|
As the NHL remains marginalized in a busy U.S. sports marketplace, the Ultimate Fighting Championship experiences million-dollar payper-view fights, sold-out arenas for live bouts and swelling Spike TV ratings for its Ultimate Fighter show, especially for that coveted male 18-to-34 demographic.
The NHL, meantime, is walking a fi ne line when it comes to dealing with what one sports marketer called "the elephant in the room." Publicly, the NHL acknowledges fighting's existence, but points to league research that indicates fans are ambivalent on the subject. There are no fighting highlights on nhl.com. It's difficult to find official fighting stats. On the flip side, league marketers no doubt welcomed the buzz created by the Feb. 22 Ottawa-Buffalo brawl.
"It's that old P.T. Barnum thing, all publicity is good publicity," said Simon Wardle, vice-president of research for Octagon Worldwide, a sports and entertainment marketing firm.
Wardle believes the NHL shouldn't market hockey fights, pointing instead to factors such as team devotion as the emotional connection that primarily drives fans to the NHL. While NASCAR viewers are stereotyped as crashhappy rubes, Wardle noted that they're not the ones driving that entity's growth.
"When you talk to the NASCAR fan, those who spend five hours on a Sunday afternoon watching the entire race, they are invested in the sport and the teams," he said. "They have a strong affinity with the drivers. They go to the race to see what happens with these characters, this magnificent, mass soap opera that NASCAR has generated."
And that's the rub for the NHL when deciding whether or not to market fisticuffs. "People who watch football, hockey and UFC are watching those sports at some level for a lot of the same reasons," said Bill Bergofin, senior vice-president of marketing for the NHL's TV partner, Versus.
"But hockey isn't boxing. People aren't watching hockey necessarily for the fights, but they are for the physicality of it."
Said Rick Dudley, president and CEO of Octagon Sports Marketing and the former head of NHL Enterprises: "I believe with a mainstream sport that's trying to appeal to a broad cross-section of the population, if you focus on (fighting) you will limit the growth potential of the game, long-term." But recent numbers reveal the NHL has to do something more. Versus reported the same miniscule 0.2 household rating through 47 telecasts this season compared to roughly the same number of games last year. A partnership with Internet monster YouTube announced last fall, paving the way for NHL highlights and other online content, plus the growth of fight-related websites such as hockeyfights.com and broadstreetbully.com are all indications the NHL is fine with others getting their hands dirty and promoting fighting.
On the broadcasting side, Sportsnet (on Canadian cable) is now skewing its sportscasts towards younger males, including 'Fight of the Night' highlights, most of which involve the NHL. Some in the UFC say they've been successful marketing to youth who have become desensitized to fighting.
"There is something there," said Jeff Marek, host of the Leafs Lunch radio talk show in Toronto. "I'm not saying to go the pay-per-view, hockey gladiator route, but at least a spontaneous hockey fi ght has some context to it and it's interesting. This is show business. (After the Ottawa and Buffalo brawl) it was more like, 'Did you see (Ray) Emery go at (Martin) Biron, then take on (Andrew) Peters? They're playing again Saturday night, and you know what? I'm going.' "The NHL can't have it both ways. Take fighting out of the game, or accept the fact fighting is part of the game and make money off it. Or at least passively market it. Why not slide one of the better fights into their highlights?"
CHOOSING A SIDE
Many agree the league needs to turn up the dial when it comes to hitting and passion if it is going to gain any marketing ground in the U.S. But that doesn't necessarily mean fighting.
"You need to inject color and drama into (the NHL)," said Bob Stellick, president of Stellick Marketing and Communications. "But you can't be Meathead Boulevard.
"I think the problem with fi ghting is that it became more about Sideshow Bob, guys who couldn't play at all. Over the past decade you could have put a ring in the dressing room and had them fi ght during the intermission and it would have had the same impact on the game. Scott Stevens was interesting to watch because you had to keep your head up all the time, not because he was fighting all the time."
| 
