Whos NHL?
This might turn into a longer post, but it’s a very interesting/ frustrating issue for me.
Last year, after the NHL returned from their second strike within 11 years, they re-branded the NHL as "My NHL." I don’t know if this has to do with the huge success of MySpace, but regardless of the coincidence there, the re-branding was supposed to make the fans feel a part of the organization. The NHL was having to do anything, and everything, they could do to get "butts in seats." In some places this was working, in most it still has not made a huge comeback. Especially in the US where in most markets hockey has always been a tough draw in comparison to NBA basketball, college basketball, and on the weekends college and pro football. This year though, something crazy happened. The NHL got a cult following leading up to the All-Star game, and this cult following, really fell in line with the branding of "My NHL"… until last week that is.
Earlier this season a site called VoteForRory launched with the goal of getting a hard working NHL journeyman onto the All Star team. A modern day Rudy if you will. How could a website do this you may be wondering. Well this year the NHL decided to let the fans vote on the All Star roster online. Through an online process, more fans would be able to vote on the starting lineup of the All Star game coming up this weekend. No longer would you have to attend a game to cast your vote. This allowed more fans to feel a part of the NHL, and get more interested in the sport of hockey. So, the guys who started VoteForRory wanted to spread the word online and get people to vote for Rory. The word got out, many major news sites ran the story of this website, but I would say even more importantly the young tech male (a very tough to reach crowd for marketers) latched onto this mission. Through sites like Digg, Reddite, and many other blogs, people started to fill out ballots for Rory. He was in second place leading into the final week of voting. He had a good size lead over other much more talented players, but if the voting continued, he would be in the All Star starting lineup, and many people would feel a part of the NHL voting process.
Then the last week happened. Gary Bettman, the NHL Commissioner, decided "My NHL" meant it was His NHL. The NHL cancelled approximately 100,000 votes cast for Rory, and well, they had no real reason. Not only this, but they did so without telling anyone, and when the numbers were investigated, there were some things that didn’t add up. There were randomly 6% more votes for the Eastern Conference than the Western Conference that week. How can that be, when a ballot has to be entirely filled out to count? Well 6%, just happens to be approximately 100,000 votes during that week. Hmmmmm. Also, while Rory’s votes had been within 3-5% +/- the previous few weeks, his votes fell by a huge percentage. Did Rory’s fans just stop voting? Could be, but I strongly doubt it when the number of people voting for the conference also dropped the same week. Impossible.
So it appears by most peoples viewpoints that the NHL decided to step in and discredit the votes for Rory because he wasn’t a true All Star. Not in the superstar standard at least. He’s not a known name, or at least he wasn’t, and why would people tune in to watch Rory? Well the NHL just shot themselves in the foot by doing this. People wanted to watch Rory, he has become one of the largest names in the game for a non fan of the NHL, and the NHL had actually won some fans through the process. Not any longer. They lost the potential for hundreds of thousands of fans tuning into the All Star game, and will now continue down the path of mediocre fan numbers. Betman chose the old boys club style of thinking and therefore ruined any momentum the NHL was gathering. The potential fans, the potential young tech male viewers for sponsorship deals, and the always important buts in seats numbers.
Too bad, because I like hockey, but without a fan base you have to always wonder how long it can really last. Without it being "My NHL" I don’t see any reason to give the NHL any more of my money other than tuning in to watch an occasional game on the secondary cable channel of VS.
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