The Stanley Cup - Notes from an NHL Marketer

If you’re a hockey fan like me, you’ve been thoroughly entertained over the last two months while watching NHL teams go after the ultimate team prize in sports…the Stanley Cup. 

Watching has made me realize just how much this intense struggle to win the world’s most famous trophy was missed last year during the lock out. 

Hopefully both sides - the NHL and the NHL Players Association - have learned a lesson and we, the fans, will never have to go without our Stanley Cup Playoffs again. 

Speaking of the Stanley Cup, media outlets in the United States continue to point toward low television ratings as a major reason why the NHL should be ignored by the casual sports fan. 

Granted, watching hockey on television isn’t even close to what kind of a feeling you’ll get when you see the sport (and it’s speed, emotion and grit) in person.

Yes the ratings have been low, and that can easily be explained by the following:

• Last year’s lockout
• A new cable (OLN) and over-the-air (NBC) broadcast partner
• The teams competing for the Stanley Cup (Carolina and Edmonton) are from small television markets
• One of the markets is North of the U.S. border

I choose to concentrate on the positive, rather than the negative when it comes to the sport that I like best. 

Yes, OLN broadcasts have been hard to find because the network is not as readily available as the former cable carrier (ESPN) to the average viewer, but that will change with time as both the network and the NHL grow together post-lockout. 

Also, unlike ESPN, the NHL received top billing on OLN during the playoffs…something that ESPN was never able to do because of all of it’s other commitments to other sports.

Is the sport I like best less important because of television ratings?  I think not.  Do the ratings matter?  Not to true hockey fans.  Have hockey venues in the U.S. and Canada been jam-packed with rabid hockey fans throughout the march to the Stanley Cup Finals?  Yes. 

In the end, full buildings and fan loyalty mean the most to me.   

Mike Kalinowski is a Manager of Communications for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.  His resume includes 10 seasons of pro hockey experience.