Friday, March 02, 2007

 

NHL to go British Next Season

by Jes

O2 Arena



The NHL has scheduled the Anaheim Ducks (Bangers) and Los Angeles Kings (Mash) to play their home openers in rainy London, England next season.

Why England? Probably $$$. British Pounds are worth quite a mint and the British hooligans ought to love a good NHL scrap or two. I'm sure they'll get better fan support than they do in LA, anyway.

From the NHL department of marketing propaganda:

The National Hockey League, in cooperation with the Anschutz Entertainment Group, announced today the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings will open the 2007-08 NHL regular season in London, England at Europe's most state-of-the art entertainment venue, the O2 Arena.

"Our commitment to grow the game globally has never been stronger," said NHL Deputy Commissioner, Bill Daly. "The NHL is extremely proud to be represented in London by two great hockey organizations in the Ducks and Kings as well as to be recording NHL history at such a fantastic facility in the 02."

How about growing the game in the USA? *rolleyes*

If you want to go to the PREMIERE game, you better have a truckload of cash. Tickets range from 25-65 British Pounds (About USD $50-130).

You know, I thought Ticketmaster gouged us Canadians well enough, but going through the Ticketmaster site on the O2 website, the service charge is 7.75 pounds (15 bucks!!). WTF??? *growl*... We really need to punish these assholes somehow.

I know I used to correspond with a few fans from the UK. I wonder if they'll make the trek to see the game and fork over a small fortune to watch Burke's boys run over the Kings.

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Comments:
How about growing the game in the USA? *rolleyes*

You know, I was thinking about this a little bit also.

For a SoCal market that does not generate automatic sell-outs, how wise is it really to take two instances where sell-outs are easily achieved and push them overseas? Why not instead pick the Blues and the Blackhawks, for example, matchups that have trouble drawing crowds?

It makes little sense to me to take a rivalry that works away from the SoCal crowds; oh wait, it's the NHL. Makes perfect sense.
 
Good point, Sleek.

Another point is the travel. The West Coast teams already get the shaft as it is, but now the 2 teams have to travel half-way around the world to start their season and then fly back. You know this is going to take a toll. The best move would have been two Eastern teams, like the Bruins and Devils (who barely draw flies).
 
The parent company of the Kings, AEG, owns the O2. That's why the Kings are involved.
 
I was going to go to one of the games until I saw it was going to be at least 45 quid for a lower tier seat. I'm not sure I buy into the theory about growing the game globally, because I can't see the games getting a lot of publicity over here when they happen. On top of that, who is actually going to fork out a small fortune to see them? Not me.

Sadly we're used to daylight robbery when we go to sports games; Only cricket is value for money.
 
Pfft, this event is going to be pushed under the bed the moment it's over. I know it's awfully sweet of them to bring two great teams overseas to Europe for their hungry and deprived fans to see but what about afterwards? Will it be a "thanks for watching!" sign and they'll just piss off? I'd like to see them actually put more thought into a long term effect.
 
I don't think it is ridiculously overpriced - has anyone been to a football (soccer) game in the UK recently?

How about comparing with the NFL game that is coming over though?

For that over 500,000 people registered just to get a shot at the ballot for tickets. For the NHL game, I logged onto ticketmaster and picked a couple of tickets up a couple of days after they went on sale no problem whatsoever.

From what I have seen in the media here in the UK it hasn't registered a jot on the radar and I don't expect it to. The NFL game will have enough of a job getting media interest so god help this game with these two teams.

Maybe they'll roll Beckham out for some publicity...
 
Some of my English relatives are planning to try get tickets (one absolutely LOVED hockey when he visited Vancouver a few years back, and others want to see what the fuss is all about).

However, I can`t imagine that many people who don`t have any US/Canadian connections getting excited about hockey... Even if they like the game, how will they get to see more? Yes, you can pay for a very expensive sports channel that will have it, but the games would be on at 3 in the morning... *yawn*
 
If any of you people had a passion for the sport of hockey then you would stop moaning!!! Oh my god if people in the UK and the rest of the world enjoy the sport then they will go to the game because it will be an amazing experience and £45 really is not a lot of money to see an nhl game in the UK. And aurian you really are an absolute retard!!! You annoy me so much and are just ignorant! Have you ever heard of a VCR or a DVR or a DVD-R? You utter retard people will simply record the game then watch it the next day or whenever they want! If they really want to see the game then they will bloody stay up to watch it! In the UK people stay out at nightclubs till 3:00 sometimes then go home and stay up for even longer so why not stay up till that time to watch an NHL game! Arghhhhhhh!!! You annoy me so much! And also, the Ducks are one of the best teams in the league and the Kings are their rival so it will attract lots of customers and people worldwide to go to the game! That is why those teams were chosen. OH MY GOD!! You guys talking on here and complaining are really annoying me and if you had thought it through in the first place you would of realised all of these things yourself but instead you were ignorant and thought you were better than everyone else by saying your stpid comments which are not true and not proven! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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