State of the NHL Game in the US

[Spider-Man NL]

Here's an interesting article by Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning New, on the "State of the NHL Game in the US" . There's also some excellent input from Daryl "Razor" Reaugh.

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NHL's appeal on thin ice

High salaries, low scoring and dismal ratings have mucked it all up for the NHL

It was almost 10 years ago that Sports Illustrated declared hockey the sport of the future. "The NHL is Hot," proclaimed the headline, "the NBA is Not."

Yet heading into the All-Star break, the NHL has not only lost ground on the "Big Three" of football, baseball and basketball, it also has been surpassed in popularity by auto racing and the X Games. In recent months, the ratings of ABC hockey games have been bettered in head-to-head competition by curling and arena football.

"If you looked at it as one big business, you'd have to say it's a poorly run company," said Stars broadcaster Daryl Reaugh. As a former goalie, a close friend of management and a member of the media, Reaugh has an unusually broad perspective on the league.

"I mean, let's be serious," Reaugh said. "They're paying their employees too much, they're charging too much for their product, the product is not making the consumers happy and their marketing department is a failure. So the question is how do you fix that?"

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the only thing broken is the league's finances. His top priority is getting a better deal for the owners without allowing a work stoppage when the current collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15.

"The problems really start and end with the economics," Bettman said. "You can't pay out 76 percent of your revenue in player salaries. It just doesn't work."

But there are problems on the ice, as well. Scoring has dropped to a modern-era low of 5.18 goals per game – two goals per game fewer than when Bettman took over in 1993 – prompting talk of tinkering with the rules.

The league has said it would like to roll out any rule changes by the time the new CBA is in place. Possibilities include a wider ice surface, bigger nets and full-time 4-on-4 play, as well as less radical departures such as smaller goalie pads.

Change comes hard

Changing habits, however, is tougher than changing rules.

Before the season, the league announced a crackdown on obstruction – defensemen illegally clutching and grabbing opponents away from the puck. Referees were told to strictly enforce the rule. But the clutching and grabbing has continued, and scoring continues to drop.

Some claim that rule changes are the culprit, not the cure. Since 1989, goalie pads were expanded from 10 inches in width to 12 inches; the nets were moved three feet farther from the end boards, shrinking the neutral zone; a second referee was added; the so-called instigator rule was inserted to curtail fighting; and an extra point was awarded for each overtime loss.

"Honestly, if they just went back to the way the game was before all of the rule changes, I'd have no problem with it," said Stars forward Stu Barnes.

A recent poll by The Hockey News revealed that while players want to be involved in changes to the league, they disagree on what needs to be changed.

"But get us in a room and let us talk it out, and we'll come up with an answer," said Stars winger Bill Guerin.

As scoring falls, the NHL has struggled to market its product or attract a television audience.

Once a regional league composed of six Northern franchises, the NHL has moved into Sunbelt locales such as South Florida, Phoenix and Atlanta during Bettman's reign. Yet national TV ratings have been bad in general and at times downright embarrassing. How about 1.4 and 1.1 for the first two games of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals on ESPN?

The league's contract with ABC/ESPN is up at the end of the season, and network officials are offering a two-year deal at a greatly reduced price. The league has little choice but to take what it is given. It needs ESPN to market the sport if there's going to be any real future on television.

ESPN has heavily promoted its Thursday night hockey series, featuring ice-level sound and such innovations as "cable cam," a camera the slides on a rail just above the glass. Reaugh said the NHL and the networks should go even further, pointing to NASCAR's success at "taking something that was regional and making it fun for newcomers."

"We need to get people down on the ice, into the bench," Reaugh said. "We need to mike players and coaches. We need to give viewers something that will bring them out of their seats."

Marketing questioned

Stars captain Mike Modano says the problem goes beyond improving the game and making it more fun for TV viewers.

"I don't think they have ever wanted to market the individuals in this game," Modano said. "They have always wanted to market the game itself, and I'm not sure that's ever going to work."

Guerin, his teammate, also wonders where the national marketing has been. He says that Modano was a stranger to Dallas sports fans when the Stars moved from Minnesota in 1993.

"But once they watched him do what he does best, once they got to know him, they fell in love with him," Guerin said. "Now, they'll pay a lot of money to come watch him play hockey. Why can't that be done on the national level?"

Thanks largely to expansion and licensing agreements, Bettman has helped NHL revenue grow from $500 million to $1.93 billion during his 11-year tenure. But most of that money has gone to the players, who have seen their compensation grow from $300 million to $1.46 billion during that same period.

Reaugh compares NHL players to brewery workers who make $500,000 a year.

"Does it make the beer any better to pay them that?" he asked. "No, but it sure makes the beer a lot more expensive."

Bill Daley, NHL executive vice president, says the goal is to bring salaries down to $31 million per team from the current $45 million. The challenge is enormous: getting players and their agents to accept a 30 percent cut in pay.

But the league says the benefits are also huge: lower ticket prices, more fans and a foundation for growth.

"It can be fixed; anything can be fixed," Guerin said. "It's just a matter of going out and doing it."