A twenty-four-year-old Tennessee man is arrested for his involvement in a Las Vegas strip club triple-shooting. A Tampa father-to-be is booked and charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant woman and battery by strangulation; both felonies. The same year, a man is stabbed in the neck during a bar fight and indicted for involuntary manslaughter.

Intercity crime report?

No . . . those arrestees are multi-million-dollar thugs and members of the highest rated sports organization in our nation; the National Football League. (see Sports Mugshot Gallery)

The NFL set another record in 2008 when their championship game was watched by 97.5 million viewers. A thirty-second commercial during their upcoming 2009 Super Bowl on NBC will cost advertisers a minimum of $3,000,000.

With tons of degrading publicity involving hard drugs, hookers and weapons, how have they managed to stay on top? The answer is with a solid, precise marketing game plan. Their marketing/publicity plan is so durable that when these inexcusable actions occur, they find a way to survive them while maintaining their sky-high ratings.

Laying out fresh, creative marketing X’s and O’s like the NFL, NBA and MLB is something the NHL needs to do . . . and they need to do it yesterday!

Just to give you an idea, the Nielson rating website for cable TV shows the week of May 12, 2008 had the NBA Playoffs owning the top 7 spots followed by WWE Raw then in the final spot . . . Sponge Bob at #10.

That’s right; the NHL got their asses kicked in a toe-to-toe bout with Sponge Bob. The dorky yellow sponge named Bob just rammed Bettman head-first into the glass and skated away hoisting the cup and the NHL Playoffs were nowhere in sight on the ratings stat sheet.

It’s time for the NHL owners to set down their martini glasses and take notice.

Many of these owners have a true love for the game and they need to put politics aside and realize the adverse, long-term effects these poor ratings will have on their league. This is their league, not Bettman’s. Bettman is their employee and as an employee, he is failing miserably at his job. The owners need a man capable of competing with these other leagues for viewers; one who is capable of rallying up support from the gigantic fan base in this country.

No fan in their right mind should support a professional athlete who tortures animals or another who has more mug shots than Robert Downey Jr. just because they wear their favorite team’s jersey. Criminal acts degrade sports and humiliate the leagues yet these leagues somehow continue to produce higher ratings than the cleaner NHL.
Some of the steady onslaught of negative publicity hitting the top three sports recently include an NBA referee admitting to gambling on NBA games, NFL coaches cheating, steroids throughout MLB, under-oath athletes lying to Congress, countless arrests; the list goes on and on.

When hockey fans see these intolerable acts infest sports and these leagues continue to pound the NHL in ratings, is disheartening and makes it clear how pathetic and non-existent the marketing plan in the NHL must be.

The ratings for the 2008 Red Wings/Pens high-energy, fast-paced final’s Game 3 on NBC were reported to be 2.8 for the May 28th game. These numbers are up from last year but don’t be impressed. The 2.8 rating was competing against last year’s historic record low ratings therefore were expected to increase. In 2007, NBC reported the 1.1 rating and 2 share for their final’s Game 3 telecast set an all-time low for any of the network’s prime-time programs ever, sports or otherwise.

In addition, the 2007 opening game of the finals on Versus’ cable network received an embarrassing 0.72 cable rating. Broken down in more understandable numbers, only 523,000 households viewed that game in the entire United States.

As embarrassing as these ratings are, one cannot help to think Commissioner Bettman will be content with the fact the numbers are up and will continue keeping his punch-less marketing & publicity campaign status quo. Even with these numbers up, hockey remains by far, the lowest rated of the main four sports and it’s getting beaten by a landslide; even by a silly-looking yellow sponge named Bob.

The NHL had their dream Stanley Cup Finals match-up this year with the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins going head-to-head but where was the publicity blitz and activities the week leading up to this match-up? Nearly non-existent; with an occasional player or coach interview. The NFL has a two-week party and mass media blitz that builds up excitement and draws an incredible audience.

No one should expect the NHL to schedule a weeklong party with the media, players and fans and suddenly have a product and audience that justifies selling multi-million dollar commercials because that doesn’t happen overnight. It has been proven, however, to happen over time.

During this year’s playoffs, the NHL seemed content marketing one single item; Sidney Crosby, Sid the Kid, their knight in shining armor who happened to fall off his horse and not tally a single point in the first two games of the series against the Red Wings. If the NFL or NBA marketed one single player, they would not be where they are today.

The NHL’s competitors should be easy to compete against. Their execs are forced to waste time and energy battling rock-bottom player images and are constantly walking behind their players cleaning up a messy trail left behind in the courtrooms around the nation.
While these MLB, NBA and NFL execs are busy meeting with Congressmen, judges and lawyers, a smart NHL exec would be out campaigning and marketing the NHL’s positive image and offering America’s sports fans a cleaner product. That’s when the public may notice the nice, clean image of your league. Create positive news and obtain the millions of viewers who may be tired of their children wearing jerseys of players who are in prison or getting arrested.

It is unfair for the NHL players who play hard and maintain clean images to see some of these other athletes being offered multi-million dollar endorsement deals. Clean images are an entity no other league can boast about nowadays so why is the NHL not marketing that to the parents and younger generation?

The NHL probably has an official plaque on one of the doors in their office that may read “Marketing and Publicity” but it takes more than a sign on a door and handing paychecks out on Friday to a few people for doing mail-outs and an occasional interview. It takes a well-structured plan. But before you create a plan one must have a vision and that is why it is time for new blood in the NHL front offices.

Commissioner Bettman appears to have no vision of progress for the NHL. If he did, successful marketing plans would be evident and a major sports network like ESPN would still be carrying games instead of a network that sandwiches the games between bull-riding and a show on washed-up rock stars surviving in the woods.

Halfway through the 2007-2008 NHL season; I was watching a popular ESPN variety talk show. One of the show’s well-known hosts was asked whether the Detroit Red Wings would continue dominating the league and win the Stanley Cup in 2008. His response was, he had no idea, couldn’t even name a single player on the team and he didn’t care! His co-host bailed him out with a quick mention of the Red Wings leading scorers, Zetterberg and Datsyuk. I’ve heard Tony speak in detail about women’s tennis and international soccer but yet he was clueless that particular day when NHL hockey became the topic. Commissioner Bettman and the owners need to realize it’s a serious problem when national reporters do not know and worse yet, don’t care about the NHL.

It’s time to give national announcers outside of Canada a reason to care about the NHL and the players and it is Bettman and the league’s duty and responsibility to do it-it’s their job. When people are not performing in their duties at their jobs we usually see them in the unemployment line. It is crystal-clear; major change is needed. Removing Bettman would give hope to the owners, players and fans. Bettman deserves a pink slip.

If this marketing/publicity issue is ignored and the owners and league turn their cheek to the embarrassing television ratings, will NHL hockey continue on their current destructive path . . . from ESPN . . . to Versus . . . to Animal Planet?

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax