Adam Bryant writes:
>  I would actually argue that NESN increases attendence by making
>people more interested in the teams and more likely to attend the
>games.
 
At the final four (I refuse to use "Phinal Phour"), Commish DeGregorio
was telling Heather and I about the relationship between HE and NESN.
At the outset (1984), I think HE needed NESN greatly and NESN could
have lived or died without the league, but it certainly sounds as if
things have become more equal.  I don't think many people are aware of
just how popular NESN telecasts of HE games are.  I hesitate to quote
numbers because I can't remember them (I'm almost curious enough to
call NESN and ask), but I know that they were pretty impressive.
Apparently a large number of people, believe it or not, seem to get
NESN mainly for the HE broadcasts.  Most get it for the Red Sox and/or
Bruins, but there are a significant number of HE fans - an audience
large enough that NESN considers it important enough to maintain the
relationship with HE.
 
Steve Czuba writes:
>Any coverage that the ECAC can get would be beneficial. Living in the Boston
>area, NESN and coverage of Hockey East games dominate - you almost think there
>are no other teams in the area other than BU/BC/etc.. (oh yeah - I think that
>team from Cambridge is in the NCAA finals again...)
 
Well, the reason that coverage of HE dominates is that the contract is
with HE and not the ECAC.  There used to be several games a year on
NESN between HE and ECAC teams, but not anymore - I do not know who
was responsible for this, whether it was the ECAC refusing to allow it
or HE.  But I do recall Bob Kurtz (geez, sounds like I am dropping
names...sorry) and I chatting several years ago before a Merrimack tv
game about the HE-ECAC games.  I was complimenting NESN on covering
games involving ECAC teams too, and he agreed that he loved seeing the
different teams and enjoyed doing the games - although with each one,
he had to learn the players all over again. :-)
 
I think that the last year of the NESN-HE-ECAC connection was also the
last year of Hockeyfest.  That may give us a clue as to what may have
happened...
 
>The only potential downside is that with the increased coverage of games via TV
>- it's not uncommon to watch a Northeastern-Providence game midweek where
>there's only about 1500 people in the stands. I don't know what it is, but ECAC
>games still tend to fill closer to capacity for all games.
 
For the most part, I think the ECAC has a better attendance record, as
far as percentage of seats filled, because of the location of the
schools.  ECAC schools tend to be located in the middle of nowhere
where the school is the focus and there's not much else to do, while
most HE schools are in or close to a city.  Maine and UNH were the two
most outlying HE schools last year, and they were also the two who
came closest to selling every ticket, I believe.
 
I agree with Adam that tv doesn't play a significant role in HE
attendance.  Certainly there are some people who choose to stay home
some nights rather than attend a game if it is on tv.  But I believe
most of the people who tune in would not go to the game whether it was
on tv or not.
 
As a sidebar since this sprung out of the Empire Sports Network
discussion, it seems clear that tv could not have been a significant
factor in the RPI decision to remain in the ECAC because it is going
to be almost impossible for the ESN (or anybody else) to put together
an ECAC tv package as good as NESN-HE.  On top of that, with the ESN
deal slated to cover "several" ECAC games this season (from the
Schenectady Gazette article), it seems highly unlikely that RPI will
be on tv as much as it would have been had it gone to HE.  I believe
HE negotiates its deal and sets up the schedule such that every league
team must appear at least a certain number of times - perhaps 4 or 5
(last year each of the 8 teams appeared between 4 and 6 times).
Chances are RPI would not have 4 or 5 telecasts among the ESN's
"several".
 
And if HE is able to pull off the national weekly live telecast thing
anytime soon...
 
(btw...I know there were other factors which entered into the RPI
decision, I am only discussing the tv aspect of things here.)
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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