Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 play

Well inside.

Hed: Ducks Runneth Over
Subhed: Anaheim wins its first Cup

Below, we ran a John Nadel's short sidebar on Chris Phillips' Steve Smith momen.

 

This is probably not going to end well, but it's not going to be my fault.

As a matter of fact, yes, I think we'd get some reader (and, more importantly, supervising editor) complaints if we fronted the Stanley Cup at the expense of the things we have out there instead.

But we are at least four hours from the nearest NHL city, assuming Nashville hasn't packed out by moving van in the last 24 hours.

We have two, count 'em, two Local Ball Teams – Division I college baseball teams with passionate readerships – preparing for NCAA Super Regionals.

The NBA Finals start Thursday. Mildly interesting anyway, but also a good diversity/TV choices play.

And there is, about 90 minutes from here, a PGA event that starts Thursday.

As for the suggestion that not amping the Stanley Cup is some kind of creative breakdown on my part, I'm not buying it.

I have been willing to do all kinds of different things in the last year, such as emphasize our strengths and abandon things that we have reflexively done that our readers really don't care about.

Maybe that's why our circulation is growing and sports is seen as playing a significant role in that.

And yours?

 

Good answer, Henry!

 

Clearly, I'm a hockey guy.

But no one outside of Ottawa and SoCal--and really, SoCal has the Dodgers and Angels dominating coverage--really cared about these Cup Finals.

The NHL needs major markets and recognizable faces. It needs the New York, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, the Kings, Philly to be contenders. And it needs to get off a second rate cable network that half the country receives.

 

The inherent tragedy of what CAN be a great game -- especially this time of year -- that's also
BY FAR the worst TV sport of the Big Four (or Five, or Six, or Seven . . . )

 

It also needs to outlaw this ridiculous playoff beard nonsense. I know no one's watching anyways, but how is hte NHL gonna market itself when it looks like it's being played by a bunch of deranged and murderous lumberjacks?

 

Our desk guys always favor national over local unless the SE tells them differently. So it will be center-pieced on the front, which in this case is OK.

 

Not the lead story, but top of 1B... nice picture of Rob and Scott with Cup. couple of big pics inside with runover. We staffed the Hurricanes winning the Cup, and there are a few fans here, but it is not our big story

 

hockeybeat: the major market thing won't mean anything unless the NHL gets off of Versus, as you pointed out. Out of sight, out of mind. No one watches the games because no one can see the games. By the time it makes it to NBC for Game 3, we're supposed to all of a sudden care? I just don't buy it.

I used to be a hockey fan. But I can't say I've cared one bit about the sport since it returned from the lockout. Mostly because I can't watch it.

 

No one was watching on Versus and no one was watching on NBC. The interest is less that minimal.

 

Centerpiece on front.

Headline: Duck, Duck, Cup!

 

Here's my point:
I don't suggest ignoring all those local angles, but non-daily events, such as a Stanley Cup champion being crowned, don't, be definition, happen every day.
That at least takes them out of the routine.
Where I think sports sections fail is the tendency to put the same thing on the front too often.
There were some good story angles in the Cup final - and I don't know if AP covered them because I wasn't working - that make interesting reading.
I don't think your circulation would plummet if the local Div 1 team advance was on page 2. I presume your Sports front isn't peaking out from the paper box, so it won't repel readers.
And my point goes beyond hockey. I just used that as the example.
But too often we "give readers what they want" and we base that supposition on what is often faulty knowledge and that tends to under-estimate the readership.
I've recently become "a reader" after many years as a sports editor and my reading habits have changed.
Game stories bore the crap out of me, and if in opening the paper I see the usual game-day advance or some such, I quickly flip the page.
However, if I see something I don't expect, I tend to stop and at least give it consideration.
What I think you did in ignoring the Cup final was play it safe, rather than dig around and take a risk.
When I was SE, I gave more kudos to people who tried something and perhaps failed rather than to someone who just did the same-old, same-old.
Again, wasn't making this a "hockey" issue, but an "interesting" issue.
So things don't need to end badly and I apologize for the "bullshit", but that was in response to yours.