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i feel this way every year...
I am eternally surprised by the fact that the "winter" sport of hockey has its finals 10 days away from the start of summer, months after the last vestiges of snow and ice are off the bulk of the country. I know the reason (its cheaper to compete for air time and fan attention with baseball than it is to compete with football) but still - they wonder why by the time June rolls around, nobody gives a shit, then maybe they should keep the winter sports in the winter where they belong.
Basketball? Screw June - College's system works for the money and attention - go with an all-or-nothing tournament - create a May Madness (the hype around March is over as is the hype of baseball's opening in April), refresh everybody's attention rather than reminding us that you have 4 teams playing a max of 15 games over the course of 5 weeks by which time its taken so long we're just eternally sick of the whole damn enterprise.
Hockey should start 3 months earlier and end 3 months earlier, while we still "feel" cold. Basketball should end with a rousing free-for-all rather than this dragged down day-after-day of the same 10 names being repeated as if they mean something after this long.
bleh.
Basketball? Screw June - College's system works for the money and attention - go with an all-or-nothing tournament - create a May Madness (the hype around March is over as is the hype of baseball's opening in April), refresh everybody's attention rather than reminding us that you have 4 teams playing a max of 15 games over the course of 5 weeks by which time its taken so long we're just eternally sick of the whole damn enterprise.
Hockey should start 3 months earlier and end 3 months earlier, while we still "feel" cold. Basketball should end with a rousing free-for-all rather than this dragged down day-after-day of the same 10 names being repeated as if they mean something after this long.
bleh.
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Is that why? I thought it had gotten out of hand with the most recent expansion. (But don't mind me; I still can't forgive the NHL for abandoning the historic division and conference names.)
I think October is the right time for the hockey season to start. But I think the schedule is far too long. The finals should be completed by the end of April at the latest. Although that would place the all-star break at a weird time near Christmas, wouldn't it?
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exactly the problem - it gets eaten up by the college bowl games and the end of the main season of NFL. there's simply no way they can compete. the ideal *time* for hockey is to have its all-star break is in Feb, so its not fighting March madness or baseball's opening day.
now, that doesn't mean that the allstar game HAS to be exactly mid-season, but nobody thinks about those kinds of alternatives. how about the allstar game in feb, but for an october start date: rather than being arbitrary, the allstar break that late in the season becomes the last-call for trades before the final rush.
of course, i don't give a crap about the game - i just think its stupid to have a winter game's final in what is effectively the summer.
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And
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:)
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There's only one sport that plays an abbreviated short season, football. That's a sport built for a TV format and a TV season. All the other sports are played by men with a little stamina. Baseball covers less of the calendar, but they make up for it by playing even more often.
The reason hockey has less of a following has little to do with the length of the season, and everything to do with incompetent marketing. Stanley cup starts tonight and the sports bar in the mall that will be home to the caps practice facility doesn't have any hockey promo stuff, probably won't show the game unless someone requests it. They produced a tolerable first effort at a new ad campaign for the sport, and then only showed it during hockey games. One day they will hire someone competent to do PR for the sport, but clearly, not yet. Which is a shame, this season they changed rules and enforcement, and the cap scrambled all the rosters and did a great job of leveling the playing field. It's a better sport to watch now. But they hid it on OLN, and didn't tell anyone. The punch line is that attendance at games is up, revenue is up, it's been an all around good season for the sport. Just, a bad one for the televised coverage.
Although I think the game would benefit from not sharing the calendar with baseball. Both sports could go a little shorter without any pain at all. Bring them both down to about 60 games.
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we invented the means to make ice for the purpose of brewing beer, not for an excuse for drinking it.