How the NHL Could Be the League of the Internet Age

Kevin Maney writes: I was underwhelmed by my meeting at NHL headquarters this week about the league's Web plans. The league's strategy is safe and practical. Maybe it makes solid business sense. Maybe it's just that you don't roll the dice with a major sports league. But a lot of factors suggest that the NHL is missing a chance to use the Web like no sport has ever used the Web -- and really grow hockey's narrow fan base.

I sat down with Larry Gelfand, the NHL's senior VP of media sales, and he showed me the overhauled NHL.com Web site that officially just went live this week. It is, indeed, a pretty slick site, with tons of video highlights (no more trolling YouTube to try to find that wild Alex Ovechkin goal), an NHL-produced hockey show, live press conferences, and lots of shopping. In short, it's a well-done version of what a good major-league sports Web site should be in 2008.

But this doesn't solve a couple of the NHL's biggest problems. The league is actually doing quite well filling seats in its arenas. But it has lousy TV ratings, as nicely detailed in this set of charts on a Dallas Stars fan page.The ratings have bounced back a bit from terrible lows in the mid-2000s, but are lower in EVERY measure compared to the late-1990s.

The second problem, as Gelfand tells me: NHL fans tend to only be interested in their home teams -- much more so than fans of the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball. And half of NHL fans live away from the team they root for. So half of hockey fans can't regularly watch their favorite team, and don't much engage with the team where they now live.

The NHL thinks it's serving those people with the extra highlights on NHL.com, but I don't get it. That's a half measure. Most of those fans would rather watch full, live games. The NHL does offer live games on the Web, but it costs $159 a year, which only the most rabid fans are going to pay.

The NHL is under-serving half its fan base, while TV broadcasts are doing little to rake in a new fan base.

But here's something else about the NHL: Its fans are tech nuts. The league sent me a study done by Experian Consumer Research. NHL fans actually have the highest mean household income of all the major sports. They are also younger, shop online more, and are 27% more likely to own a video game than fans of other leagues.

TV is failing the league. Its fan base skews young and tech-savvy. The NHL is in perfect position to be the first major sports league to chuck TV and become the first Internet league.

Put every game on line live, supported by ads and free. Store them on line so if I can't get to a screen until 30 minutes after the game starts, I can start watching from the beginning -- or I can watch hours later. Use a Hulu or Kyte type of strategy so fans can seed NHL games around the Web, on blogs and Facebook pages and so on. The No. 1 priority should be getting games in front of eyeballs and becoming the league that excites the digital generation.

That would be a truly daring, radical strategy. In fact, it's what Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis told me he'd do if he were starting the NHL from scratch today.

I brought this up to Gelfand, who said the league isn't ready for that. "We have to take baby steps," he said.

The NHL season starts this weekend.

Add Your Comment

Report Abuse

Archive

Categories

Links