While watching the Packers beat up on San Francisco this weekend, I began to wonder: What are Sundays going to be like next year if there isn't any NFL football to watch?
Certainly that is one of the biggest potential news stories of the upcoming year: the looming threat of an NFL lockout come this spring. This would have a huge effect on the American sports landscape. I have a very difficult time envisioning my weekends without having the Packers to watch on Sunday afternoons. It's borderline disturbing to imagine, and with a lockout looking like more and more of a possibility with each passing week, a world without football in the fall comes closer to reality.
But hey, even if the NFL isn't playing, fans will have the NBA to watch, right? Well, actually it appears they too are going to have a work stoppage during the 2011-2012 season.
What are sports fans supposed to do? Give up on sports? Take up a hobby? Spend more time with their families? Please, there has to be some sort of answer.
Enter the National Hockey League. Lockouts in the NFL and NBA could finally provide the NHL with its time to shine.
The NHL has always been the little brother to all the other major professional sports league, laboring in ratings and fan interest for years, even behind NASCAR. (You know, that ""sport"" of never-ending left turns?) Since the NHL had its own lockout a few years ago, the game has seen some growth, but it is still nowhere near the other major sports leagues.
The NFL's television deals are worth more than the NHL's total profits every year, and in terms of viewership in this country, hockey doesn't even come close to any other sport. But next year could finally be the year that the NHL steps out from the shadows and into the forefront of American sports.
Hockey could really stand to benefit from the lack of football and basketball next year if it plays its cards right. From November to April, it will be the only major sports league playing games. It will be the phenomenon of, ""well there is nothing else to watch."" I mean what are sports fans going to do, just take the year off?
The NHL needs to recognize that they can capitalize on this though, milk it if you will. First off: go out and get a TV-deal with ESPN. The NHL's current TV contract with Versus expires after this season, and ESPN has expressed interest in returning hockey to their network (we'll all just have to live with the increase of Barry Melrose that will come along with that).
Having NHL games broadcast each week on the biggest sports network in the world will certainly go a long way to helping the NHL gain exposure throughout this country, and without the NBA to talk about constantly, ESPN could fill a lot of time next year with hockey.
The league already has a TV deal with NBC, and they quite possibly will not have Sunday Night Football next year. Dare I dream of the possibility of Sunday Night Hockey next year? Or even Monday Night Hockey on ESPN?
The NHL has young, marketable stars. The established players, like Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, and Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, that the casual sports fan probably knows anyway, and the exciting up and comers like Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos or Chicago's Patrick Kane, could really benefit a league with more publicity. Even America's goaltending hero from the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, Buffalo's Ryan Miller, could be used to help bring in fans in the United States right?
If recent trends are any indication, lockouts in the NFL and NBA are imminent next year. While that may be a scary thought for the American sports population, fear not, sports fans—there is another sport that is more than capable of filling your time, its fast paced, hard hitting, and exciting, everything this country likes to watch.
The stars are certainly aligning for the NHL to join elite status among the other major North American sports leagues. If the league seizes this opportunity it will be a significant step in the growth of the game of hockey, something that the NHL has striven toward for decades and definitely deserves.
Is the prospect of a more prosperous NHL worth the loss of the NFL and NBA? E-mail Ryan at rmevans@wisc.edu.
