Posts Tagged ‘Penguins’

Dear NHL: Get Your Priorities Straight!

August 5th, 2009 BroadStreetHero
Bettman demonstrating the gap between the NHL and other professional sports leagues

Bettman demonstrating the gap between the NHL and other professional sports leagues

Over the last week I have been grimacing in pain due to getting my wisdom teeth pulled.  It has given me time to sit around, watch television, and live on yogurt, soup, and pudding.  As I’ve waited for the pain to subside I was lucky enough to observe the idiocy that is the NHL front office.  For a league that is struggling to maintain it’s place in the popular sports hierarchy, it doesn’t look like they realize that there is a huge public image problem.

This has been escalated even more by the recent news stating that the NHL is looking into contracts signed by star free agents.  Evidently, they are concerned that teams are front-loading the contracts so the player gets paid the bulk of the money in the earlier years of the deal, providing the team with less of a salary cap hit in the later years of the deal.  For example, defensemen Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers just inked a 7 year deal worth $33.5 million, $28 million of which will be paid in the first 4 years of the contract.  The fishy part about the contract is that Pronger is now 34 years old and will be 35 when the season starts, so the odds of him playing until he is 42 years old is very slim, although NHL defensemen do enjoy long careers.

The problem with the entire contract situation is this:  the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) was designed so that teams would have to abide by a set salary cap.  By front-loading the money in contracts, teams look like they are trying to circumvent the cap hit that would occur should a player retire before playing out his deal, which would mean that a team signed a player and discussed his retirement, something that is forbidden.

The NHL shouldn’t be overly concerned with this issue, and that is why I’m writing a letter to Gary Bettman, the Commissioner of the NHL, telling him exactly what he should do to bring the league back to prominence:


Dear Commissioner Bettman,

Why are you concerning yourself with the ethics behind contracts being signed by your star athletes when there are more pressing matters at hand?  Do you want to see your league take a step back to what it was like during the 2004-05 NHL Lockout?  I sure as hell don’t.  What you need to be focusing on is the promotion and image of the league.  The one good thing that you have going for you: the attendance numbers are extraordinary!  Total attendance throughout all thirty teams totaled 21,495,541 fans, with only the Atlanta Thrashers filling less than 80% of their seats.

Both of these numbers are better than the NBA, which plays the same number of games in front of comparable crowds.  The NBA had 21,398,899 fans come to their games, but seven franchises failed to reach 80% average attendance, with the Memphis Grizzlies bringing up the rear at 70.3%.

To compare the two leagues, in Philadelphia, a strong sports market, you had the Flyers average 19,545 (100.2%) in attendance at the Wachovia Center versus the NBA’s 76ers who averaged 15,802 (79.7%) in the same arena!  The amazing thing is, both teams made the playoffs in 2008-09, but the disparity in attendance heavily favored the NHL team.

So Gary, now that you have brought back the original fan base to the NHL, it is now time to expand the league’s horizons and grab sports fans and casual viewers alike.  How should you do this?  First, focus on obtaining media contracts!  The NHL may as well be in the Stone Age compared to the rest of the major professional sports leagues.  While the NFL has $3+ BILLION in television contracts with CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, ESPN, and NFL Network, the NHL has a measly $70 million per year contract with Versus along with a two year contract to broadcast about 10 games on NBC a year (including the Winter Classic through 2011).

Here is a list of things to do to promote the NHL:

  • Get a deal done with ESPN to broadcast games.  Some of my best memories from when I was younger was watching Gary Thorne do a game on ESPN, then keeping the TV on to watch NHL 2 Night.  ESPN does a great job of promoting the content shown on their station, and with the amount of viewership they get, it will be worth it, this I guarantee.
  • Recognize that you have a great thing going with the NHL Winter Classic.  The event has rejuvenated hockey and is something that the media can jump on board with.  One idea that has been floating around is a possible matchup between rivals Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the middle of the Keystone State at Beaver Stadium at Penn State.  I suggest working as hard as you can to get the Penn State Athletic Department to agree to let you have a Winter Classic there.  The 2009 Winter Classic was the most viewed game in 34 years.  Image the viewership and attendance numbers if the reigning Stanley Cup champion Penguins faced off against the division rival Flyers in a packed stadium of 107,282+ people!  Not only are you competing with College Football Bowl Games on New Year’s Day, but you will have the biggest College Football stadium to host a game in!
  • Promote your star players more effectively.  Other leagues do this very well through community service programs which they advertise during games on television.  For example, the NFL is teamed up with the United Way, the MLB has the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and the NBA has their own NBA Cares program.  What does the NHL have?  Show some of the league’s top stars interacting with people in their communities in a likeable and humorous way.  That should spark more interest in the teams and players around the league.
  • We all know who Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are, but instead of jamming more of them down our throats, why don’t you do something to promote the other stars in the league.  I am a Flyers season ticket holder and know of the accomplishments of Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Simon Gagne, but other hockey fans might not.  Most likely, if fans can’t reach the players on a personal level, then they won’t be as likely to keep watching.  Get the best players in the league in the spotlight and keep them there!  The NHL All Star Game was great this year at doing this, the problem is that not many people saw it.
  • As a fan of all sports, I can probably name the top stars in each league, but none more so than the NFL.  I could probably name the starting QB, RB, and WR as well as top defensive personnel and head coaches for each team.  For the NHL, I could only do this with about half of the league, and I probably only know about 5-10 coaches in the league.  This shows the pathetic job that you are doing in promoting your own people.  When avid hockey fans don’t know the teams around the league then you have to work at getting more people to watch more games.  By changing up the schedule to make it easier for people to watch more games, or by broadcasting more games nationally you have a much better chance at success.

There are a lot of problems with the NHL, but things have gotten much better since the Lockout.  Attendance numbers are great, but what you need to do now is promote the league and it’s image.  The NHL has some of the most talented athletes in the world right now and is dominated by young, exciting stars.  People should know about them!  If you do your job and actively promote the league, no matter how much it costs the league and the owners, you will make the NHL a premier league once again.

Sincerely,

A Hockey Fan Who Cares

Posted in Flyers Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 13 Comments »

The Beard: A Sports Phenomenon

July 25th, 2009 BroadStreetHero
Canadians teach the Art of the Beard

Canadians teach the Art of the Beard

What is a beard?  Some might say it’s just facial hair.  Some argue that it symbolizes laziness or lack or direction.  Others just argue that it is annoying and “gets in the way”.  These people, my friends, don’t understand the true meaning of the beard.  Since the dawn of time, men have been growing beards.  From Moses, to Jesus, it seems that the most prolific people to ever walk the earth sported graceful, majestic, scruffy, beards.

In sports, the beard has taken on a meaning unto itself.  Back in the early days of baseball nearly every player wore facial hair.  The earliest proponent of facial hair that sticks out in my mind is Cap Anson, who compiled over 3000 hits in his major league baseball career, all while wearing a very dignified mustache.  On the mound, Rollie Fingers groomed one of the most perfect mustaches ever known to man, and many believe it was one of the main reasons for his success.

Facial hair was prominent throughout the sports world, but the New York Islanders of the early 1980s started a trend that has gone on now for almost 30 years: the Playoff Beard.  The Playoff Beard trend has recently come into popular culture, but most lifelong hockey fans have sworn by it for years now.  The theory goes like this: if your team makes the playoffs, you must not shave until your team wins it all or is bounced from contention.  This past year, the NHL promoted a league-wide Beard-a-Thon, where fans could grow playoff beards for their teams and raise money for charity.

To analyze the playoff beard theory more closely I want to discuss the Stanley Cup Finals.  On one side you had the Detroit Red Wings who sported unbelievable beards.  Unfortunately, they were all topped by Maxim Talbot, Craig Adams, the ageless Bill Guerin, who grew beards majestic that it carried the Penguins to the Cup.  Many people would say Crosby and Malkin were the main catalysts for success, but I beg to differ.  The beards were the difference.

Mike Commodores Beard led the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006

Mike Commodore's Beard led the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006

Another Stanley Cup Finals that will forever go down in history is the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames.  I remember the series because I was trying to forget May 22, 2004, when the Lightning ousted the Flyers from the playoffs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the last game the Flyers would play until after the NHL Lockout.  Anyway, the Flames came in to the series prepared, with possibly the best set of beards ever assembled.  The Flames had many redheads on the team, from Mike Commodore (who’s beard appeared when he was a Hurricane during the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals) to Martin Gelinas, to Mikka Kiprusoff, who has the best beard of any goalie, all time.  In Game 6 of the series with the Flames up 3 games to 2, Martin Gelinas scored what seemed to be the Cup winning goal for the Flames.  The officials reviewed and said that the puck never crossed the goal line.  In my opinion, the puck clearly crossed the line and the Flames should have been 2004 Stanley Cup Champions, thanks in large part to their beards of greatness, but the referees screwed them.

So, what does a beard symbolize?  Beards are a symbol of dedication, toughness, and strength, plus they are downright intimidating if worn by the correct person.  For some reason most professions frown upon the untidy mess of hair that is a beard and instead insist on a clean shave.  This makes no sense.  Some of the best performances of all time have come when people believe in their beards.  The Playoff Beard theory clearly states that if you are on a hot streak you must not do anything to interrupt that streak.  Just look at Eric Gagne during his 84 consecutive saves streak (although HGH may have had something to do with that as well).  Apollo Anton Ohno, the Olympic Gold Medalist in Speed Skating, believed so highly in his soul patch that he wouldn’t dare shave it.  What has it earned him?  5 Olympic medals and 1st place on Dancing with the Stars.  Even Kimbo Slice, a bum who fought on the street, used the beard to his advantage.  Do you think he would’ve made millions of dollars if he looked normal?  That beard of his was so intimidating it forced ESPN to let it grace the cover of their magazine.  The man went from nobody to superstar overnight, and has his beard to thank.  Look at Zach Galifinakas.  Imagine what his image would be like if he shaved his beard.  I bet he doesn’t shave it until he hits a string of 3 or more terrible career moves.

Johnny Damon attends to his beard

Johnny Damon attends to his beard

Take Johnny Damon’s epic 2004 playoff run.  His mane of hair has been enshrined in Cooperstown (as well as the movie Fever Pitch), and most of Red Sox Nation believes that if he had shaved that beard, or if Big Papi changed his facial hair, then the Red Sox would never have broken the Curse of the Bambino.  In 2007, the Red Sox went the opposite route, shaving their heads in the playoffs, and what was the result there?  Another World Series title.  The Tampa Bay Rays, a perennial 100 loss team, sported RayHawks, a form of mohawk, during the 2008 campaign.  It powered them all the way to the World Series, where they eventually lost to my Philadelphia Phillies.

The phenomenon of the beard can apply to other things besides sports.  If you are a salesman and are on a hot streak, don’t shave until you miss a sale.  If your employer tells you to shave, decline.  Tell him or her that you are growing the beard as a commitment to reaching your goals, as well as the goals of the business.  As a fan, I firmly believe in the power of the beard.  Believe me, beards are hard to keep going and take endless commitment.  They are itchy, they get in the way, and they are unpredictable.  I grew my playoff beard for the Phillies last season, and refused to shave it for over a month.  I didn’t even shave until a week after we won the World Series.  During the playoffs I discussed not shaving until after the BCS National Championship because my Penn State Nittany Lions were undefeated at the time.  I decided to shave the playoff beard in the first week of November.  In the second week of November Penn State lost to Iowa, ending the perfect season and a chance to go to the National Championship.  I still feel that I am to blame because I shaved off the beard too soon.

You might be asking, what prompted me to write such a long expose about the art of the beard?  I actually came up the idea while watching Chan Ho Park pitch 3 perfect innings a few nights ago.  His beard is like nothing I have ever seen.  Based on the sheer size of the beard, I estimate that it has been growing since early June.  On June 2nd, Chan Ho Park had a 7.32 ERA with a 1-1 record.  Since then, Chan Ho has been unstoppable.  He is 2-1 in that span with 7 successful holds.  In his last 17 outings, Park has pitched 26.1 innings while allowing only 5 earned runs and racking up 29 strikeouts against 4 walks.  With the bullpen in shambles, it looks like Chan Ho has become the rock that is keeping them steady.

7/31/2009:  To update, after writing this article Chan Ho Park trimmed his beard.  What happened in his next outing?  Well he let up a run of course.  It didn’t cost the Phillies, but it just goes to show how powerful the beard really is.

Posted in Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, The Rest Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 110 Comments »


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