>Back to the ESPN/college hockey string for a moment, I have gotten a
>lot of email from people saying that its no use writing to ESPN because
>someone at the network believes that croquet, lumberjacks, mountain
>climbing and other "sports" are actually going to be watched.
>I don't think that is necessarily true.  If you have ever actually
>watched one of these events (Ok, I saw men chopping wood on ESPN and
>wondered what the hell was going on, so I watched for a few minutes...)
>you'd see that in the background, prominently displayed for the "crowd"
>on-hand, and the camera as well, large banners with the name of the event,
>flanked by company logos; they inevitably read "Bud Light" or another
>beer company.  I think that the beer companies sponsor these events,
>and then go to ESPN and other networks and press them into covering
>them to ensure exposure.  What I am hoping is that enough people
>would send them messages that we want college hockey so that they
>realize that there is a market for it.And if there is a market for
>it, then they can make money off of it, and therefore they will show it.
>It might be a long shot, but stranger things have happened...
 
You are closer than you think.  This post will eventually get to college
hockey content, so bear with it.
 
I think some people are under the false impression that these type of
minor sporting events are actually paid for by ESPN, i.e., the network goes
out and pays a rights fee to broadcast lumberjack competition and the like.
This is not true.
 
A lot, perhaps most, of the sports events you see on ESPN and other cable
(and even network) stations are paid for by the event itself.  They BUY
blocks of time in order to get their sport aired.  Even the NHL games on ABC
were time buys by ESPN.  The goal here was to help popularize hockey, so
ESPN's ratings will go up.
 
This is very prevalant in auto racing.  Nearly all racing, even Indy car
events (except the Indy 500) are broadcast on either ESPN, ABC, or NBC
because CART (the IndyCar sanctioning body) BUYS the time on these networks.
In this case, ESPN produces the show (even the ones on ABC and NBC); they
subcontract it out to Ohlmeyer (sp?) Productions I believe.  Next year, it
gets even more bizarre.  The Indy car TV rights for the entire season have
been granted to ESPN, who is then going to turn around and BUY time on ABC
and NBC for nearly 3/4 of the season.  Why would ESPN buy time on another
network when they own the rights to the show?  Because ESPN can make more
money putting the race on a network because they can charge more from
advertisers, even when you consider the buy time price.  It's all business.
 
[I'm getting there, be patient]
 
A lot of the minor racing series go one step further.  They will produce the
show themeselves, get the advertisers lined up, and then buy the time from
ESPN and hand over the turn key package to ESPN.  ESPN merely gives them the
time slot they bought (that was available) and let's them do what they want
within their rules.  It would be like you buying an hour's worth of ice time
at the local rink.  You can do with it what you want.  You want to charge
admission (advertisers) for using it, so be it.
 
Racing, and a lot of these other sports that depend heavily on sponsors,
are in a very good situation.  In order to attract sponsors, they have to show
that their event is widely viewed.  So, they are willing to pay for the
TV broadcast of an event (even if they lose money on it), because it will help
produce money in terms of sponsorship.  The networks are happy, because it is
cheap to produce and they can therefore make money on the ad time.  Everybody
is happy.  This is why a lot of auto racing is on cable stations.
 
Now to college hockey.  College hockey is NOT a sponsor driven sport.  For
this reason, they cannot afford, or better yet, justify spending money to
get themeselves on TV.  The other option is to have the TV network pay to
put them on (rights fees can be cheap, but it still costs a lot to produce
the actual show).  ESPN will NOT do this unless they can turn a profit.  They
must have the ratings high enough to be able to bring in the advertisers
dollars to offset the costs of putting the game on the air.  Therefore, it is
important to let ESPN know that there is interest.
 
(I believe some college hockey games on TV are package deals like the regional
ones for SportsChannel and Prime.  The Conference produces the package, lines
up the advertisers, and buys the time.  However, the time probably is cheap
enough to make it cost effective.  To do this on a broad-based national
cable network like ESPN would probably lose money.)
 
But, it is also important to know that you are wasting your breath criticizing
ESPN for showing billiards, lumberjacks, or truck pulls, because ESPN makes
a profit on these shows specifically because they don't pay for them, but
rather charge to have them on the air.  You have to know how to play the game
in order to win at it.
 
[Tried desperately not to exceed a typical Mike posting size... :-) ]