PuckSniperPensel wrote:
You know what? I think it's bull shit.
Patrick Kane won the cup last year, he's an AMERICAN BORN player, he won a SILVER MEDAL with the US olympic team, and the NHL doesn't market him the way they market Crosby.
You know why losing Crosby would be detrimental to the league? Because the league fails to recognize that they have more than one star.
You don't see the NBA putting Lebron James or Kobe Bryant all over EVERYTHING.
Guys like Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Tracy McGrady... they get plenty of exposure, too.
I hate basektball and I don't even WATCH the NBA and I know these names.
Don't put all of your eggs into one basket, morons. Look what can happen.
I agree with your main point, but you know what's really funny? The only two basketball names you mentioned that I have ever heard of are James and Bryant! LMAO So take it from somebody who has never been able to sit through an entire basketball game in his entire life, the NHL follows the same publicity template as the NBA (and isn't that where Bettman's entire background comes from?). So maybe the NBA and the NHL should both follow your advice and diversify their stars.
I think that the more spaghetti you throw at the wall, the better the odds that something will stick. The mass force feeding of Crosby and Ovechkin is nauseating, and that would appear to be a Bettman trademark. The reason why it works in the NBA is because basketball is 100 times more popular than hockey. All you need is a $20 ball to play. That's it. You gotta mortgage your house to raise hockey kids in America, I got a job managing a rink just for the free overnight ice time, shits expensive!
So yeah, I would love to see Kane or Toews or Stamkos go on the Conan show, fuck how about 1 NHL player a week on that show?! Then again he would probably run out of things to talk about I guess, you really need a host that loves hockey.
Of course, promoting a guy doesn't make him as good as Crosby and Ovechkin, but that's just it. Why does it have to be about marketing only the best? Oh wait, because promoters for shows only want the best for their advertising dollars to come in.
Oh well, I don't mind rooting for the least popular major sports league. Doesn't make a difference to me.