Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

[Rockytop]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

I am going to stick to attending in person.

I'm with Hux on this. The best thing we can do is attend in person and find ways to encourage others to do the same.

-nag local media for more coverage.
-encourage ties between youth hockey and your program than put fannies in the seats
-invite your friends, etc.

I don't see national TV happening unless the regular season games and the sport in general start to attract significantly greater in person fan support.

Which isn't going to be a rapid or easy process...

 

[dave1381]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

I'm with Hux on this. The best thing we can do is attend in person and find ways to encourage others to do the same.

-nag local media for more coverage.
-encourage ties between youth hockey and your program than put fannies in the seats
-invite your friends, etc.

I don't see national TV happening unless the regular season games and the sport in general start to attract significantly greater in person fan support.

Which isn't going to be a rapid or easy process...

I don't know if that's at all true. I don't think other sports that got their NCAA finals on national TV followed that same process. ESPNU is televising the NCAA women's bowling championship live and ESPN is showing it tape-delayed Sunday at 4pm. How is bowling attendance?

And I don't care about national TV. I'm fine with regional TV.

 

[Hux]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

I don't know if that's at all true. I don't think other sports that got their NCAA finals on national TV followed that same process. ESPNU is televising the NCAA women's bowling championship live and ESPN is showing it tape-delayed Sunday at 4pm. How is bowling attendance?

And I don't care about national TV. I'm fine with regional TV.

I don't think attendance will alter their broadcast plans any time soon. My point was that actually attending makes the need for TV coverage moot. I'm already counting down the days to a return to Ridder, Dinkytown, visiting with friends in New Brighton and a Saturday afternoon trip to Acme Tools in Plymouth!

 

[brookyone]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

http://minnesotahockeymag.com/2014/04/03/schwartz-frozen-four-snub-embarrasing/

 

[Blackbeard]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

http://minnesotahockeymag.com/2014/04/03/schwartz-frozen-four-snub-embarrasing/

Good article.

 

[pokechecker]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

Reality Check:
Let’s go back to the late 70’s.
The typical MN Gopher men’s game drew 3 to 4 thousand fans, tickets were 4 bucks for a reserved seat, And you could not watch any games on TV. I did watch Minnesota beat Michigan Tech in 1976 for the championship on TV but that was at a friends house, so I’m thinking it may have been on cable (which I didn’t have).
What changed it?
The 1980 Olympics.
Soon, you could not attend a Gopher game unless you bought tickets far in advance, which now cost a few dollars more. They started televising regular season games for free on a UHF channel a few years later, then built a bigger, newer arena, and started charging an arm and a leg for tickets.
1996 brought about a big increase in women’s hockey. If you want women’s pro hockey, if you want televised college hockey, step one will be to give the average American a reason to watch it.
Win.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

http://minnesotahockeymag.com/2014/04/03/schwartz-frozen-four-snub-embarrasing/

There were a number of things I heard while covering the Women's Frozen Four at Quinnipiac, all of which were off the record. However, since Schwartz wrote the following, I'll just quote what he wrote because ... well, just because. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

"Now, in full disclosure, I don’t know the reason that these games never make it on any television network. I have heard a lot of reasons, most of which surround the NCAA (and Turner broadcasting) asking for too much money from networks to purchase the rights (via the Minneapolis Star tribune in March of 2013)."

 

[Badger Booster]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

Maybe it's been noted elsewhere in these threads, but just to add insult to injury, this last weekend, ESPN showed the "finals" of NCAA women's bowling. Bottom line is that there is no good reason why the Frozen Four isn't on one of ESPNs many channels.

 

[dave1381]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

Maybe it's been noted elsewhere in these threads, but just to add insult to injury, this last weekend, ESPN showed the "finals" of NCAA women's bowling. Bottom line is that there is no good reason why the Frozen Four isn't on one of ESPNs many channels.

Noted earlier, and not only that, they showed it on tape delay on a Sunday afternoon on the flagship network.

 

[Genbeau]

Noted earlier, and not only that, they showed it on tape delay on a Sunday afternoon on the flagship network.

and here I thought there were already too many bowl games....

 

[D2D]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

and here I thought there were already too many bowl games....

But none as exciting as this one! Went to triple extra frames before finally being decided in a rollout!

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

Noted earlier, and not only that, they showed it on tape delay on a Sunday afternoon on the flagship network.

I don't know how college bowling does, but bowling TV shows typically get very good ratings. You'll be surprised. As a fan of many niche sports, this fact always drives me crazy.

 

[ARM]

I don't know how college bowling does, but bowling TV shows typically get very good ratings. You'll be surprised. As a fan of many niche sports, this fact always drives me crazy.

I don't blame the networks as much as I blame the NCAA. As an organization, it needs to realize that college hockey is a good product. If Russell is a fan of niche sports, he had to at some point be exposed to those sports. Televising championship games with all of the passion of college athletics is a nice way to start to build an audience. The men's NCAA basketball tourney started as a second fiddle to the NIT, and it would help if the NCAA remembered that when devising a marketing plan for its emerging sports.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

bowling TV shows typically get very good ratings.

You'll be interested to know that accross the pond sports such as Darts and Billiards (not same as snooker or pool) are commonplace on TV networks.

It is amazing what different sports are attractive to an audience in different countries. For example, many North American born people never watch soccer. In Europe this is a major past time.

 

[ManBehindTheCurtain]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

You'll be interested to know that accross the pond sports such as Darts and Billiards (not same as snooker or pool) are commonplace on TV networks.

It is amazing what different sports are attractive to an audience in different countries. For example, many North American born people never watch soccer. In Europe this is a major past time.

You'll never walk alone.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

It is amazing what different sports are attractive to an audience in different countries. For example, many North American born people never watch soccer. In Europe this is a major past time.

Back when I had DirecTV I sprung for the international dish as well so I could get the Cricket Ticket.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

You'll be interested to know that accross the pond sports such as Darts and Billiards (not same as snooker or pool) are commonplace on TV networks.

It is amazing what different sports are attractive to an audience in different countries. For example, many North American born people never watch soccer. In Europe this is a major past time.

Just look at Curling...

 

[dave1381]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

I don't blame the networks as much as I blame the NCAA. As an organization, it needs to realize that college hockey is a good product.

I think the NCAA does recognize it' has a good product, but the NCAA is also mistaken in thinking it can charge the high long-run equilibrium price for that product without any national TV history. It seems the attitude now is they don't want to charge a low price now meaning it will imply low prices for similar products in the future --- never mind that the basketball price keeps rising. Not only that, they're content with reduced exposure for the current athletes, while holding out for these uncertain future profits.

Also on the ESPN side, note that the championships ESPNU has, it replays them all summer because they have no other content. I will flip through them, at least when I lived in a U.S. household with cable TV. NCAA should do more to push women's hockey on ESPNU as ESPN is televising the men's. I can see why ESPN was more indifferent about women's hockey after the last contract, but the NCAA should point to those gold medal game ratings as an impetus for change.

 

[wwhyte]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

You'll be interested to know that accross the pond sports such as Darts and Billiards (not same as snooker or pool) are commonplace on TV networks.

It is amazing what different sports are attractive to an audience in different countries. For example, many North American born people never watch soccer. In Europe this is a major past time.

The highest ever audience for a sporting event in the UK was the World Snooker Championship final, 1985. (also the highest ever post midnight audience, it ended at 12.18). I still remember watching the end of that. Chills up the spine.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Televise the Women's D1 National Championship Game - how do we make it happen?

. Chills up the spine.

Did you forget a "emoticon" with that remark.