ESPN cutting ties with the NHL

[CCI]

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.

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.

 

[sandgk]

Call us if the patient gets up of the gurney.

 

[stxbuck]

Snore.......hockey, IMO, is like soccer with fistfights and ice skating....you gotta laugh at the arrogance of a sport whose future is circling the toilet in the United States, yet the powers that be are too stupid to compromise on either side....more time for hoops in the winter.....

 

[gost8]

a sport whose future is circling the toilet in the United States, yet the powers that be are too stupid to compromise on either side....

I think that says it all about the NHL right now. While I love watching hockey, they have to realize, the longer the strike takes, the more they are destroying their own sport. I am just now starting to like baseball again after their strike. Gotta love people bitching about only making $750,000 a year. (Average NHL salary).

 

[Misanthrope]

Another nail in the NHL's coffin.

Not so long ago, I enjoyed watching Penguins hockey way more than the NBA, but I realize the NHL's place in the pecking order of American sports. Unfortunately, their leadership - management AND labor - hasn't a clue.

 

[tsteele316]

Clearly ESPN needs to free up more time to show reruns of the world series of poker and the movie "3".

 

[jimotis4heisman]

the issues is not the average player or the 5 million dollar player its the 11,12,13 million dollar guys like jagar.

for one reason or another the nhl leads all sports in attendance %

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

There have been some rumblings of a new league that will form to rival the NHL if things don't get worked out soon. I don't really care about Hockey but my brother has played the sport since he was 8 and follows it.. he keeps me updated. If they form this new league ESPN can go after them for a TV deal.

 

[scarletandgrey]

I hate what is going on in the sport of hockey. I love watching the Jacket's play during the winter. But at the same time I can't believe that they are letting the strike go on this long. I hope they do form a new league and the NHL becomes a triple-A league.
I don't blame ESPN one bit for dropping their sorry asses. I do hope that whatever happens we still get to see the Jacket's play.

 

[tibor75]

Clearly ESPN needs to free up more time to show reruns of the world series of poker and the movie "3".

Don't forget "Tilt"

 

[scUM Buster]

I hate hockey...but didn't ESPN start out basically as a hockey channel?