in the Mid-West or further in the North-East, you will only be able to watch three college hockey games a year! Its bad enough that the games are on only ESPN, but too only televise three games a year, that’s just terrible. College basketball is on every weekend on CBS and during the tourney all you hear about is college basketball. College football is also on network TV and also has about fifteen games televised weekly. And the final games of the college baseball World Series are on CBS, network TV.

This can be summed up in a couple of ways. Ice hockey clearly gets shafted and pushed aside when it comes to deciding between hockey and another sport. Whether its in the NHL and there playoff game that are cable TV, or the same thing in college hockey with the final four, or even in high school hockey where it doesn’t get as much coverage in the papers or support from the school board. The level at which hockey gets shafted doesn’t seem to matter, hockey continues to get pushed aside when compared to the other three majors sports. And this must change!

hip game or series on cable TV where only a specific audience as access to it as opposed to the entire nation

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