I'm kind of miffed at Bertagna for this whole mess.  When he became
commissioner he vowed that one of his top priorities (along with league
expansion, ha, ha, ha) would be the TV contract.  I will give him his due
that, after being dumped by NESN, he made the best of a bad situation and
took a half season deal with Fox.  But what we have now is ridiculous.
After last night's results, it is more than likely true that the only
quarterfinal matchup that will be televised is the UML-NU series.  Next
weekend, only one of the three games from the Fleet will be on live.  This
is not the way to promote your league.

I read over at USCHO that Fox has an option to pick up the HE contract for
one more season.  Since it is clear that televising Hockey East on a regular
basis is not a money maker, wouldn't it be better, perhaps, for the league
to pony up at least some of the money for production costs?  This way they
might be able to cut themselves a better deal in terms of visibility.  Or
perhaps the league could work out a deal where the current arrangement could
continue for regular season games but the league would have the option of
marketing the playoffs on their own. Or, if all else fails, let those
schools who can (like UNH, Maine and BU) cut their own deals so at least
some games will be on.

I know that the HE (and college hockey) is not in a position of strength
here, but what we have now does the sport no good.  Things have got to
change.

Greg Ambrose

> From: Deron Treadwell <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Deron Treadwell <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 21:44:52 -0500
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: HE TV Disappointment
>
> Noah Smith from Hockey East said between periods of the Maine/BC radio
> broadcast and said that Fox Sports New England will TAPE DELAY not only the
> late semifinal Hockey East Tournament game next Friday, but also the
> Championship game due to a Boston Celtics game.
>
> While I think this is ridiculous, I understand FSNE has a contract with the
> Celtics and they are a larger market than Hockey East.  But shame on Hockey
> East for agreeing to a new deal with these guys if they can't get their
> CHAMPIONSHIP game on live TV.
>
> I've missed the days when Hockey East was on NESN since they came over to
> FSNE (yes, even Bob Norton), but this is by far the worst.  As a conference,
> your tournament championship game is your crown jewel and to have a
> television partner that doesn't respect that is not good for anyone IMHO.
>
> Will the CCHA title game be live on Fox?  What about the other major
> conferences?
>
> -Deron