NBA vs. NHL

I have often said that the NBA is a paper tiger as far as popularity and particularly media coverage is concerned. When was the last time you actually paid money out of your own pocket to attend a basketball game? Do you know anybody that in recent years has similarly paid money out of their own pocket to attend a basketball game? Certainly not for a regular season game. Maybe...maybe, a playoff game.

The result of this disproportionate media coverage of the NBA is that the NHL gets incredibly short shrift, as it competes against pro basketball during the regular season and especially in playoff time . (Though the fact that the Stanley Cup playoffs didn't start till June 1st is an NHL travesty.)

The discrepancy is noticeable in newspapers - note the sports page front of the NBA playoff results and the buried coverage of the NHL playoffs, but is most obvious when it comes to the "world wide leader."

Rich Hoffman takes aim at the issue and hits several targets squarely.

ESPN was going to spend a goodly portion of the hourlong show pumping up the start of the NBA Finals, which were to be aired on its corporate sister, ABC, was entirely understandable. ESPN, long ago, acknowledged that its news shows were a promotional vehicle as well as a journalistic enterprise.

Hoffman also highlights some surprising facts:

If you look at the four major leagues, look at them in terms of annual revenue generated, you get this kind of a rough breakdown:
NFL, $9 billion.
MLB, $7 billion.
NBA, $4 billion.
NHL, $3 billion.

Wow, the NBA is only $1 billion ahead of the NHL. Again, given the imbalance in media coverage you would assume the NBA is a much bigger, more popular sport. But it's not.

And then there's this:

But in there somewhere is the notion that the NHL seems more interested in serving its current customers in 2011, more interested in growing revenues by enhancing the experience for people who already love the game - because it already has the most affluent fan base among the four sports...In the meantime, though, it has to settle for pockets of strength, like Philadelphia (where the Flyers on CSN averaged a 2.4 rating this past season while the resurgent Sixers averaged only a 1.6).

Hockey is getting by and doing just fine. Can the same be said for basketball. Sadly, ESPN won't answer the question...or even ask it.