NHL Needs a New Way to Get Games to Fans

While the Stanley Cup playoffs are cranking up for another run through late May, you have to wonder if this is the final dance for SportsChannel America’s attempt to use the National Hockey League as a springboard to national viability.

Thanks to a couple of recent deals--SportsChannel is virtually giving away Stanley Cup games--it is expected this spring’s playoffs will be available in 15 million homes, but the fact remains hockey has disappeared from most American television screens during the three-year NHL-SportsChannel deal.

What sounded very good at the start has never quite gotten off the ground. Fans with SportsChannel get great NHL coverage -- the network will cover up to 75 playoff games on a national and regional basis.

But if you do not have access to SportsChannel, the Stanley Cup might as well be played on another planet.

That situation argues for a return of ESPN to hockey coverage when a new NHL-cable contract is cut this spring. Although ESPN doesn’t need hockey the way it once did, the NHL surely needs a national audience, at least for its playoffs.

SportsChannel has delivered unprecedented regional coverage, but there must be some way the league can achieve a national presence on one network without losing the regional strength on another.

There could be additional players in an eventual deal. USA once did NHL hockey very well. The Prime Sports Network could be a viable competitor on the regional level. And there is always Direct Broadcast Satellite television to factor into the mix. The NHL is the best-placed league to take advantage of that technology, which may be effective in the next couple of years.

CBS’ national package of 16 Saturday afternoon baseball games begins April 20. ESPN again will offer two games Tuesday and Friday nights, a night game Wednesdays and Sundays and additional coverage on holidays. . . . ESPN has added the 1992 Peach Bowl to its New Year’s Day lineup, replacing the Gator Bowl as the opening kickoff. The game will be the first college football scheduled for the new 70,500-seat Georgia Dome. . . . ABC has signed to televise the Virginia Slims Championships the next two seasons, giving network exposure to the Madison Square Garden event.