december-2009

FOUR YEARS AGO, the National Hockey
League more or less dropped off the
face of national television, cast into a
sports broadcasting wilderness where
even the world’s-strongest-man contest
feared to go—which is to say, a place
without ESPN or even ESPN2. Besides
depriving hockey fans of the nightly
stylings of ESPN hockey analyst Barry
Melrose, whose egregious mullet was
revered enough to spark a series of Bud
sports
Ice Capades
Frozen out of a major television contract in 2005,
the National Hockey League has reluctantly planted its fl ag
on the internet. It could be the best thing to happen to
the sport since the Zamboni.
BY BRYANT URSTADT // ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIANO PONZI
Light ads, the NHL’s failure to negotiate
a full-time broadcast contract with the
network cost it a lot of money and a
lot of air time. NBC, in the meantime,
has been broadcasting games, but
just a handful and paying zero for the
privilege. Consequently, the NHL is a
distant sixth (if you count NASCAR and
golf) to the other major sports on the TV
landscape—deep within a black hole
from which it may never return.
CULTURE | DECEMBER 2009
It turns out this may not be such a bad
thing. Spurned by national television,
the NHL, with a surprisingly stable
base of fans rabid enough to seek out
games no matter what it takes—whether
through pirated digital streams or legit
NHL website off erings—has built a
signifi cant online presence, and one
that may give it advantages as the
major sports continue to shed their
television-based past and present, and
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