Viola arena no more? (IAW is back)

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#41
When you look back, the old days was very good for ice hockey sponsorship in the league with some big names - BT (Cardiff), Smirnoff (Racers), Cadbury’s Boost (Wasps), John Smiths (Panthers), Silver Spoon (Pirates), Wella (Bison), ICL (Bees) to name a few plus a league sponsored by Heineken. We had the Wembley finals on national TV plus a BBC highlights program and later coverage from Sky.

Compared to today all aspects have deteriorated! Does make you wonder why as crowds now are bigger plus there are better facilities.
 

kristian

Well-Known Member
#42
Maybe this would the perfect year to start looking at bigger sponsors. Everyone has a year off the day to day grind. Go out really sell it to them. Could be massive start to next season
 

pjj365

Well-Known Member
#43
When you look back, the old days was very good for ice hockey sponsorship in the league with some big names - BT (Cardiff), Smirnoff (Racers), Cadbury’s Boost (Wasps), John Smiths (Panthers), Silver Spoon (Pirates), Wella (Bison), ICL (Bees) to name a few plus a league sponsored by Heineken. We had the Wembley finals on national TV plus a BBC highlights program and later coverage from Sky.

Compared to today all aspects have deteriorated! Does make you wonder why as crowds now are bigger plus there are better facilities.
Go back to the old days and compare and I think the answer is one word - football.
Its growth into all sections of the media has been to the detriment of all other sports but particularly the minor sports
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#44
Go back to the old days and compare and I think the answer is one word - football.
Its growth into all sections of the media has been to the detriment of all other sports but particularly the minor sports
The EIHL need to a point a full time person to promote and sell the sport. Need to get somebody like Frank Warren on board. I think he was the bloke who transferred Darts from a stuffy pub game to an arena filling U.K. spectacle with massive prime time sky sports coverage.
 

Sliput

Active Member
#45
As long as the facility remains open l couldnt care what it was called. l get that people like to associate the rink with the club's identity but the most important thing is we have a place for home games, regardless of sponsorship. This thread title needs rewording too. l had heart failure when l saw it and thought it was closing.
I agree with this. I live in the West midlands and we have two fairly large arenas, one ln Birmingam town centre and one by Birmingham airport. They change the sponsorship that often that 90% of Brummies ( if asked) would call them N.I.A ( town) and N.E.C (airport), which were their original 'names'. I had to just goole to find what the NEC is now called
 

bozman

Active Member
#47
The EIHL need to a point a full time person to promote and sell the sport. Need to get somebody like Frank Warren on board. I think he was the bloke who transferred Darts from a stuffy pub game to an arena filling U.K. spectacle with massive prime time sky sports coverage.
it was Barry Hearn but the suggestion is a great idea
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #48
it was Barry Hearn but the suggestion is a great idea
It doesn't matter who you get in to promote the sport, it's fundamentally constrained by the availability of suitable arenas and demonstrable fan base. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of darts is that it is much like snooker in terms of venue requirements - ie just a few hundred seats and done branding. Historically the issue with darts was it's image, which was epitomised by the famous not the nine o'clock news sketch.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#49
With darts and snooker it's a cheap sport to put on, a table or board, 2 players, outlay is minimal. Lakeside Darts venue holds 1,100,The Crucible holds 980 for snooker and cheapest tickets cost from £45 for darts and for cheapest tickets for snooker from £40. Also these venues don't need constant upkeep as just set up and set down for events, ice pad is constant outgoing.
Also darts and snooker is a established British sport who had sporting icons, Alex Higgins, Bobby George, Ray Reardon, Leighton Rees, you get my drift, these sports were on prime time tv before a cardiff devil was even born.
 
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kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#50
So, we’ve already got some half decent arenas - Nottingham, Sheffield, Belfast, Cardiff and Braehead to name a few. What I was getting at is we need somebody to raise the profile of the game and get it back on prime time TV! We managed to do this in the old days on Sky. Arena wise we’re probably in the best position we ever have been in the U.K. I feel for the sport to reach another level, the EIHL board might have to take a gambol and appoint a league wise marketing team with prior experience of elevating the popularity of a certain sport. The individual teams do a decent job of local individual marketing, but that’s as far as it’s getting at the moment!
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#51
And I don't get how NFL gets such good TV coverage compared to NHL.
British ice hockey league creates bigger arena audiences than British American football pitch audiences. To me NFL is slow and boring, stop start, stop start, change the team, bring on a kicker, SHOOT ME NOW!
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #52
And I don't get how NFL gets such good TV coverage compared to NHL.
British ice hockey league creates bigger arena audiences than British American football pitch audiences. To me NFL is slow and boring, stop start, stop start, change the team, bring on a kicker, SHOOT ME NOW!
I agree. Mind you, I feel the same about rugby and that seems to be massively popular in this neck of the woods.
 

CaldicotDevil

Well-Known Member
#56
And I don't get how NFL gets such good TV coverage compared to NHL.
British ice hockey league creates bigger arena audiences than British American football pitch audiences. To me NFL is slow and boring, stop start, stop start, change the team, bring on a kicker, SHOOT ME NOW!
Think the biggest reason why it's a success on Sky is because most NFL games are played Sunday midday so they're shown 6pm roughly at night on Sky. I had Premier Sports but gave it up as I never stayed up to watch games.

In fairness to the NFL they've really pushed to grow the game in the UK but holding league matches at Wembley & White Hart Lane.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#57
But again at local UK level spectator numbers are much higher for UK hockey than UK American Football so i find it all weird that Wembley can get sold out for NFL games but on local UK pitches they may get around 100 spectators if that.
EIHL gets much higher numbers spectating with very little NHL tv coverage.
I just watched a few videos and it looks like just family and friends spectating.

Here is the pinnacle of the British American Football season "The Brit Bowl" between the two best UK teams and hardly anyone there compared to a Devils quiet game.


Don't watch all of it, i fell asleep after 10 seconds :rolleyes:
 
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CaldicotDevil

Well-Known Member
#58
But again at local UK level spectator numbers are much higher for UK hockey than UK American Football so i find it all weird that Wembley can get sold out for NFL games but on local UK pitches they may get around 100 spectators if that.
EIHL gets much higher numbers spectating with very little NHL tv coverage.
I just watched a few videos and it looks like just family and friends spectating.

Here is the pinnacle of the British American Football season "The Brit Bowl" between the two best UK teams and hardly anyone there compared to a Devils quiet game.


Don't watch all of it, i fell asleep after 10 seconds :rolleyes:
Its all a bit odd seen as locally Ice Hockeys a fair superior standard than AF. However I think the NFL sees the UK as a main market out side NA hence the investment. More people are watching AF and lot more playing the sport than ice hockey. Hopefully the NHL shows the same enthusiasm as the NFL to grow the British game.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#59
Do you think it's because its Americas biggest sport and the coverage of it started years ago with no ice hockey coverage?
I remember they only used to show the Superbowl on TV live on channel 4. Me and my mates used to have superbowl party with popcorn, hotdogs and beers and that was 34 years ago. We didn't have a clue what was going on in the game it was just the spectacle of it and the half time show, that was around the time I first went to watch the devils but had never seen an ice hockey game on TV.
Never wanted to watch BAFL, that started in 1987 but had seen American football on TV.
 
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moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #60
Its all a bit odd seen as locally Ice Hockeys a fair superior standard than AF. However I think the NFL sees the UK as a main market out side NA hence the investment. More people are watching AF and lot more playing the sport than ice hockey. Hopefully the NHL shows the same enthusiasm as the NFL to grow the British game.
But why would the NHL be interested? We're so far behind many mainland European countries that we're not even on the radar. Countries that will produce high quality prospects every year and which will buy their merchandise in huge volumes are what they care about. Hockey is an international game. AF has hardly any international footprint worldwide, do they'll take any opportunity to expand their presence.
 
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