Friday, March 02, 2007
NHL to go British Next Season
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.
Labels: ducks, Kings, marketing, NHL, season opener, ticketmaster sucks, UK
