Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050223
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"All of the players and coaches were available at separate tables for interviews," Clement said. "It was wonderful. I got so much stuff, I didn't have enough notebooks. It's an old concept, [used by the NFL, NBA and NCAA], but brand new to the NHL."
With former NBA executive Gary Bettman as the NHL's first-year commissioner, the league is run by people who not only know that the NHL ranks a very distant fourth among major sports leagues in this country, but folks who intend to do something about it.
The league's history is filled with operators as cold as ice. Clement said that is changing. "The NHL is playing catch-up to the '90s," said Clement, who will call Game 3 with Gary Thorne today (8:30 p.m., ESPN) from one of the two Forums where this Montreal-Los Angeles series is being played.
"I've always been so outspoken about the league, and what it lacked, but I never really stuck my neck out about it on TV. Maybe that was because I probably would have lost my job. People have suffered through the recent past with the NHL. Simply put, hockey has survived the last 15 years in spite of the NHL."
Clement said Bettman and his staff will use marketing and television hand-in-hand to enhance the NHL's image and popularity. Expansion will help, as will changing traditional conference and division names, but Clement said what the NHL must do is get more TV exposure in the U.S.
"The NHL is at milepost 1 of a marathon," said Clement, a Quebec native who skated 11 NHL seasons with Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta/Calgary from 1971-82. "Besides getting games on TV, the NHL needs a half-hour show, like the NBA has, that appeals to the MTV generation - something uptempo, something an in-line skater from California or a skateboarder from Albuquerque or a hockey kid from Minnesota will watch."
The success of the sport in new territories, including the East Coast Hockey League, sends a message to the NHL "just how viable the sport is," Clement said. "I'm sure that's just another reason why Gary Bettman is so positive about what he's doing.
"I played for the Flames in Atlanta. Hockey is back there now [with an International Hockey League franchise], but hockey didn't fail there. We averaged more than 10,000 a game. It was simply a case of an owner seeing a chance to sell a club and make a profit.
"In hockey everywhere, especially leagues like the ECHL, teams don't fail because of the sport or the game. They fail because of mismanagement. If it's marketed properly, if the owner puts some money into it, if the team is at least marginally successful on the ice, it should work.
"Teams need a nickname to hang something on, something to market, and players who love to hit, colorful guys. I'm not talking about fighting, but the inherent appeal of hockey is its speed and its aggressiveness. The fact that it's a sport that's different to people in some areas shouldn't hurt it."
Clement said the NHL's recent expansion offers examples of how to sell the sport, right down to team nicknames. "Ottawa has the Senators, and that really doesn't do much," he said. "But Tampa Bay has the Lightning, San Jose the Sharks, Miami the Panthers.
"Anaheim has the Mighty Ducks. People might laugh at that, but you know how people say, `Don't bet against Wayne Gretzky,' well, people shouldn't bet against the Disney people and their Anaheim franchise. If Disney knows anything, it's how to sell, how to market. You know Disney is going to create a young fan base with that nickname.
"Besides, they aren't the first Ducks in hockey. Remember John Brophy coaching the Long Island Ducks in the old Eastern Hockey League?"
When ESPN started its five-year, $79 million contract with the NHL this season, Clement was hired as a studio analyst. The cable network made a solid move when it moved the knowledgeable and opinionated announcer back into the arena, where he starred as an analyst for the network from 1986-88.
The league will be getting plenty of exposure from the network starting next season, after its new ESPN 2 signs on, as expected, in December. The first entree of ESPN 2 will be the NHL, with three games in prime time each week.
Clement said he'd like to see the sport further enhanced for TV. Many viewers complain about not being able to follow the puck, and Clement said there have been experiments to color the puck through TV technology, "without making it look like a Pac-Man game, and without changing the game people are watching in the arena," he said. ESPN also has added more cameras and on-ice microphones to do something else Clement said is crucial to building a hockey fan base - "bringing people as close to the ice surface as possible."
The two between-period intermissions are another subject of discussion. Clement said he would like to see 18-minute periods (down from 20) with 10-minute intermissions (down from 15), to try and make the game fit into a 2 1/2-hour time slot. That also would be attractive to rinkside fans, he said.
"The big thing is at least people are talking about these things," Clement said. "The NHL finally got its wake-up call. It's about time."
by CNB