Letter to CSTV about ECACHL Tournament Coverage

[jtwcornell91]

[Repost because FrenchRage suggested it get its own thread]

I just sent the following comment to College Sports Television, which
is broadcasting the ECAC Hockey League tournament, but tape-delaying
the Cornell-Vermont semifinal.

======================================================================
Dear CSTV:

As a college hockey fan, I've appreciated the nation-wide coverage
CSTV's Friday Night Hockey has given to this great sport.  I live in
New Orleans, but am able to watch college hockey live every weekend on
CSTV (which I get, along with numerous regional sports networks, via
DirecTV).  As a Cornell alumnus and ECAC Hockey League fan, I'm also
pleased that CSTV will be broadcasting the ECACHL tournament with
play-by-play by former Big Red radio announcer and CSTV hockey analyst
Adam Wodon.

I am disappointed, though, to see that the first semifinal (Vermont vs
Cornell) is not scheduled to be broadcast live on CSTV Friday, March 18.
CSTV's schedule during that game (4:30pm-7:30pm EST) contains no live
sporting events.  (It's a half-hour of Full Court Press, 90 minutes of
The 1 College Sports Show, and two episodes of Coach.)  I am writing
to express the desire I'm sure is shared by many Cornell, Vermont, and
other ECACHL hockey fans to see the ECACHL semifinal live.

                                       John T. Whelan, Cornell '91
                                                 [email address]
======================================================================

I imagine we're fighting a losing battle, since the Friday schedule
contains what look like a bunch of NCAA basketball tournament analysis
shows.  The sad truth may be that hype for basketball games broadcast
on another network is a better sell for them than actual live playoff
hockey, but we can only change that equation if we make our voices
heard as hockey fans.  I encourage anyone else who cares about this to
make their opinion known via
<http://www.collegesports.com/feedback/cs-feedback.html>.  I'd
recommend being respectful and stressing how much you appreciate the
live hockey coverage they do provide.

[ben03]

the ugly truth is any fan(s) who are not overtly interested in hockey (college or otherwise) think ALL hockey is/was cancelled b/c there is no NHL this year … this is definitely an uphill battle but it’s always worth a shot :-)

[Pace]

It might also be worthwhile mentioning that more viewers are likely to watch the Cornell vs. Vermont match. These two teams will undoubtedly be the ones to send the most fans to Albany. This is but an indication of the overall interst of Cornell (and Vermont) fans. There will certainly be plenty of those who cannot make the trip to Albany, but would definitely watch.

Who's gonna watch Sucks vs. Toothpaste? Sucks fans don't even come to their home games... You know, the funny thing is that I'm sure that the later game will be watched by mostly Cornell and Vermont fans. :-)

[Will]

[Q]Pace Wrote:

Sucks fans don't even come to their home games...   [/q]

They've been getting better in the past two years or so (at least for the Cornell game), but I agree that they probably won't be watching the games on TV, not to mention making that all-too-difficult three-hour trip to see their team in action. ::rolleyes::

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]ben03 Wrote:

 the ugly truth is any fan(s) who are not overtly interested in hockey (college or otherwise) think ALL hockey is/was cancelled b/c there is no NHL this year[/q]

Too true.  Last week when I switched over to the Cornell-Clarkson webcast after my Cosmos showing (for the astronomy class) one of the students said "I thought they cancelled hockey this year"

[jkahn]

JTW - let us know if you get any response.  As stated on another thread, I've contacted them twice and heard nothing back.

Adam W. - do you have some friends at CSTV and any clue as to their programming rationale?  Surely anyone interested in basketball will be watching the games on CBS or highlights on ESPN, and not watching CSTV for analysis.

FWIW, I contacted the ECACHL last week and Laura Stange (Asst. Commissioner) wrote back that they were feverishly working on trying to find someone to televise the game.

[billhoward]

There needs to be about ten satellite channels available and standing by (like that's gonna happen) for surges of sports activity. Even so, if it magically became available in the next 96 hours, it would probably all go to men's and women's college hoops.

We're spoiled because we can get maybe a half-dozen Cornell games on real TV and the home games on Webcast ... and We Want More!

[DeltaOne81]

Other than concerns about bandwidth, Cornell/the ECACHL is probably happy with the XMI broadcast, plus the local TimeWarner stuff. It'd be great to have it on CSTV, but I bet the schools and leagues have accepted the internet broadcast. Afterall, it is actually much more widely available than CSTV.

Write away, but I bet the schools and league have done their part already to get that. U agree that Bball hype on CSTV instead of a live sporting even seems silly, I don't know which will draw more eyeballs, but I'm sure I know which would draw more appreciation, but at least there is a way for everyone to watch the game.

[Erica]

My coworker just emailed me two minutes ago with this question? "Didn't Congress ban hockey this year?" And he wasn't joking.

[abmarks]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 Other than concerns about bandwidth, Cornell/the ECACHL is probably happy with the XMI broadcast, plus the local TimeWarner stuff. It'd be great to have it on CSTV, but I bet the schools and leagues have accepted the internet broadcast. Afterall, it is actually much more widely available than CSTV.

Write away, but I bet the schools and league have done their part already to get that. U agree that Bball hype on CSTV instead of a live sporting even seems silly, I don't know which will draw more eyeballs, but I'm sure I know which would draw more appreciation, but at least there is a way for everyone to watch the game.[/q]


Got to disagree here about the league being happy.  Massachusetts has no cable feeds of the game, unless you are able to catch an albany cable feed way out in western mass.  Besides Harvard people not being able to catch the game, I did a quick search once on th corneell electronic directory and found 13,000 COrnell alumni listed in Massachusetts.  And  plenty of people can't or won't take off a half day to drive from the
boston area out to Friday's semi.

And last but not least, how can the league be happy that the nation's #3 team is not being shown in the  country's sixth(if memory serves)  biggest media market, Boston?

The league managed to cover upstate New York, but they left us out here in Boston.  HE east got it right and is showing live both semi's on NESN.

[jtwcornell91]

Well, it's not what we wanted, but we did get their attention.  Here's an email I got back from the ECAC, whom I CCed.
[Q]
Happy news!  CSTV will now show both semifinals on Friday night.  However,
due to scheduling issues, semifinal #2 (Harvard vs. Colgate) will be shown
live (as previously released), followed by Semifinal #1 (Cornell vs.
Vermont) at 10 p.m.  Semi #1 will also still be shown tape delayed on
Saturday at 11 a.m. as well.

The folks at CSTV told us that they had received way too many e-mails
regarding game #1 that they HAD to air it on Friday -- GOOD JOB!

Please spread the word.
[/Q]

So, yes it does matter to the ECAC (they initially wrote back in response to the CC I sent to thank me for my efforts).  And while the game still isn't live, we have made our presence know to the powers that be at CSTV.  Which is probably all we could have hoped for.  Thanks to everyone who wrote them.

Now, part two of our attention grab might be crashing XMI's server watching the stream of the live broadcast of the Cornell-UVM semi.  ::nut::  (I'd prefer not to make that impression, but we'll see how it turns out.)

[RichS]

Not many made it last year for the semi against Clarkson.

[atb9]

Is it possible the ECAC is doing smoke and mirrors and protecting attendance by imposing a "blackout" of the Cornell-UVM game?  It seems they would want the maximum participation of the two largest fans bases remaining in the tournament.

Regardless, I sent in an email.  :-)

edit: The game is being shown live on more accessible outlets (XMI) so the theory goes out the window

[abmarks]

That's part of the way home - I say we keep protesting ti get the game live.   As said on the other thread, watching the harvard game will be a spoiler.  SO will watching the UVM-'Cuse bball.

Keep writing.......

[RichS]

I think fans of other ECAC teams will be watching too.  

I'll very likely be watching college hoops starting earlier in the day with a 'Nova grad friend and am hopeful that the somewhat inebriated crowd will be "tired" by then and not mind if the bartender switches to some real live (or delayed) hockey.  :-D