|
Saturday, November 18, 2006
 Nice job by the National Hockey league, inking a deal with YouTube to distribute clips of highlights, and opening up its own "web channel."
That's the first sound marketing idea the NHL has had since Gerry Cheevers (surely he was dreamt up the marketing dept.?).
My cabbie in Las Vegas -- who has the Ducks to take it all at 19 to 1 -- noted he first started watching hockey back in 1992-93 when the Kings made it to the final. He got riveted when they defeated the Leafs in the semi-final and there were a "lot of scraps and head butts and stuff".
OK.
I was in Montreal the day after Montreal won that one. One of the local papers had something like a 50-page feature section on the victory. The popularity of hockey has been sliding ever since, not only in non-hockey places, but in core areas like Montreal. Something to do with there being lots of other things to do, and the fact that all the players are Russian and the Forum is now called the Bell Centre. And people are spending Saturday nights on their Blackberries, or renovating their kitchens.
It seems to be an uphill battle for the NHL, but following on the heels of the intelligent rule changes to make the game faster, maybe this YouTube idea is a sign that the NHL brass are smartening up.
Go Ducks!
Not really. I'm a Habs fan. I bleed bleu, blanc, et rouge. Or at least I used to, back when #10, Guy Lafleur, smoked before games, and flew down the right wing, hair in perfect sync, blasting a laser-accurate shot just inside the left post. Half the defencemen in the league could barely skate backwards, which made the skill players look that much better. Half the coaches couldn't read, and Roger Nielsen had yet to pioneer the use of video. Those were the days. I doubt we'll ever see them again.
Go Sabres!
Posted by
Andrew Goodman
View Posts by Category |
|
D'oh!
|
