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According to Ecklund, ESPN wants the NHL back:

A source has told me that ESPN is desperate to get back into the hockey game, and has let it known. Versus has the NHL this season and the option to re-up for another 3 years...I am being told that Versus is on the fence and the NHL may offer up a package of games to Versus, while returning the majority of the deal to ESPN next season. In essence this could give the NHL its biggest presence to date on National TV in the US. NBC for the Weekend games and finals, ESPN and ESPN2 for the majority of the season games and playoffs, and Versus (who by the way, may become a vehicle for the NHL Network in the US) will have a Game of the Week similar to the deal that TNT has in the NBA.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=8670

I hope this does comes true.

Gary Bettman has to be praying ESPN picks hockey back up. Versus was the worst thing the league could have done after the lockout.

This would definitely be a good thing for the NHL. They might as well have been on the Food Network last year.

I take that back, people actually watch that station.

ajaX82 wrote:Gary Bettman has to be praying ESPN picks hockey back up. Versus was the worst thing the league could have done after the lockout.

I actually thought this was a bad idea as well until this rumor came out. If this is indeed true, then Bettman made the right move. Here is why:

ESPN gave the NHL a crappy offer when the lockout was over so he went to Versus and got more money and told ESPN to f off. I bet everyone though ESPN would never miss the NHL.

Now that this is happening, Bettman made more money for the NHL while on Versus and since he signed that contract with Versus for the next 4 years, the NHL will still get that money instead of taking less to go on ESPN. Now ESPN wants the NHL back so not only will the NHL make more money, they will now get much more TV viewership.

I hate Bettman, but if this does happen, he made a smart move.

If ESPN does this, that will make approxiametely two things about ESPN that I like, PTI being the other

Does it really make a difference? It just means more Americans that won't be watching the NHL.

Did everyone miss the "Eklund reports" part?

Crowned wrote:Did everyone miss the "Eklund reports" part?

Haha yeah, that's exactly what I was wondering.

GQStylin wrote:Does it really make a difference? It just means more Americans that won't be watching the NHL.

I think more would watch if it was switched over and marketed better

ajaX82 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I think more would watch if it was switched over and marketed better

And ESPN would be the right station to market it. ESPN knows they can make a crap load of money off of the great, young talent the NHL has right now. Plus they know they can get it cheap off of Versus.

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/20 ... o-nhl.html

Buccigross wrote and article about the NHL possibly coming back to ESPN. ESPN quickly edited it. That link is the original article.

I find it funny that ESPN sent people the Barry Melrose bobbleheads. Maybe it's a sign that ESPN will be getting the NHL back.

I hope this does turn out to be true.

Here's something else from another site:

Earlier this summer, John Ourand and Tripp Mickle of The Sports Business Journal reported that NHL and ESPN officials were in preliminary discussions to air NHL games on ESPN2 "as soon as the 2008-09 season."

I hope this happens, it would be great for the NHL, but I don't think ESPN truely wants it back.

JurassicJake wrote:I hope this happens, it would be great for the NHL, but I don't think ESPN truely wants it back.

I hope it does happen as well. I actually can see ESPN wanting hockey back. ESPN is all about marketing. They made NASCAR what it is today. Hockey has so much potential in the marketing area. They have Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, etc.......

Too bad America doesn't care except for the few. I love hockey, but its a terrible TV sport to the average fan, while NASCAR isn't.

JurassicJake wrote:Too bad America doesn't care except for the few. I love hockey, but its a terrible TV sport to the average fan, while NASCAR isn't.

It's not a bad sport to watch on TV. It's like basketball. Both an up and down game. Hockey was more popular than basketball at one point. In 93-94, I remember a Sports Illustarted article entitled, "Why the NHL's hot and the NBA'a not."

It is possible, you just have to have an exciting game (which most hockey games now are) and the right marketing (ESPN).

JurassicJake wrote:Too bad America doesn't care except for the few. I love hockey, but its a terrible TV sport to the average fan, while NASCAR isn't.

How on Earth is NASCAR a good TV sport? It's people driving for 4 hours.

willeatfire4playoffsinmil wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



How on Earth is NASCAR a good TV sport? It's people driving for 4 hours.

You can thank ESPN for that. Before NASCAR was on ESPN, The only time I seen anything regarding it on TV was for the Daytona 500. Now, anytime a race is coming up and if it's on ESPN, you will see some promotions for it.

Yeah I never understood why people like NASCAR so much. Nothing like watching cars drive around an oval for 500 miles or whatever the length on the day is... *rolls eyes*

I hope this really happens.
Even though I hate ESPN I think the station could be the best place to watch hockey.

The only thing that could make this better is getting Gary Thorne back in the broadcast booth for the games.