sucks for u hockey fans....this is another huge blow....maybe ESPN will pick it back up tho...
Report: ESPN severs ties with NHL
May 27, 2005
TORONTO (Ticker) - The hits just keep on coming for the NHL.
According to a report on Rogers Sportsnet of Canada's website Friday, cable sports giant ESPN has declined to exercise its $60 million option to televise NHL games for the 2005-06 season.
With the 2004-05 season canceled as a result of the lack of a collective bargaining agreement and ongoing labor meetings producing little progress toward resolving the dispute in time to resume play in the fall, ESPN may be seeking to work out a new deal at a much cheaper rate, according to the report.
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An ESPN spokesman refused to confirm the report. SportsTicker is owned by ESPN.
Before their five-year, $600 million deal with the NHL expired at the end of the 2003-04 campaign, ESPN and ABC Sports reached a one-year agreement with options for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons in May 2004.
While ESPN and ESPN2 covered a plethora of games during its previous contract, the new deal called for ESPN2 to air just 40 regular-season contests. The cable sports network also held exclusive rights to the conference finals and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the 2004-05 campaign on February 16, making the NHL the first major North American sports league to have an entire season wiped out due to a labor dispute.
In March, the league officially canceled the 2005 draft, which was slated to take place in Ottawa in June.
From what I've read in other places, it's just to get a cheaper deal. They'll still show the NHL, but less games. ESPN figured out that shows like 'Can You Bowl?' and 'Battle of the Gridiron Stars' pull in better ratings in the same time slots. So yeah, both the NHL and NHLPA have fucked themselves and fans who want to see the games with this whole thing.
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Hockey will be back.
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stip wrote:
In five years, when you get laid and grow up, you should go back and read some of these posts and if you've turned into a decent person you'll realize how much of an asshole you sound like right now
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I don't get it. If the NHLPA is so unhappy, why don't they create their own governing body? Get rid of the NHL, get in a governing body that they can agree with?
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aerojad wrote:
Cal Varnsen wrote:
Hockey will be back.
Hockey will be back, the NHL is dead
5 years from now, it will be back on the air and people will have forgotten all about this mess.
member when baseball was "dead" in 1994?
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stip wrote:
In five years, when you get laid and grow up, you should go back and read some of these posts and if you've turned into a decent person you'll realize how much of an asshole you sound like right now
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:36 pm Posts: 833 Location: Detroit, MI
Cal Varnsen wrote:
aerojad wrote:
Cal Varnsen wrote:
Hockey will be back.
Hockey will be back, the NHL is dead
5 years from now, it will be back on the air and people will have forgotten all about this mess.
member when baseball was "dead" in 1994?
so people will rush back to hockey in all of those huge hockey cities like Atlanta and Columbus and the league will no longer be bleeding money all over the place?
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twoheadedboy wrote:
I don't get it. If the NHLPA is so unhappy, why don't they create their own governing body? Get rid of the NHL, get in a governing body that they can agree with?
Are they going to build their own arenas as well?
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