| A Tale of Two Finals
By Patryk Fournier June 13th, 2006 |
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They both have an 82-game regular season schedule, their seasons both run from fall to early summer, they both have media personalities that sport ugly suits (Craig Sager and Don Cherry) and it takes 16 playoff wins to win each championship. There’s no closer comparison for the NHL then the NBA. As similar as they may be the popularity and interest they generate is of a polar opposite variety depending on which side of the border you’re following the action from. The differences between the NHL and NBA finals are like the difference between Mother’s and Father’s Day. Both are recognized and celebrated events but definitely not to the same scale. I don’t think there’s much of a question that Mother’s Day is bigger event; it gets more advertising, generates more mainstream discussion and the gift options are clearly marked and readily available. Father’s Day on the other hand is less prominent, creates a lot of confusion amongst shoppers and is typically associated with uninteresting gift choices. In the U.S. the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals are clearly the Father’s Day event. There are no established and marketable stars in the series (Eric Staal just emerged this year); Edmonton and Carolina have no history or rivalry, and from a media market size the Stanley Cup final matchup is an uglier pairing than Sergei Samsonov with facial hair. An Edmonton – Carolina matchup is the equivalent of having a NBA finals with the Milwaukee Bucks facing the Memphis Grizzlies. The Carolina Hurricanes play out of Raleigh-Durham, N.C., the 29th-largest media market in the U.S and the Oilers play out of the NHL’s smallest media market in Edmonton. Add up all those factors together and you have a recipe for a ratings disaster. Not surprisingly the NHL’s ratings have gone down. Game 3 (the first Stanley Cup game broadcast on NBC) drew about 1.7 rating down from the 2.0 rating the 2004 Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames generated. In addition to the national TV drop the NHL saw a drop in their cable ratings partly due to the NHL’s coverage shift from ESPN, the undisputed sports leader in the U.S. to OLN, better known as the Lance Armstrong and Tour De France network. On the NBA side of things the league couldn’t ask for a better match-up. Dallas and Miami are the 7th and 17th biggest media markets in the U.S., there are plenty of recognizable and marketable stars in Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Dirk Nowitzski, and both teams are noted NBA superpowers. Ratings for the first two games of the finals are positive in the U.S.; they’re up 13 percent in comparison to last year's finals between San Antonio and Detroit. In Canada it’s a different story, the ratings for the NBA finals draw low and fall well short of matching the 3 million-plus viewers who tune into Oilers-Canes series. The NBA would certainly be a bigger story in Canada if the Mavericks weren’t there. According to a report in The Globe and Mail, the major determiner of NBA ratings spikes in Canada is the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash. For a non-Phoenix Suns matchup The Score and Sportsnet drew 50,000 viewers a game. When Nash and the Suns were on, the ratings almost tripled to about 147,000. The Game 7 second round matchup between the Suns and Clippers also produced a record NBA audience of 258,000 for the Score. When TSN broadcasted the Suns’ games they averaged 203,000 viewers – 83% above their usual numbers. So what can we conclude from all of this? The NBA is experiencing increased mainstream success in the U.S. with a smaller, dedicated basketball fan base in Canada. The NHL is thriving in Canada despite coming off a near lockout season apocalypse and has a small regionalized following in the U.S. So aren’t both leagues in essentially the same spot? They both have core markets and they both face the same challenges in trying to reach out to non-traditional markets. Well, there is also the small matter of the U.S. being a 350-million person market that’s 10 times the size of Canada but depending on who you listen to (i.e. Gary Bettman) the difference between the two league’s core fan bases (U.S. vs. Canada) is apparently as negligible as where the placement of the ‘Y” in Wade and Roloson’s first names falls.
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