Canadian Professional Athletes are the Nice Guys in the Industry
I was driving this morning and I heard that the Rangers and the Devils both lost in the playoffs last night. I was listening to the interviews of the players and they were so polite and gracious, it got me thinking about the Canadian athletes compared to athletes in every other country. Canadian professional athletes, for the most part, are great role models for any kid. Maybe that’s why so many parents have their children playing hockey. They are polite, will do anything for the fans and sign autographs until their hands fall off. And, they are rarely in trouble with the law. Compared to other sports, hockey has to rate as having the most behaved athletes of all sports. My guess is that it’s because most of them are Canadians. In my eight year tenure as the former Commissioner of the National Lacrosse League, I could count on one hand the problems I had to deal with when it came to the behavior of the players. It’s no coincidence that 75 percent of the players in the league were Canadians. I think it is their modest upbringing in many rural towns in Canada and they don’t forget where they came from. I am sure if you asked Gary Bettman he will tell you the same.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
UFC Overtaking Boxing
Boxing needs a Dana White, it’s that simple. I know Dana has great people around him helping him build the UFC but it starts at the top. I met Dana 5 years ago at the Sportel conference in Monaco where he was pitching worldwide television executives UFC for international distribution. He is a great salesman and sold it with passion. I don’t know how many countries carry it now, but here in the United States, this thing is huge. It has taken over boxing and I think in the next five years will rival WWE wrestling. I just did a deal with a nationwide television outlet to carry a reality show on one of their top fighters. It will be out in July. It’s going to show how these fighters live with their families and how hard they train to become a UFC champion. The ratings that it garners are rivaling all sports and the “pay for view” numbers are through the roof. Boxing better find a Dana White real soon or the sport of kings will be relegated to smaller and smaller venues and television executives will be replacing their boxing content with WWE and UFC.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
High School Sports - The Next Big Thing
I am on my way to Bristol, Connecticut to meet with eight executives from ESPN with one of my clients of the National High School Coaches Association. The NHSCA put the first high school wrestling event on ESPN. It received great ratings on ESPN360 and the ESPN brass immediately called me to set up this meeting to see if the NHSCA would be interested in putting more high school events on. I have made this trip many times trying to sell ESPN on indoor Lacrosse. We were on a few times but could never get them to buy in for a game of the week, mainly because they are loaded up with content during the NLL season. Ratings is king and if high school sports rates, it's going to get on. ESPNU has been very successful with college sports and it seems natural to highlight the next college stars so fans can follow them on ESPNU for the next four years. It seems like high school sports is the new frontier for television executives.
Monday, April 20, 2009
National Lacrosse League playoffs
The NBA and the NHL have started their playoffs this past week. One sport you will find starting their playoffs this weekend will be the National Lacrosse League. Now I must admit I am a little bias since I was the commissioner for the league for 8 years but I can tell you this you will never find a more exciting sport to watch in the playoffs then this sport of indoor lacrosse. First thing is it is not the best of 5 series its one and done. If your favorite team is having a bad night and they lose, guess what they are out of the playoffs there is no second chances and there is no tomorrow when it comes to winning the championship in the NLL. The playoffs are three rounds and its one game each round. It is set up like the NFL and that's why its so exciting. The fans in the league are so passionate sometimes I needed security to get out of the buildings because some fans would get so upset when their team lost and one bad call by the referee and it was all my fault. They live and die by every shot every goal. There is no better fan then in the NLL and if you go to a game the playoffs are a good start for a new fan. You will get hooked and next year you will be yelling at George Daniel the current commissioner when your team loses. I hope he has security!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
