Where's Mark Cuban?

As far as the game itself goes, scoring was up almost a goal a game.

This year's Hart Trophy winner, Joe Thornton, had more assists (96) than the last winner had points (Martin St. Louis had 94 in 2003-04). The referees have continued to call the game by the book and the likes of Thornton, Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Cheechoo and Brian Gionta have benefited. 

If you've sat in the stands for one NHL game this year, you know that the faster flow of the game due to rule changes makes it much more enjoyable. After a global winter caused by the lockout, all is well in Commissioner Gary Bettman's kingdom.

Or not.

All that great stuff I just mentioned has gone unnoticed. No, not by you, Mr. or Ms. Puckhead. Nor by any of you reading this from north of the U.S.-Canada border. 

There is blood in the streets of Toronto because "Canada's team" isn't in the tournament and Montreal residents have this silly notion that Cristobal Huet is the next Patrick Roy. 

I'm not talking about the state of the game in Canada, where NHL coverage is wall to wall and the game is a religion. I'm talking about the afterthought hockey has become in the most influential media market in the world. 

Sometimes I wish I lived in Canada.

The marketing efforts by the NHL this season have been embarrassing. Coming out of the lockout, the league commissioned one MTV-like video to announce that "my NHL" was back. That's great, but that's all they did. I'm not counting the lame "Cool Shoots" show that the league produces weekly. The NHL, for all its edginess on ice, is promoted in the worst possible way.

The league needs to bring in a marketing/branding guru, perhaps, someone that's had success at the Fortune 500 level, maybe at an Apple or a Pepsi. 

The league is so out of touch with how to expand its fan-base that it's laughable. I've walked the halls between periods at Staples Center and I see who attends the game. Lots of young adults, either inked up or pierced, they know the game is cool. Not a ton of kids, with the exception of an odd afternoon start. Where's the hipness, the coolness that needs to be attached to the sport as to compete with the other major league sports? 

And by coolness, I don't mean laying down a Metallica track underneath highlights between stoppages. There was a time when the league considered putting advertising on uniforms as they do overseas, but it was considered too gauche and would detract from the league's "integrity." 

I have a newsflash, that sport that went whizzing by the NHL called NASCAR puts advertising on every last spot on the track. The NHL wishes they had the TV ratings and revenue that the "redneck" sport does.

Now, we won't lay all the blame at the feet of league office, it's been a collaborative effort. As a group, the ownership of the NHL is by far the most boring and least forwarded thinking of any major sport. 

Recently AEG, the ownership group that own the Los Angeles Kings, replaced GM Dave Taylor. During that press conference, President Tim Leiweke was quoted as saying, "maybe AEG has been too distracted or too patient or too loyal, or maybe it was a combination of all three." 

Could you ever imagine Mark Cuban, the bombastic owner of the Dallas Mavericks or the Maloof brothers, the high profile owners of the Sacramento Kings, not paying attention to their teams? Could you ever imagine George Steinbrenner being too patient? 

I won't denigrate the owners as a whole, because you have to be an elite businessperson to have the resources to control an NHL franchise, but where is the controversy, where is the risk taking, where is something different? 

Cuban brought in hip hop icon Diddy to design a uniform for him; I'm not saying that hip hop would play in this league but moves like that puts both Cuban and his team in the news, sells merchandise too. The Maloofs have NBA players in and out of their Palms Vegas resort like a revolving door and the public knows it. It's almost like NHL owners hang out a shingle saying "hockey tonight" and hope 17,000 or so ardent fans show up. 

When is the last time you saw a close up of an owner of an American franchise sitting ice side rooting his team on? Here's a tip, it's never happened. Part of the problem is that many of the franchises think they're still in the sports business and not the entertainment business. 

A prime example is the New Jersey franchise with iron fisted President/GM Lou Lamoriello in charge. Lamoriello's approach to the game is OLD old school and while he's built an exemplary organization on ice, he sees public relations as a nuisance to his team. The Devils are arguably the best franchise in the league over the past decade yet they routinely play to a half filled arena and tragically that’s no accident. If you put the Devils in Madison Square Garden marketing machine the last ten years, the waiting list for tickets would run to Brooklyn, but that's not Lou's style. 

To make the point more salient, Lamoriello once fired a public relations director for starting a campaign promoting Scott Stevens for the Norris Trophy. You can forget seeing an alternate black jersey for the Devils, an item that would sell tons, as long as Lou rules the roost. It's mentality like this that buries the league in desperate need of exposure.

The league's television partners ain't helping much either. Yes, it's nice that each owner put $3 million large in their pocket this season as a result of OLN's generosity (stupidity) when the fledging network overpriced the value of the TV package. But with that $90 million sunk, there wasn't much left over for production values. It's been a struggle for the production all season; it started off as a disaster and has marched towards mediocrity as the playoffs start. 

Bill Clement finally warmed to the task as studio host when he realized that he shouldn't be giving answers immediately after asking questions, leaving that for the analyst in the studio. Can't rightly blame the guy, he was the most controversial analyst on ESPN and OLN miscast him as moderator for their production. 

And while we're on the subject, did OLN ever think to cast an AMERICAN on the broadcast? The faces of the broadcast are all Canadians, are there not one or two entertaining Americans that know the game and would distinguish themselves? I'd be happy to give it a shot. 

And before I forget, I don't know how many times this season I've heard, "I can't find OLN." In Los Angeles, if you have basic cable, you can see the UFC on Spike TV and the WWE on USA every Monday but you can't get any first round playoff games on OLN. 

OLN can be excused for not having the resources for a major league presentation, but the other NHL broadcast partner, NBC, has no excuse. 

For a league that needs a fresh approach to its image, to select Doc Emrick and John Davidson as the lead broadcasting team does no one any good. While they are among two of the best broadcasters in the NHL (I wouldn't consider either of them the top in their role at this point in their careers), the league needs fresher, younger, cooler, hipper broadcasters when they get face time on a major network. 

Where's someone like Stephen A. Smith or Jim Rome in the studio or doing color for a game? If Pierre Maguire is as cutting edge as you can get on a broadcast, there's huge trouble.

If you want to bring in a Canadian broadcaster, bring in a hot looking female from TSN, Sportsnet or The Score to get some attention. I watched Cammi Granato handle the on ice analyst role during Saturday's Sharks-Predators game and my feelings switched back and forth between pain and embarrassment (for her). 

Some say that the large portion of Europeans in the game has prevented greater exposure in the States because those players lack strong command of the English language. Do those critics have an answer for the increasing globalization in the NBA, where significant Euros dot every roster? Maybe it's just patent laziness by a league that doesn't have a public relations strategy. 

The Kings' Jeremy Roenick is a regular guest on Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show, but it's not through the efforts of the league, he picks up the phone and books himself (hmm, based on his play this season, maybe HE should be head of PR for the league.) 

Maybe the league could beg their broadcast partner, NBC, to throw a couple of their players a cameo on one of their sitcoms. The NHL players are terrific with the media, rarely refusing an interview and would be great subjects for an intense marketing blitz.

Additionally, the league does nothing to place itself in the entertainment space by cross promoting the game with the networks or movie studios. If they were smart, the league would set aside five seats at the glass every night in LA for celebs to see and be seen but with a stipulation that they would have to do a pre-game interview that could be shown around the league as a promo. .

I've seen actors in attendance being flashed on the screen at Staples Center, but that's all you see. If you check the NHL media guide, the league does have something called NHL Enterprises. The group numbers about a dozen and from their titles, I assume they're supposed to build relationships with consumer products companies to build and promote the NHL brand. I'm sure they're very nice folks but can you think of one product that you immediately associate with the NHL? Yeah, it escapes me too. 

If they want to expand, the league needs to go into markets where major league franchises are desired. A perfect place would be Oklahoma City, where the fans have come out in droves for the displaced New Orleans Hornets. There is no legacy of hockey in that town, but once the Hornets return to the Bayou, those fans would have a void in their lives that could easily be filled with an NHL franchise. 

The league could yank out the Florida Panthers, who play to a sparsely filled, poorly placed building in Broward County but have some young stars (Olli Jokinen, Roberto Luongo and Jay Bouwmeister) that the community could gravitate to. 

Additionally, with the salary cap in place, mid-market cities could supposedly compete for franchises as well. Put Carolina in Green Bay, they'd sell out every night. Beg billionaire Paul Allen to take the Penguins, so the nonsensical Pittsburgh arena talk can cease. There's a brand new arena in Winnipeg that would sell out every night too. If the NBA goes into Las Vegas, the NHL should be there with them in lockstep. 

Bettman also must hit the road to recruit for potential new ownership, even if no franchises are available. He needs to talk with the Cubans, Maloofs and Steinbrenners, true sports visionaries, to ascertain how he can make a franchise more attractive to potential buyers. 

It's the old story of supply and demand, if Bettman could create heat around the game, the value of the franchises would increase because more buyers would be in the market. 

You don't always enrich ownership through salary caps or television contracts; it's also by increasing the demand for their assets. Economics 101. The league has two options regarding its future. They can muddle along with their old boys network, sputtering along at near zero growth, maxed out on markets to locate new franchises and hold their breath that the salary cap works all the magic they profess. Or they can hire a major consulting firm like a McKinsey or a Bain to figure out why this wonderful sport is rapidly heading towards the likes of boxing and arena football.
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.