ADVERTISEMENT

OT: 5:30 Hockey worked?

Fk_Pitt

Lair Hall of Famer
Gold Member
Dec 3, 2007
50,895
38,295
113
This tweet is right in SMF’s wheelhouse.

People watched. Not many because it’s the NHL. But it set a record by their standards.

 
Marquee matchup. But yeah, weird a 5:30 Wednesday Afternoon start produced that.
I’d be curious how many of those 900K plus viewers were in Pittsburgh. Buffalo and Pittsburgh usually bring strong local market ratings for their teams and give boosts to the US numbers.
 
This tweet is right in SMF’s wheelhouse.

People watched. Not many because it’s the NHL. But it set a record by their standards.


I swear I'm in the wrong business. Why I'm not heading up a network right now, I don't know. The NHL has terrible ratings. They need to do more of these late afternoon/early evening starts.

- Also, the NFL should do a 5PM Monday game

- ESPN should put 5PM games on their networks. They have so much college hoops content already.

- MLB should play weekday games (oh wait, they already do and the world didnt end)

With the shift towards working from home added to the people who are already home by 5 or 5:30, I think this is something that needs to happen.
 
I love the idea of watching a hockey game over dinner and still having some time left over to do something else that night and get to bed at a reasonable time. I'm all in favor of standard 5:30 start times. It would work great for baseball as well. I love baseball, but can't really truly sit and watch a game on TV. I have to be doing something else while it is on. Baseball is the perfect sport to have on while you make, eat and clean up dinner. Sure beats watching the news. :)
 
I love the idea of watching a hockey game over dinner and still having some time left over to do something else that night and get to bed at a reasonable time. I'm all in favor of standard 5:30 start times. It would work great for baseball as well. I love baseball, but can't really truly sit and watch a game on TV. I have to be doing something else while it is on. Baseball is the perfect sport to have on while you make, eat and clean up dinner. Sure beats watching the news. :)
That’s exactly it. It’s a big reason why I fell for English soccer. League games start at 7:30am on Saturdays or Sundays and are typically over by noon. You’re literally watching live sports with a coffee in your hand instead of a beer and then you have the entire day for the important things in life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OH Pete
The thing is folks.....remember, we are still in a pandemic where many people are still working from home. So right now, with no fans in the arena, and people home, this may make more sense than when life returns to normal.

Of course it makes sense right now for the reasons you said but I think it makes a lot of sense for these leagues to have, say every team sacrifice a few thousand in attendance for 1 of 41 home games to get a highly rated 5PM game even after the pandemic. A lot of people will be home by 5 or 530. The NHL and college basketball are in a similar boat. Nobody really watches the regular season. And in primetime, there's a million other games on. I throw the NFL in there as well because they can make an absolute mint selling a 5PM Monday package
 
I like it! I actually don't care about seeing things live. Especially obscure things like hockey where there's no chance I'll hear the results. A 5:30 start, I DVRed it and started watching around 6:45, great to have control like that to fit the time to when you are ready to watch. And then can watch fast forwarding past CRAP like pregame, the anthem, commercials and breaks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HailToPitt725
I like it! I actually don't care about seeing things live. Especially obscure things like hockey where there's no chance I'll hear the results. A 5:30 start, I DVRed it and started watching around 6:45, great to have control like that to fit the time to when you are ready to watch. And then can watch fast forwarding past CRAP like pregame, the anthem, commercials and breaks.
You sound like my grandpa. Then again, he was a genius... ;)
 
The highest rated EPL match last year drew 1.01 million on NBCSN. Amazing that a foreign soccer league with no "home market bump" outdraws the NHL.
It's the "quality" vs. "local" thing. EPL fans want quality, I personally watch lesser quality MLS because I can related to the cities. And hockey will always be a niche sport, with the stuff you need to play, gear and an ICE RINK, it will never be something a large % of people will grow up playing.
 
The highest rated EPL match last year drew 1.01 million on NBCSN. Amazing that a foreign soccer league with no "home market bump" outdraws the NHL.
Here you go again with your lack of context. 1.01m on a weekend for vs. 950k on a Wednesday at 5:30 and yet you make your grandiose claims. Last year, we had a back and forth after you claimed EPL regular season games on NBC outdrew NHL playoff games on NBC. On average they do not and it isn’t even close.
 
The highest rated EPL match last year drew 1.01 million on NBCSN. Amazing that a foreign soccer league with no "home market bump" outdraws the NHL.
I wonder what game that was. I’m guessing a 12:30 eastern game because an earlier game would rule out half of the country who would still be sleeping.

In any event, both are niche sports and mostly irrelevant in this country...and I’m a fan of both and don’t care if 200K are watching or 5 million are watching along with me. I just know that personally speaking, a game between Calgary and LA is unwatchable for me, while I’ll sit and watch a match between Southampton and New Castle if there’s nothing else at the same time worth watching.
 
The thing is folks.....remember, we are still in a pandemic where many people are still working from home. So right now, with no fans in the arena, and people home, this may make more sense than when life returns to normal.

Exactly. People still working at home can log off and immediately turn on the game. A 5:30 start when people have to commute home first doesn’t really work. How about fans getting downtown for a 5:30 start? It is tight down there for a 7:30 drop.
 
I swear I'm in the wrong business. Why I'm not heading up a network right now, I don't know. The NHL has terrible ratings. They need to do more of these late afternoon/early evening starts.

- Also, the NFL should do a 5PM Monday game

- ESPN should put 5PM games on their networks. They have so much college hoops content already.

- MLB should play weekday games (oh wait, they already do and the world didnt end)

With the shift towards working from home added to the people who are already home by 5 or 5:30, I think this is something that needs to happen.
I am not so sure a 5:30 start would draw those ratings all the time. Season opener. Big Rivalry game. Something different.

But as usual you have to go off on your reactionary rant.
 
I am not so sure a 5:30 start would draw those ratings all the time. Season opener. Big Rivalry game. Something different.

But as usual you have to go off on your reactionary rant.

Not all the time but more will watch than a 7:30 game. Too much competition in prime time
 
I've always wanted earlier start times for MNF, Tuesday is a workday, it would be great if the games where always over between 10-11
 
Not all the time but more will watch than a 7:30 game. Too much competition in prime time
Competition? I guess I'm an anomaly, I am an avid DVR user, and also basically watch only MY TEAMS, so if Pitt Football is up against GS 7 of the WS, I don't even realize there's a WS. And I have my DVR set for all my favorite teams and that supersedes any and all other "competition" for viewing, I mean if my high school team was up against Alabama/tOSU I'd watch my HS.
 
- MLB should play weekday games (oh wait, they already do and the world didnt end)


The best part of your posts is when you unintentionally undermine your whole argument without ever realizing it.

I mean if afternoon sports was such a huge ratings winner, then why do MLB teams basically play weekday afternoon games only when the participating teams traveling after the game comes into play and they are essentially forced to?

Every year every MLB team plays numerous afternoon games during the season. And both the teams and the broadcast networks have access to exactly how many people watch those games. And every team, when given the choice, plays all their weekday games at night. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think the ratings for the afternoon games are great, but the teams and the networks and the advertisers are all saying, nah, we don't want more people watching the games, we want fewer?

The fact of the matter, and it is a fact no matter how fervently you believe in the ridiculous, is that night games draw far better in person attendance AND far better television ratings than weekday afternoon games do. As has been shown, over and over again, in basically every sport that finds itself on television. Only a complete and utter moron could think otherwise.
 
ADVERTISEMENT