MRandall25 wrote:BurghersAndDogsSports wrote:Detroit became more if a issue when tv money became more important. Locally and nationally as teams are making piles of cash in their own deals and I am sure NBC was just thrilled with putting Detroit home games on at 4:30 out west and having wings away playoff games end at 1:00 am. Their advertisers probably loved that.
We need to think beyond Columbus needing rivalry help and look at the big picture.
As far as the playoffs go all teams in the NHL need an equal shot because most need them to make money. It doesn't matter in MLB, in factors teams makeover money by keeping payroll low.
If the pirates needed the playoffs like the pens do believe me the MLB leagues would have been even years ago.
Columbus is in a similar boat as Detroit, only they're rarely on NBC. Since they play a lot of games in Mountain or Pacific, their games are ending around 12 or 1.
You (general) may say "But no one cares about Columbus." That's false. YOU don't care about Columbus. Fact is, Columbus is a better local TV market than the Rangers, Devils, and Kings, if you look at the ratings. Moving them into a division with Pittsburgh and other marquee teams in the East would grow their ratings even further.
I agree with the part about Columbus, everyone seems focused on Detroit and its not just about them it's about the league and its overall revenue and deals too. NBC is probably expecting this move. Detroit and Columbus will get better ratings for away games but the national tv dealers probably think that's just as important for them too.
As far as rating remember ratings are a percentage of viewers not actual viewers. The bigger the city the lower the ratings typically because they have more variations, different demographics, overall size and quite frankly areas like NYC and LA have more African American viewers who do not watch hockey.
Not to mention advertisers love NYC and LA area because the NHL demo is white affluent males age 25-49. Huge for advertisers to pull that demo in large cities and quite frankly why the NHL still gets tv deals despite lower ratings.