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NHL Out Hundreds of Thousands Due to Blackhawks Blues Winter Classic Blunder
Photo credit: USA Today FTW
The Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues drew lower-than-expected ratings for the 2025 Winter Classic, who is to blame? The team or Gary Bettman?
This year's Winter Classic could be considered a massive disappointment for Blackhawks fans, and the NHL.
The game which was marketed through means of a series called "Road To The Winter Classic" which featured both teams prominently couldn't interest NHL fans enough.
Only 920K fans were funneled into viewership of the game, whether through a streaming service(Max) TruTv, or TNT's broadcast. A dismal record for an original-six team who with Connor Bedard should've had at least 2 Million or more eyes on the game.
NHL Insider Ben Pope reports:
The turnout for the Winter Classic itself was a different story as Wrigley Field was filled to the brim with Blues and Hawks fans.
But in order for the event to truly make sense, the NHL has to draw fans to watch the game.
The NHL tried to account for the CFP games that would be going on that day with an afternoon schedule but were unable to pull fans away from massive matchups that night.
The New Year's Eve date seems to have backfired as not only was the game scheduled on a night where there are a lot of people out and not watching television, but it still faced competition from bowl games and the looming College Football Playoff quarterfinal between Boise State and Penn State.
Instead of watching Connor Bedard, fans were watching Ashton Jeanty put up Heisman Trophy-winning numbers.
Now what does this say about the state of the NHL and their business model? Instead of having one channel to watch everything, they've outsourced the broadcast to multiple streaming services, and fans have had to open their pocketbooks multiple times to watch one.
The audience for the entire contest is now less than half of what it was when it aired on broadcast TV during the prior media rights deal (the Winter Classic never really got less than 2 million viewers on NBC from its start in 2008 through 2020).
A tiring prospect for NHL fans, who are tired of Bettman, and the dinosaur caucus leading the NHL not to water, but to extinction it seems.
The Blackhawks are now 1-6-0 in Winter Classic appearances, and Gary Bettman is still commissioner of the NHL.
Fire Bettman!
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 3 | 275 ANSWERS NHL Out Hundreds of Thousands Due to Blackhawks Blues Winter Classic Blunder Do you think Gary Bettman and the NHL failed to schedule the Winter Classic in a way that would benefit the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues? | ||
| Yes | 181 | 65.8 % |
| No | 30 | 10.9 % |
| Put it back on NBC | 64 | 23.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
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