Well, the Winter Classic may have been a moderate disappointment nationally, drawing its lowest rating ever, but it did just fine in Philadelphia.
John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reports that the game received an 11.9 overnight rating in Philly. To put that in perspective, the Phillies averaged a 9.1 local rating (276,000 households) this season, according to The Journal.
That part sounds good for hockey… but not this next part:
The Eagles generally hover in the mid-twenties, and Game 2 of the Phillies-Cardinals series this fall received a 21.9 rating.
Still, the 11.9 rating in Philadelphia is tremendous for hockey, and it more than doubled the 4.3 rating the Winter Classic got in New York, which is more of a melting pot of humanity…. and filled with not that great hockey fans.
More sweet goodness– According to a Comcast SportsNet press release, the Flyers-Rangers Alumni Game, at 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, received a 6.2 local rating (186,000 households) on CSN. That comes in a full point higher than the 5.1 rating (155,000 households) the Flyers got for their home opener in October, which was their highest rated regular season game in the network’s history.
So, yeah, more people watched the Alumni Game on CSN than any Flyers regular season game… ever.
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The NHL was still bragging. According to them the totals were up. Although the share was a little down, it still peaked toward the end of the game at a 2.7.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/01/03/3-74-million-viewers-watch-2012-bridgestone-nhl-winter-classic/115204/
At least Ed Snyder got to fleece the fans for a 3 day weekend. 1974 dvd sales are up.
Here are some pics from the game…
http://maciejewski.zenfolio.com/p27999633
How can you say that New York is filled with “not that great hockey fans” when the Garden has sold out every home game since Halloween 2005? Just because there are 8 billion people and not all of them care about hockey doesn’t mean there isn’t an abundance of passionate hockey fans in the city.
Also another reason for ratings being down across the country is because every other Winter Classic was held on New Year’s Day. Most people are working at 3 pm on January 2nd.
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