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Fri, 21 Apr 1995 13:18:53 -0500 |
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completely. Especially
I can understand ESPN's position on covering college hockey completely. Especially
after 2 years of watching the ECAC and NCAA tournaments on local TV here in the
Washington, DC area.
As some of you know the Washinton area is lucky enough to have a local public TV
station, WNVT, that covers a lot of college sports. The past few years they have
included the entire ECAC torunament and the first 2 rounds of the NCAA in their
schedule. They also hold a pledge drive during the tournament coverage. It was just
about the most depressign pledge drive I've ever seen. Their goal this year for the
NCAA was $25,000. By the middle of round II they hadn't even reached $10,000.
The phones were dead. They announced that they only met their ECAC goal
because some rich RPI alum made a single $2000 pledge.
Wahington DC isn't a bad test case for hockey coverage. It's one of the top 10 media
markets in the US and has it's own NHL franchise. Based on what I saw this year we
have a long way to go to build awareness of college hockey.
I guess the good news is that someone is actually broadcasting the games. What
we need is some serious marketing. The surge in professional hockey is finally
creating a base of knowledgable hockey fans. Now we need to make them aware of
the college game!
Kurt Jaeger ---------- RPI '81 '83
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