On 1 Aug 96 at 1:07, Mike Machnik wrote: > The first question I have is, what exactly does this entail? I > presume that Maine will not be able to appear on any NESN Hockey > East telecasts, nor on Maine channels 2 and 6 as has happened in the > past. I also presume that no one Maine plays will be able to air > the game on their own local broadcasts, including possible Prime > broadcasts. This is not true. According to the decision, as I heard it, it stipulates that actual game footage of a contest cannot exceed 5 minutes. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not going to go back and listen to the tape, but I believe this is how it reads. So in other words local tv could still have highlights from the game, they just can't broadcast the game, or exceed 5 minutes in total news footage. I would imagine the same rule would apply to say College Hockey USA and showing highlights. > This has implications for some teams that will be playing Maine. It > probably means that, for example, that neither WABU-68 (BU) nor > WNDS-50 (Lowell) will be able to air games in which those teams play > Maine. In a way, this hurts those schools, if you figure that they > probably get some of their biggest audiences when they play Maine. > I'm sure Maine benefits some when they appear on other teams' > broadcasts, but this could hurt those teams more than Maine in those > specific cases. On the other hand, they'll have enough other games > on tv, so it isn't that much of an issue. The NCAA stipulated one condition regarding TV broadcasts and that was they allowed Closed-Circuit TV, I believe, to the *other* institution's campus. Once again someone can check if they want I don't have the time, but this would seem to be the way for the NCAA not to punish other institutions. Remember the "real" idea with TV and post-season sanction, while to punish the progam, is also for Maine to gain no revenue for hockey. I'm sure Maine receives money for TV contracts and what-not. Maine doesn't get money, to my knowledge, if WABU covers a game. What is also important to note is that if WABU covered a game here at Maine, that it could only be broadcast on WABU, Maine stations couldn't pick it up. I might also suggest that some stations, like WABU, will volunteer not to come to Maine to broadcast a game as well. > But perhaps a bigger implication has to do with the Hockey East > tournament. Will NESN be prevented from airing HE tournament games > in which Maine competes? This isn't a big deal in the > quarterfinals, since NESN will have other games it can show, but > what if Maine goes to the HE championship game? Will the HE > championship game not be on tv? > > And to take it a step further, if HE is concerned about the > possibility of its championship not being on tv with all the > publicity that normally goes with it, could this lead to HE > prohibiting Maine from taking part in the 1996-97 HE tournament? I'll be the first to suggest this but Hockey East will likely bar Maine in 96-97. This isn't comparable with Lowell in the early 90's this is far beyond it. They tried to bar Maine in 93-94, the courts blocked that, this time they will probably be successful. If Maine didn't have the TV sanction I might think that Hockey East should let them in, but without the TV it creates a sticky situation. --- Deron Treadwell - [log in to unmask] Orono, Maine INFO-HOCKEY-L Administrator ME-HOCKEY Administrator