Interessante e triste
Não gosto de postar coisas em inglês nos meus blogs. Acho que as pessoas que entram aqui procuram visões mais nacionais sobre o esporte. É indiscutível a diferença entre as idéias nossas e de outros paises, mesmo que o esporte em questão seja de outro país. Porém, hoje irei postar uma resposta do jornalista do Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Dejan Kovacevic, que cobre os Penguins há anos. Veja e tire sua conclusão:
Q: Dejan, if the NHL falls off the face of the earth and no one is there to hear it, does it really make a sound? There is hardly a mention of the league or the sport in the papers or on TV. When do you think the sides are going to get together and get down to some serious talks with the intent on working this thing out?
Ryan Kelvington of Meadowlands
KOVACEVIC: When 90 percent of arenas are filled to capacity with an average ticket price of $40, as was the case last season, somebody must hear a sound. When people beyond the athletes are losing their jobs or seeing closely related businesses suffer, somebody hears it. And more than a few people care.
But I do see your point, Ryan.
The fact that there have been no talks and none are scheduled doubtless is contributing, but there is very, very little being written or spoken about this, at least in the United States. There are no "Day 14" proclamations on ESPN, no regular features and very little general news or opinion being offered. Whether that is justified or not, it is something that should be alarming to both sides of this dispute.
I have written here many times: The worst reaction any sports team can receive from its fan base is apathy. Better to be booed than to be ignored. When someone is booing, it usually is because they care enough to be angry.
The prime, big-picture danger that the NHL and its players face with this lockout is that long-term apathy sets in among casual fans.
Yes, the fans will be back in the arenas, for the most part. But the league's imprint needs to grow much, much larger on television for it to find fiscal health, regardless of the type of CBA it has. The NBA proves on an annual basis that TV means much more in terms of revenue than does attendance. The NHL outdraws the NBA in attendance, but it comes nowhere near the NBA in terms of ratings or other monies such as merchandising and endorsements. The TV has to begin its climb upward at some point.
This does not help. We all have talked ad nauseam about how hockey needs to have more goals to have a more entertaining product, in person and on TV. This is true. But the end result of those goals is what is most important to TV, and that is the presence of personalities.
When you watch Patriots vs. Colts, it is Brady vs. Manning. When you will watch Lakers vs. Heat this winter, it will be Kobe vs. Shaq. Hockey has personalities, of course, and the national networks try to stress that from time to time. But it does not resonate outside the hockey community. Not even a Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic or Dominik Hasek crosses into the mainstream. Twenty years ago, the two best-known names in hockey were Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Today, the two best-known names in hockey are Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
The longer hockey is away, the longer it delays the crucial steps that must be taken to raise the game's profile, the more excuse the average fan has to never get comfortable with it. And that hurts both sides equally, because owners of high-profile sports teams make big bucks, as do high-profile athletes with endorsement deals and the like.
To attempt to answer your last question there, I feel it has become increasingly clear that talks likely will resume in late November or December. That is when the urgency will heighten to save the current season, which almost has to happen by the end of the calendar year for hockey to start in mid-January as it did in 1995. If nothing else, an agreement on a basic financial framework would have to be set by then so the millions of Ts and Is can be crossed and dotted.
Não concordo totalmente com o que Devan escreveu, mas há vários pontos em que ele está totalmente certo. Eu só fico triste que, cada dia que passa o hóquei vai sucumbindo-se... E isso não é de hoje, já vem acontecendo a muito tempo.
E eu estou aqui ouvindo Zombie Nation, música que tocou em todos os playoffs de 2001, na época que eu era feliz com o hóquei. Época que irá deixar saudades.
