The National Hockey League (NHL) is struggling to reach a large audience on American television and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White provided colorful commentary to explain the situation.
At the invitation of the Nelk Boys YouTube channel, the strongman from the mixed martial arts organization didn’t mince his words when answering a question about the NHL’s recent ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals. Despite broadcasts on TNT, ESPN and ABC, the results in the US were abysmal: 2.72 million households watched the last game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers. This is the worst total for a US-wide audience since 1994; and at the time the New York market was off-limits to national broadcasters due to Rangers’ presence in the finals.
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White has noted the poor record of the Bettman Circuit and has strong opinions of its key leaders.
“Fuck her. These are all old dumb people who have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know where the young generation is, what they are doing and how to reach them. “It really sucks,” White asserted somewhat roughly. All these people talking nonsense, you know, that’s just irrelevant and outdated journalism.”
“Midway into the conference finals, total NHL video views were 25 million; Meanwhile, power slap [NDLR: une entreprise de promotion dirigée par White] has reached 90 million,” also wanted to specify the President of the UFC.
White’s comments should reassure those who view the NHL as the poor cousin of other professional sports leagues in North America. The NFL, MLB and NBA are generating more revenue, while logically the arrival of Lionel Messi in Miami will allow the MLS to benefit from much more visibility and revenue than before.