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April 9, 2007
Andrew Thomson
The Ottawa Citizen
Hockey Night in Canada, an institution north of the border, belongs on U.S. network TV every Saturday night, say a vast majority of diehard followers surveyed by a fans' association in a poll to be released today.
That idea was far more popular than airing two versions of a hockey broadcast -- an uncensored one for "real" fans, and a sanitized show for those uneasy with fighting and checking.
A ban on fighting also got the cold shoulder in the National Hockey League Fans' Association annual report.
The report, released this morning, attracted 2,800 Internet responses from across Canada and the U.S., mostly from association members.
About 62 per cent of respondents were American. The rest were from Canada, said fan association president Jim Boone.
"You have to remember that you're talking to people who are already converted as fans and in love with the sport," he said last night from his Ottawa home.
With 48 per cent of Americans calling their TV coverage of the NHL "poor," maybe it's no surprise that 86 per cent of all respondents want the league and CBC to air Hockey Night in Canada on a U.S. network. Just five per cent were fully opposed to Don Cherry and the Satellite Hot Stove competing against college football, Law & Order, and COPS.
Only those Americans living in border communities or with satellite TV packages can access Hockey Night and other Canadian broadcasts. But Mr. Boone said there's no easier way for the NHL to boost its struggling profile stateside.
"When I look at the stuff that's on American television there's no comparison," he said. "American fans try to book their travels (in Canada) to include a Saturday night, just so they can catch it."
The 55-year-old program would "spread like wildfire" with its reputation as the northern equivalent of Monday Night Football, Mr. Boone said.
"Why fight the fact that hockey originates in Canada?" he asked. "I think everybody realizes that it's from Canada. NASCAR fans know (that sport) comes from a certain part of the United States, and they don't fight it -- they acknowledge it."
Fifty-two per cent of Canadian respondents thought our TV coverage of the sport was "excellent"; another 37 per cent deemed it "good."
Less popular among members of the fan association was the concept of two separate broadcasts for NHL games. One would shun fights, violent acts, and arguments. The other would be an R-rated, Ultimate Fighting-type affair featuring aggressive announcers and on-ice microphones to capture the sport's raw emotions.
Eighty-one per cent of respondents were opposed, but Mr. Boone, who conceived the question, thinks the results would be different with less devoted hockey fans.
"I think the NHL could really cash in that way," he said.
That lukewarm response doesn't mean fan association members are against fighting. A rash of serious injuries this season made the future of fisticuffs a hot topic within league and media circles. But the poll results resoundingly support its survival:
- A full ban on fighting was opposed by 91 per cent.
- Only 11 per cent want the NHL to take active steps toward reducing the number of fights during games.
- 70 per cent would oppose efforts to extinguish "designated fighters" on each team.
- 83 per cent disagreed that fighting impeded hockey's growth in the U.S.
"Year after year, the question that comes back with the most consensus is fighting," Mr. Boone said. "Everybody wants fighting."
A National Hockey League Fans' Association/Decima Research poll conducted last season found support for fighting was about 10- to 15-per-cent lower among casual Canadian fans than diehard supporters, he said.
The fan association, founded in 1998 by Mr. Boone and fellow Ottawa fan Jim Spendlove, has about 29,500 members across North America. Forty-two per cent are in Canada.
"The whole reason we started this association is that the NHL had spent so many years not really taking the opinion of fans into account," Mr. Boone said.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
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