Good points.
 
Also, I think it would be more reasonable to expect if it had been the type
of OT used in regular season college or NHL games.  But "sudden death"
hockey has some unique features.  Only baseball has a realistic potential to
last as long, and only in hockey is it necessary for 15 minutes of "dead"
time for resurfacing the ice for every overtime period.
 
Look at what actually happened.  Does anyone think that it was reasonable to
expect FSNE to stay with the BU/SLU game for six hours, completely
pre-empting (not just "joining in progress") the Celtics game?  At what
point do you pull the plug?
 
For hockey's situation on television, one of the worst things that could
have happened was last year's Stanley Cup, which ended at about 1:00 AM.
 
Clay
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenie [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 10:22 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Heidi Revisited
>
> At 04:58 PM 3/28/00 +0200, John Whelan wrote:
> >ESPN, as a matter of policy, will stay with a live event until its
> >conclusion, even if it means pre-empting another live event.  So at
> >least one sports network does not "have to" switch to the more
> >lucrative sport as soon as it begins.
>
> ESPN has this advantage over regional networks (such as FSNE) for four
> reasons:
>
> 1. They have no higher authority to answer to -- they are the national HQ.
>
> 2. There is only one major sport broadcast on ESPN at the time of the
> Frozen Four -- hockey -- that might conflict with the broadcast.
> Baseball's
> opening day comes after the Frozen Four.
>
> 3. The majority of NHL broadcasts on ESPN draw lower ratings than the
> Frozen Four.
>
> 4. ESPN2
>
>
>
> greenie
> S P O O N  ! !
>
> HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
> [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.