madmonte Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 With tens of thousands of disillusioned fans falling out of love with the NHL this season, how should TFC, Montreal and Vancouver market their product to take advantage of that? You don't want to profit off of another's loss, ideally, but for those of us that love football and want to see improvement in Canada...could we not look at this as a HUGE opportunity to try and convert at least a few hockey fans? I have friends that have started watching NFL, and a few amount that started watching NBA. The complaint of these people with soccer is that it's soft and people dive for nothing. Yeah, like they don't in hockey, right? Maybe the campaign should show players injured and bloody, make them out to be warriors somehow. But it would be a HUGE wasted opportunity, if the NHL loses this season completely, and they don't find some campaign to gain viewership. Watch, by tomorrow they'll have announced the start of the season and this thread will be obsolete, but for now, do you guys see the same opportunity here that I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigi riva Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 The first thing that has to happen is that all three teams got to have great starts to the season In the case of Montreal and Vancouver they are going to be the only game in town until the CFL starts up I see some good news there. I am sure Vancouver will have big crowds at there home games through out the course of the season Hopefully Montreal can have huge season and Pack in the Saputo with large numbers. Toronto is in funny situation they will have compete with the Jays who we all know should have a decent Ball team this year But if TFC have a decent season I cAN SEE THE bmo ROCKING like it did in 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.notenboom Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Apologies to hockey fans, but it is starting to look more likely that a deal will get done and that disappoints me. If there was no deal and the NHL season was cancelled, think of all those empty TV minutes in May and June that usually have hockey playoffs on them but would likely get filled up by MLS (among other things of course). I think that would bring over a few converts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I really don't buy this lockout argument. I remember people back in 2005 making similar arguments that x sport would do better in lieu of hockey. For me I just think that Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver putting together a quality season regardless of the circumstances will get people in the respective cities more excited. I mean just look at what happened to attendances at Saputo last season after Montreal started winning (also coincided with some clever ticket packaging deals, but I think had more to do with the results). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 Sam what you say may be true, but x sports never took advantage of the opportunity. I'm not really seeing soccer jumping to the plate to claw ahead either. But yeah alluding to what Rob said, getting more quality television time would definitely be a start. Then coming up with the proper ads another start. I think it's a mistake to claw along doing things exactly the same and just saying x sport will get more fans...because yeah, if you do that, it just won't happen. Take the bull by the horns a bit and convince them to stop watching hockey prima donnas (lol and start watching soccer prima donnas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finchster Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Sam what you say may be true, but x sports never took advantage of the opportunity. I'm not really seeing soccer jumping to the plate to claw ahead either. But yeah alluding to what Rob said, getting more quality television time would definitely be a start. Then coming up with the proper ads another start. I think it's a mistake to claw along doing things exactly the same and just saying x sport will get more fans...because yeah, if you do that, it just won't happen. Take the bull by the horns a bit and convince them to stop watching hockey prima donnas (lol and start watching soccer prima donnas). What about the CFL? It saw an increase in revenues, attendance and TV viewership during the first lockout, of course, the biggest change to the CFL fortunes was getting TSN and RDS behind it. With MLS games on TSN and RDS I don't think a lockout will help, with TSN behind it, soccer will become more popular in Canada. I think a lock out will HURT the MLS clubs in Canada this year, the NHL playoffs will last until late June early July and if Vancouver(choke artists), Toronto (snicker), or Montreal (f*ck the Habs) are in the playoffs this will take away the casual sports fan interest away from these clubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 Part of the hope is that, although a majority of the loyal fans returned after the first lockout, they are fed up of the NHL this time and don't return right away. If a different sport could catch their loyalty in the meantime type of thing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.notenboom Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 What about the CFL? It saw an increase in revenues, attendance and TV viewership during the first lockout, of course, the biggest change to the CFL fortunes was getting TSN and RDS behind it. With MLS games on TSN and RDS I don't think a lockout will help, with TSN behind it, soccer will become more popular in Canada. I think a lock out will HURT the MLS clubs in Canada this year, the NHL playoffs will last until late June early July and if Vancouver(choke artists), Toronto (snicker), or Montreal (f*ck the Habs) are in the playoffs this will take away the casual sports fan interest away from these clubs. +1 TSN getting behind the CFL was a huge boost. When they get behind something they seem to be able to make it work. Not only is the CFL evidence of this (the turn around cannot be laid completely at TSN's feet, but they made a very significant contribution to the league's emergence from the dark days) but also there are the high ratings of curling and TSN's takeover of it several years ago from CBC. In several reports I've seen the CFL draws larger TV audiences than the NHL (hard to believe but I've seen too many stats now to doubt it) and that certainly wasn't the case in 1995. Although I very much appreciate Sportsnet for the commitment they have shown to the sport lately, I couldn't help to be a little excited when TSN got into the MLS mix in a more serious way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 Posted yesterday. Watch, by tomorrow they'll have announced the start of the season and this thread will be obsolete, but for now, do you guys see the same opportunity here that I do? Lockout ended today. Hm. (Goes into ROBERT mode) They must have been watching this site for my posts, and realized that if they didn't end the lockout right away, the MLS teams would follow my idea and steal their viewership. Hey guys! I directly influenced the NHL lockout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcoatsforever Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Posted yesterday. Lockout ended today. Hm. (Goes into ROBERT mode) They must have been watching this site for my posts, and realized that if they didn't end the lockout right away, the MLS teams would follow my idea and steal their viewership. Hey guys! I directly influenced the NHL lockout! Are you Mont Vic? Get your robots out of my brain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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