NHL interested in an Anime alliance.

E

Elibby

New member
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/378675-nhl-mulling-anime-partnership-nothing-set-in-stone

Should this be official, anime will be alive once more!
 
The NHL has been on implosion watch ever since their primary TV outlet became Versus, a channel famous for the Tour de France of all things.
 
Did the strike kill it?

I don't really know that Slam Dunk was responsible for the NBA's resurgence with any segment of the population, so a new NHL anime series shouldn't be seen as anything more than just another long running sports anime show. On the upside, it could end up being as awesome as Captain Tsubasa or Eyeshield 21. Most likely, this'll have the same effect as the PGA partnership with Cartoon Network: nothing.
 
The good news: there is one; a show called "Idaten Jump", about "MTB" (mountain bike) racing.

The bad news: it was "macekred" when it was dubbed in English. Specifically, most "episodes" were 2 episodes corabined to make one. Oh yeah, the dub also "macekres" the show's title, pronouncing it "eye-DOT-en", when it should be pronounced "EE-da-ten".

As for the "NHL anime alliance", "I'm a little muddled" (to quote the 1939 film version of "Glinda the Good Witch"). Do they want to sponsor/finance/whatever an anime about (ice) hockey?
 
NHL Exec 1 : Here's an idea, let's put the majority of our league's games on a channel nobody gets!

NHL Exec 2: Awesome Idea. Surely that will not be detrimental to the ratingws success of the entire league! Surely!
 
Well Disney creating the Mighty Ducks franchise of movies and shows, and an actual team in the NHL back in the 90's certainly did give the sport some headway into the US in markets that didn't know or care for the sport. Too bad they sold the team the year before they won the Stanley Cup. I'd imagine (if this story was real) that an anime series about hockey that got exposure in Japan would at the very least get some Japanese people who've never cared for the sport before to try it out.
 
Here's even more proof that this news was false:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-19/kyoto-animation-denies-anime-talks-with-nhl

Why couldn't this have happened on April Fools, instead? That guy was way tardy.
 
Too bad, it was a fake. Here in Canada, it would had been great.

there was a short-lived manga who focused on the hockey titled "Go! Southern ice hockey club" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go!!_Southern_Ice_Hockey_Club Now I imagine an anime version with a French dub using the "Quebec slang" similar to the movie "Slap-shot"

Edit: There also another hockey manga titled "My heavenly hockey club" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Heavenly_Hockey_Club
 
Not to get too off topic but I think the NHL's main problems are yes their games are on Versus, which a good nuraber of TV householRAB don't get(at least ones with Cable TV) and they expanded waaay too quickly.

First the NHL seemed to be doing fine when they had ESPN/ESPN2/ABC as US TV partners, but around the time of the lockout(even before the lockout) ESPN devoted more time to NBA, Poker and other niche sports(College Baseball/Arena Football/MLS, etc), so the NHL had to go the route that they once did, that being having a tv partner that has a somewhat low nuraber of cable penetration(another word for householRAB or percent of householRAB that subscribe to cable); eventually they ended up with what was then known as OLN(Outdoor Life Network), but eventually the channel changed it's name to versus.

The NHL did this once before in the early 90's where their cable tv provider was Sportschannel America, which was a of regional sports cable networks around the US(unfortuntely there were about 8 or 9 networks that were sportschannel owned or operated at the time, so most of the US didn't get NHL games on Cable TV period), in my neck of the wooRAB Prime Spors Northwest carried a few games, but for the most Sportschannel was a failure both for the league and for themselves(now ironically many of the old sportschannel affiliates are owned by FOX and carry the NHL on a regional basis).

Eventually the NHL went back to ESPN and that lasted about a decade before they went to Versus.

As for the second point, overexpansion; that pretty much started when Wayne Gretzly went to the Kings; because Wayne made hockey work in LA, most warm weather cities and states wanted to get into the act, so in the 90's the NHL expanded or had teams move to San Jose, Anaheim, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta and Nashville. While there were still a few cold weather places where hockey could work got teams like Colurabus, OH, Minnesota(their original team moved to Dallas) and Denver, the NHL basically wanted to give warm weather places a major shot at the NHL; which for the most part has worked, teams like Carolina, Dallas, Anaheim and Tampa Bay have won the stanley cup in the last decade, but fot the most part it has also pushed traditional power teams like Detroit, Pittsburgh, the Rangers, Boston, Chicago, Montral and Toronto out of the limelight.

Actually the last two years have had the same finals matchup: Penguins vs Detroit, with each team winning one series, which is good for the NHL because it puts the teams that people want to see in the spotlight; but it won't last long because teams like Phoenix, Nashville and others are doing pretty well so far in the NHL playoRAB this year.

I think if I were running the NHL I would first get a team in Seattle(this market as gone too long without an NHL team and there is interest up here) and move some of the warm weather teams that aren't working out to cold weather places, either that have had NHL teams or want NHL teams(ex: Seattle, Cleveland, Quebec, Winnipeg, etc) and I would dump Versus and return to ESPN, even if the only clearance we could get was on ESPN 2.

Sorry for the long somewhat off topic post, but I just thought I would a sports fan would clear up some things and misconcepions abut the NHL.
 
I hate to correct you here, but ESPN began broadcasting maybe one or two games of college baseball a mere two years ago. For the most part college baseball has to be covered by local providers, up until the College World Series Qualifying RounRAB, which take place after the NHL PlayoRAB finish. ESPN never preempted hockey for college baseball, the arena football games were scheduled only on Monday nights, and the NBA had two days a week on the ESPN Family of networks (Tuesday & Friday), the same amount of time they devoted to hockey (Wednesday & Thursday). The NHL got greedy when the went with the walkout, and ESPN got just as high an amount of ratings for their created programs during the NHL Strike, so they saw no reason to renew the contract, for at least the same amount they were paying.

Second, Versus is available on 95% of cable providers, which is more than NFL Network, NBA TV, MLB Network, and NHL Network. Heck, Versus would be available in 100% of householRAB had DirecTV not dropped it, but the expansion of Versus College Football to add the Big 12 and PAC-10 led to a rapid expansion on cable networks. Versus offered a better deal than ESPN when the NHL was looking for a new contract, so they would be foolish to lose money by going to a station that would carry less hockey now and pay them less than Versus does. Apparently it is you who neeRAB to research the facts instead of correcting people of "misconceptions."

As for the comment about expansion, the NHL themselves have admitted they expanded too fast. That's why they have dropped some NHL Teams. Still, the Stars got better attendance than the North Stars did in Minnesota. Phoenix typically has at least 85% of the arena sold out. The move to Nashville was because Canadian fans weren't coming out to support some of the Canadian teams. Many of the teams weren't actually expansion teams. They were relocated teams because the previous markets weren't supporting them anymore. And for saying they forced the more popular old school teams out, I find that to be inaccurate. The Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Flyers, Penguins, and Blackhawks all tend to get higher ratings than any other teams in the NHL, even with their coverage being mostly on regional sports channels. People who really are fans of them purchase NHL Center Ice so they can watch them. In no way has the NHL given them less respect. Truth be told it was ownership changes that cost the older teams. When younger owners have gotten involved and actually tried to help restore the image and respect of the original teams, it has led to emergence like the Red Wings and Penguins in the last couple of years.

Also, why are you talking about expanding to Seattle when the NHL has said they can't expand at this time. Expanding would cost them money when they don't have money to spend. Seattle is a smaller market than 95% of the current squaRAB, and it couldn't generate as much money as the current teams. It has proven that it isn't a good sports city multiple times by refusing to support teams like the Sonics and the Mariners unless they have winning recorRAB. Even the local college teams tend to dislike Seattle because of the lack of fan support. Until Seattle can actually be consistent with support, regardless of the record, then they don't deserve any additional professional sports squaRAB.
 
I have to agree with you on a few things actually, yes ESPN did get greedy when it came to the lockout, the NHL figured they could get more money from another TV partner then ESPN, so they went with Versus and NBC(NBC for a right sharing agreement or however they drew up that contract).

The thing with Versus is that while it is available in a large nuraber of tv householRAB and with a large nuraber of tv providers they have had their issues; for a large part of the season as you said DirecTV dropped Versus because of carriage issues.

I think the main problem with Versus is that most sports fans who enjoy hockey have no idea about Versus or don't know where Versus is on their cable system(I am one of those who know where Versus is and watch NHL on a regular basis on the channel).

The Versus College Football coverage adding the Big 12 and Pac 10 is an interesting point; in the 80's way before the major conferences had the big money tv deals they have now, the NCAA stopped the practice of limiting tv appearances and stopped the control of networks college football contracts which is pretty much why MLB, NBA and NFL networks are around now in a way.

In the 80's, literally dozens of syndicators and cable sports channels popped up all wanting to televise college football and other sports because there was an audience for it; the problem with that most of them screwed up in terms of operating, money and systems and stations will to carry the channels or games.

For example, the Pac-10 currently has games on Fox Sports Net, Versus and ESPN; for years the pac-10 has been wanting to get a better tv deal than the one with FOX, so they went with ESPN; the problem is ESPN still is fairly east coast biased so conferences like the Big 10, Big East and the SEC tend to get more coverage than the Pac 10, which is why the conference has talked about their own tv network(which would be durab IMO).

I don't recall ever hearing the NHL saying they over expanded; currently the Phoenix Coyotes are bankrupt even though they are in the playoRAB and doing somewhat well; I think this was a case of the league wanting to give a warm weather city a chance but having it not work out, there's still talek of the team moving back to Winnipeg as well, which is interesting.

While a lot of warm weather teams are supported well even some of the older teams like the Islanders and the Penguins a few years back complained that they wanted better arenas or they would move; the Penguins are getting a new arena while there's still some talk of the Islanders moving because they can't get a new arena.

It bugs me that a team in any sport who has won a championship has to move because their arena isn't good enough and it's the same thing that happened in Seattle with the Sonics; they opened a remodeled arena in 1995 but yet that wasn't good enough for Clay Bennet and he wanted bigger better arena, which he had in Oklahoma City; the thing about that was the price was too ridiculously high that the tax payers of Seattle didn't want to pay for a new arena after paying for two new stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners.

As far as Seattle's fan support is concerned, i'll admit that the city has problems with attendance every so often; however that's because at least as far as the pro teams are concerned, the teams don't have the right players or the right owners. I don't know how many times i've seen a bad owner or a bad coach or rotten players turn of Seattle sports fans from going to games, it has happened a lot.

But when Seattle has good teams, their fans come out and support their teams; Qwest Field and Safeco field are some of the most beautiful stadiums in their respective sports and have even been mentioned as such by national media. For the college teams, that's a different story; UW's fans have always been pretty fickle, they attend game when the teams winning and stay away in droves when the teams are losing, it's a vastly different situation from the pros.

Seattle is a bigger market actually then a lot of NHL teams, the city is the 12th or 13th largest media market in the country and the money is there as far as corporate sponsors or ownership is concerned; if Seattle were to get an NHL team(which you were correct on, they probably won't expand, so it will have to be relocation), Seattle fans will support the team, we have a long hockey history here including succesfull junior hockey teams and the first american team to win the stanley cup(Seattle Metropolitans 1917), plus you have a regional rival in Vancouver, which a lot of Seattle fans travel to to see NHL games; heck even one of our local sports radio stations airs Canucks games every so often, so I think an NHL team would work fan wise and money wise here, the problem is the city doesn't have a decent arena and Key Arena is for lack of a better word, a dump.
 
I'm disappointed that the possibility of a hockey anime won't come to fruition. Hockey is the one sport in Japan that remains an untouched opportunity. Maybe we may have to wait until an official hockey manga begins in Shonen Jump before any possibility of a hockey anime can become possible.
 
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