| Soundy | 03-02-2010 09:14 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by AzNightmare
(Post 6839339)
"Don’t think the Olympic hockey tournament would be compelling without the pros you know and recognize? Did you happen to tune into the World Junior Championships not even two months ago where the U.S. beat Canada, 6-5, in sudden death for the title"
No. I didn't watch or follow any of this (barely even knew about this). I mainly follow Olympic hockey because of players I know and recognize from NHL... lol
I don't really care about uprising prospects until they make it on the big stage... I know not everyone agrees with this... but that's personally me, anyway.
| It's true for a lot of people, though - they're more interested in ANY sport if they have some sort of emotional investment in the athletes. This is why players like Sid and Ovie are good for the game: people who aren't (or weren't) hockey fans are interested in them... thus will watch hockey, and ultimately will hopefully come to love hockey for itself.
This is why Lou is good for the game here. It's why the West Coast Express was good for it - not just for the scoring excitement, but because it gave marginal fans some FACES to cheer for.
NASCAR built their current empire on this concept, too. As opposed to Bettman's model of shoving franchises into markets where nobody cared, and then trying to get them to care, NASCAR heavily marketed the DRIVERS, made them recognizable, made them household names, so people would tune in and go to the races as much to cheer on their favorite drivers, even if they didn't know squat about racing. And over time, they LEARNED about the racing and came to love that too... and now cities are BEGGING for NASCAR to bring them races. | 