Red Wings TV Ratings Down 21%

[daniel1 32]

And yet HALF are Spaniards!

That's a big difference from 10%!

I'd die for 50% North American's at this point.

That's why the late 90's Wings still worked. They had a perfect blend.

Now it's all European players.

Cleary, Stuart, Chelios, Lebda, Meech, Draper, Maltby, Osgood, Conklin... all NA born.

We do have some good NA talent coming up too; Abdelkader, Helm, Howard, Smith and McCollum that will hopefully be with us for a few years and in the case of Helm and Abdelkader hopefully a lot longer if early indications hold true. Our problem is that we draft so low due to high regular season finishes that all the primeau (no pun intended) NA talent is picked by then. Would we have found any NA players in the 7th round as good as Hank? Not a chance. So while it does help to have NA players that fans can relate to it's not always the fault of the organization if we don't have more NA than European players. Personally I don't give a rats ass where the player is from as long as he plays hard and helps us win. I "relate" to Hank just as much as I would if he were from Alberta or Michigan. Good hockey player, shows up and competes every night, loyal as hell, puts the organization first, clutch in the playoffs, never whines or complains, good teammate, hot girlfriend; who can't relate to that?

We did find a way to bring in some good NA talent through free agency though; Stuart, Cleary, and Downey were great pickups and meshed well with the group too which is VERY important to KH and Babblecock. We're very lucky that we have quality people who are also great players on this team to cheer for and I could care less what chunk of land on this ball of rock and water they were hatched on.

[lets go pavel 2]

"The regular season is meaningless, so why bother watching it" reason is about the biggest load of bulls*** I've ever heard. Basically, the people who say that are bandwagon fans. Thats a thinly veiled way of saying "If the Red Wings weren't perennial contenders, I wouldn't watch hockey at all." You aren't a real hockey fan, or a real fan of the Red Wings if all you care about is the playoffs.

Okay, but how does that make it bulls***? It seems perfectly reasonable that 21% of TV viewers could be bandwagon fans. My only problem with this argument is that usually they join the bandwagon after a Cup, not leave it ... I assume there's no precedent for this kind of thing after any of our other recent Cup wins?

Wait a minute with the European theory. Down 21% from last year? Well we have almost the same team so your argument doesn't hold.

We lost Hasek (European) and replaced him with Conklin (American)

Mac didn't come until late so he doesn't count.

He's got a point. Yes, we had Drake and Downey, but I have a hard time buying that 21% of last year's viewership ONLY watched because of Drake and Downey.

I couldn't tell you what the reason is ... there doesn't seem to be any huge difference in the team or its style of play from last year to this. Does anyone know where the 21% figure comes from?

[dat's sick 1,002]

And yet HALF are Spaniards!

That's a big difference from 10%!

I'd die for 50% North American's at this point.

That's why the late 90's Wings still worked. They had a perfect blend.

Now it's all European players.

I really wonder what you'd think if the Wings traded for a guy like Douglas Murray.

Is he too european for you, or is the fact that he doesn't have a "weird" name enough for you to accept him?

Let me guess, you didn't vote for Obama because, hey, that's not an american name.

Why are you so hung up on the amount of players from one country, and amount from another? If a guy is good why should it matter where he comes from?

Oh yeah, you can't "relate" to him. Because we swedes are so extremely different from you americans, we have completely opposing cultures, right?

Hmm.. let's see.. we take our shoes off when we enter our homes, which you don't... and we... hmm.. we don't like Baseball.. and..we give eachother presents on christmas eve instead of christmas day... and...that's about it.

Well, I can understand how you feel. Our weird and mystical customs must seem a world away from your american lifestyle.

To continue with the soccer comparison, Arsenal, the british team who is widely regarded as one of the teams that play the most attractive and fun soccer, has barely any englishmen on it's roster. A lot of the time they have complete starting 11's without any brits.

Guess what, the fans still love that team, despite them almost never winning anything. And you're complaining about a team that won the cup just last year.

All I can agree with is that our 4th line has sucked this year. Incidentally that's also the line that has had the most NA-players on it (2).

I'd love to see a guy like Downey on it, or Helm or even "Abdelkader" (what a genuinely american name that is).

But other than that the team is not broken.. the problems we have, and the declining ratings, can't be brushed off as easily as saying "too many europeans".

[Dominator2005 558]

It was revealed on WXYT The Ticket last night that the TV ratings for Red Wings games are down 21%.

What is the cause?

It can't be the economy as TV is essentially free.

It can't be the Teams lack of success?

They asked listeners to call in and give reasons why.

The resounding response was this:

- Not enough fighting or lack of fighters on the team.

- Too many Europeans

- Nobody to relate to

- Regular season is meaningless so why bother watching until the playoffs.

By far and away the top response was there wasn't a tough guy on the team.

I called in and said it's because the team has too many Europeans. This was shot down by the gentleman who was running the Wings pre-game show saying that players like Fedorov were very popular.

I wish I hadn't been hung up on before I could present my rebuttal. Yes the fans loved Fedorov, Larionov and the other Russians, but they still possessed so many North American stars to help offset the heavy European influence. At that time, we still had Shanahan, Lapointe, a prime Drapes, Maltby and McCarty and of course Yzerman.

All of those players are either gone, or a shell of what they once were. Now we have Kopecky, Samuelsson, Lielja and Filpulla. I'm not trying to insult those players, but fans can't jump on their bandwagon as easily.

I have no doubt that if the Wings were to swap rosters with Boston, the Joe would never have an empty seat and Illitch could go back to gouging fans for nose bleeds. And TV ratings would be through the roof. That team has a tremendous blend of speed, power, toughness, skill and a healthy balance of top North American and European talents. Not only that, but you have tough customers like Zdeno Chara, Scott Thornton and Milan Lucic.

I love the Wings. I always have. But I admit that I don't watch nearly as many games as I once did. I used to tape games for crying out loud. But lately, I find myself watching other teams on my Centre Ice Package. There's nobody on the Wings I can relate to like I could with Yzerman. I know I might be in the minority in my belief of the dip in TV ratings, but I truly believe that if the team were to swap out 4 top Europeans for 4 top North Americans, while adding some middleweights and a top heavyweight, the Joe would be rocking and more couch potatoes would tune in.

The economy was always brought up as an excuse for the lack of bodies at Joe Louis arena (an argument I never bought - The Tigers, Lions, Pistons and college teams never saw a dip in their attendance) .

But that argument can't be used for the lack of TV viewership. The only reason for that is fans simply care less for the current Red Wing squad. And it's not for lack of success.

It also wouldn't hurt if the Wings players themselves were made more accessible to fans. Tigerfest helps fans reach out to their baseball heroes and connect with the team. Why are the Wings sheltered in their high tower? Are they too good for the people that pay their salaries? A handshake or autograph goes a long way to establishing a fan base that becomes emotionally attached to their team. The evidence of declining TV ratings and need to reduce ticket prices just to fill the Joe makes me believe that there is far less attachment to the current group of Winged Wheelers.

Just my $.02.

Flame away or add your thoughts please. I'd love to hear what some LGWers have to say regardless if it's in agreement or staunch disagreement.

Cheers!

I agree with you on first one - Look at Bruins this season, they are playing great. Thornton is having a nice, really nice season. Why we can't have a guy like him on our 4th line?

I have to disagree with you one 2nd - We have a lot of similar players (with similar style) and yes - sometimes we are boring to watch. We don't have character players, hard hitting forwards or even def. Kronwall isn't hitting like last year... We NEED 4th line (energy line) Maltby and Draper aren't doing their job and we should go in another direction. There is a lot of physical Euro's in NHL - we don't have any physical player on this roster.

[Barrie 900]

I'll be the first to admit my interest in the team was at it's peak from 1996-2006, when Yzerman and Shanahan were playing together. Also with 82 games, 16 teams making the playoffs, and knowing we'll be in the top 3 in the Conference every year, sometimes the Regular Season can be a little

I would think the biggest reason ratings are down is that there's no Yzerman.

[kylee 727]

i am the type of fan that doesn't care whether the Red Wings have a team full of Canadians or team full of Swedes, im not Don Cherry (although i respect and like him). I consider myself a big time fan of hockey and the NHL. i care about the Red Wings being WINNERS, not north americans, although i do enjoy the scraps in the game and the hard hitting from primarily north american players, when it all comes down to it; the only thing i care about is seeing a winning team. ill watch every game i can. Canadian or not.

[Jwo 7]

It was revealed on WXYT The Ticket last night that the TV ratings for Red Wings games are down 21%.

What is the cause?

It can't be the economy as TV is essentially free.

$50/month is not free and a lot of Metro Detroiters have canceled cable because they can't afford it anymore. No Cable = No Red Wings games.

[ShanahanMan 473]

National sports are completely subjective. If a Mexican was living in the US, is his national sport soccer or football? If a Canadian is living in Mexico, is his national sport soccer or hockey? To make it even more convoluted, if a Canadian family raised their kids in America should the child's national sport differ from the parents'? Should they adopt hockey, football, baseball? Does it go by whatever country you're living in?

I know some of you think I'm going off with this, but my main point is that its allllllllll subjective. People who are saying that hockey is THEIR country's sport or football is America's sport really need to get their heads out of their ass. Sports don't belong to any one country, no matter WHAT country started it. So f***in what if your country invented it.......It's out there to be enjoyed by the world, and no single country has "dibs" on it. Now then, we can go by POPULARITY if you wanna make statistical observations. In that case, then yes, Football is number 1 in America, Hockey is number 1 in Canada and so on. That all makes more sense. But to claim this and that over origins, heritage, and all that other bulls*** is utterly retarded.

As for the low ratings. First off, don't think its the economy. Don't get me wrong......its complete s***. But as I've said in NUMEROUS other threads, Pistons and Tigers ratings were and are still doing fine. In fact, Pistons almost consistently sell out every game and are number 3 in the league in sellouts. Same goes for TV....viewership has not dropped. Hell, it even took 6 or 7 games into the Lions' season before people really started tuning out. So, no, don't think its the economy. Another argument is, not enough North American players. To that I say, I think you guys are giving the average Wing fan way too much credit. By that I mean I don't believe they think that deep over where players come from. Fans like good, fun, hockey players. Hell, I don't think most fans give a s*** if a player was an eskimo from Antartica or a communist supporter from Cuba. If they got the skills and ability on the ice, I think most of us would tune in to watch him. So, that argument is out. What do I think it is? As others have said in the thread, I think its simply a case of "Fair-Weatherism". We've become unbelievably spoiled by this hockey team that the regular season has essentially become the new PRE-season. I see it on the forums too. GMT's average I'd say around 600 posts or so for regular season games and at LEAST in the high one thousands for play off games. More and more fans these days are just tuning out. Also, nothing new or exciting has happened with this team in a while. Yes, they win cups.....but they still play in the the same old building (which I actually love) for the same old unjustified high prices with the same old lame promos. Its nothing people haven't already seen in 97,98, 2002, and 2008. I guarantee you, if this team didn't make the playoffs one year, the following one would be VERY interesting to say the least.

And to all you fair-weather guys out there.........watch some damn hockey! regular season or not!

Edited January 30, 2009 by ShanahanMan

[Guest E_S_A_D]

- Not enough fighting or lack of fighters on the team.

- Too many Europeans

- Nobody to relate to

- Regular season is meaningless so why bother watching until the playoffs.

By far and away the top response was there wasn't a tough guy on the team.

This is 100% Accurate.

[Holmstrom96 347]

I think the big issue is:

- NHL's removal of physical aspects from the game

- Red Wings' total lack of a physical presence

Also, I found low-scoring games more exciting, as it made goals more special. But now that the NHL has done everything that they can do to increase scoring short of making the nets bigger all these 5 to 6 games get old. "HE SCORES! But who cares, cause this happens a lot!"

Next thing we know we just won't have goalies and it will be like basketball on ice.

[Electrophile 3,554]

I don't give a rat's ass if there are 25 Americans on the team or no Americans on the team. I don't feel like my hockey-watching experience is cheapened if none of the guys are from my neck of the woods. I also don't feel like I have problems relating to them.....they're highly-paid athletes who live hundreds of miles from me. I don't relate to any of them, no matter what part of the Earth they come from.

If you can't watch the team anymore because there are too many guys who have umlauts in their names, something is seriously wrong with you.

[Dominator2005 558]

our softest player is Lebda... and he's american...

[kylee 727]

If you can't watch the team anymore because there are too many guys who have umlauts in their names, something is seriously wrong with you.

here here!

i especially do not understand why any Red Wings fan would have a problem with a team loaded with Europeans. Ever since the Wings have been winning Cups and playing as a real contender, there has always been a large amount of Europeans on the team.

do the rest of us Wings fans want to have the new nhl version of Bob Probert on their team and have a loser like the Wings did? it doesnt make any sense to me. Sure, i love a hard hitting intense game myself, but it's not priority #1 as a fan. Yet at the same time i would love to see the Red Wings play an all around more physical game

[therock48880 14]

The answer to the drop in ratings is pretty simple. Look who the fans voted as player of the game last night via text messaging, Aaron Downey. There is simply not enough physicality on that team. Did you guys notice that Kopecky picked up his physical play last night? Would that have happend if Downey wasn't there? I doubt it. Detroit is a blue collar city and we are watching white collar hockey. I'm not just talking about fights either. There were no fights last night but in the second period the fans were as energetic as they've been all year long. Last year in the playoffs, the Wings were extremely physical. Where are those bone-crunching hits from Kronwall that energized the team and the fans last year? As I was watching the game last night swearing at Ott, I realized how much I'd love it if he was on the Wings. That's the type of element that this team is missing.

Having said all of that, we still have the defending Stanley Cup champions and they have a great record this year. Hopefully as the regular season nears its end, the energy level and physicality of the team will match what they had last year.

[Jwo 7]

This is 100% Accurate.

People are not buying houses in America because the construction workers don't have a heavy American presence. They can't relate to the migrant worker so they refuse to buy a house that was built from them.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Jwo

[A.T.Hun 0]

Judging from this thread, the Zetterberg signing must be everybody's personal Hell.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Here's the 21%:

Their motto:

"Keep those ankles taped!"

[clutchngrab 12]

I can't speak for others, but I can say why I have issues with hockey in general and the red wings in particular.

1. The officiating is horrible, inconsistent and just plain stupid. The worse of any major sport. If I wasn't a wings fan, I would watch 0 regular season hockey.

2. This season we have uninspired players so far. Our top players - Hossa, Datsyuk in particular have been special and worth watching, but everyone else has been less than they are capable of. On paper, this team should be one of the best wings team of all time, but they aren't performing.

3. Complacency - both from fans and from management. I would be a lot more interested if some of the GR kids were playing in lieu of our 4th line and some of our defense.

4. No hitting. I'm OK with fighting, but what I really miss is physicality in the team. Nobody throws their weight around. Where's Kronner? Maltby? Stuart?

[VM1138 1,921]

Never understood why people don't like Europeans. A non-hockey fan would have as much trouble pronouncing Yzerman as they would a Markov or an Ovechkin or a Zetterberg.

I hate that they use this excuse. I can't find any basis in fact for this other than people talking about it over and over. To not like someone because of their name is ridiculous. Look at every other sport. Half of those names I can't pronounce but I still know who they are.

I can understand the lack of toughness, but I would imagine watching a team out-skill an opponent would be juts as much fun to watch. Althoguh I do get annoyed at how may times scrums are broken up before anything could get going. I'm not one of the Enforcer guys around here, but it wouldn't hurt for the league to allow players to fight once in a while, even if they're not designated thugs. They don't have to be massive, hall of fame fighters or fights. But to show enough passion to take a swing, even if it's a bad one, brings intensity.

[clutchngrab 12]

I happen to think it is pretty cool that Hockey is an international sport and that teams are usually represented by multiple countries.

I don't get the "I can relate to Ryan Getzlaf's millions of doallars and lifestyle because he is North American, but not Pave Datsyuk because he is native Russian" argument. That's a load of bulls*** if I ever heard it.

Besides, they all say the same stupid s*** in sports interviews anyway - just with or without an accent.

[VM1138 1,921]

$50/month is not free and a lot of Metro Detroiters have canceled cable because they can't afford it anymore. No Cable = No Red Wings games.

I would imagine this would have something to do with it. We always ask these questions, maybe someone should find out exactly what demographic watches the Wings and if that demographic is being affected by loss of cable or perhaps going out to bars to watch games more often than sitting at home (thus reducing viewership?)

[aflac9262 211]

It's a shame to hear that the ratings are down 21%. I sort of wonder if the presidential election had anything to do with it. People were probably tuning into news channels more often to get their daily brain food from networks like CNN, MSNBC, or Faux News.

[esteef 2,679]

It's a shame to hear that the ratings are down 21%. I sort of wonder if the presidential election had anything to do with it. People were probably tuning into news channels more often to get their daily brain food from networks like CNN, MSNBC, or Faux News.

What's up aflac!!!! The GDT Master!

:beerbuddy:

esteef

[Statts 4]

What's up aflac!!!! The GDT Master!

:beerbuddy:

esteef

You seem to have some brown stuff on your nose there buddy

[Zion 93]

I hate CNN, but Fox News is just bad.