Puck the Media’s Tuesday Mailbag: On Sports Jobs and Chris Simpson

Where the hell did Chris Simpson from Versus go this year?

MSWelcome once again to the Tuesday Media Mailbag.  Our first piece of business comes to us from Eric Roitman, editor of 5hole.com.  He found this glorious thing:

Hey Steve,

I was riding the subway to school this morning and saw some ads for the upcoming Versus show, “Sports Jobs.”  Here are some pictures of the ad.

The tagline: Making sports work is no easy job.  I think it’s funny that they couldn’t get a more recognizable retired athlete.  I hope he wears his jersey at all times on the show.

Eric Roitman
Editor, 5-hole.com

Thank you guys for this.

To be honest, we don’t hate the idea of Sports Jobs.  It’s just that VERSUS can’ really promote the original series as well as it does hockey and PBR and other sports.

From the “Hey, cool!” files, Emily Bennett has a piece on a new Washington Caps sponsor:

Hi Steve,

You were looking for Mailbag items Monday nite, and we have one over at Japers’ Rink.

The Capitals’ most interesting new in-game advertiser this year has been the Nuclear Energy Institute, who announced their corporate partnership with the Caps in September, and thenblogged about it.

Radio Ad #1 – Pond Hockey

Radio Ad #2 – MD & VA

All of this info is linked at their website.

They are clearly quite pleased with their sponsorship, and keep a close eye on who they are reaching with their message(denounced by Greenpeace!), as they blogged about it again in October.  And yes, they take note of the TV ratings. Plus they have their own YouTube channel.

Even the Toronto media took notice.

And being goofy nuclear geeks who like to deal in quantifiable facts, they have now conducted a survey of dasherboard advertising around the League.  They even posted the raw datafor us, with links.

That is a lot of time and energy (sorry, heehee) invested in this ad campaign, and it seems to me they are using many of the same tools that Ted Leonsis does, first buying the ad space and then adding value by promoting it themselves through social and other media.

Plus, I can tell that at least one guy at NEI is passionate about hockey, and it really shines through.

Anyway, my Caps are playing your Devils tonight. Normally I’d wish your team good luck, but tonight, not so much.  I do enjoy reading Puck the Media though, and thanks for taking the time to do it!

Regards,

Emily
“Your Nation’s Capital”

Thanks a ton for sending that in, Emily.  We’ve seen a few e-mails come our way about this, and weren’t quite sure how to articulate on it.  You’ve succeeded thoroughly where I couldn’t.

Mailbag regular Ken Fang, you’re up:

I’ll give a question, Steve.  Should the NHL Network be airing the 2nd game of the Hockey Night in Canada doubleheader live?

Yes, 100%.  The 2nd game of the HNIC doubleheader is probably as less popular in America as it is in Canada, but it should still be there.  Frankly, I think NHL viewers would rather watch games than highlights on a Saturday night.  I think NHL Network should only do a “Final” edition of On the Fly, and take the night off in both countries.

But make that edition of On the Fly really good.  Two hours long, a host and three analysts (Say Brian Duff, Denis Potvin, Mark Osborne and Dave Reid) break down everything and discuss various NHL related topics.  It could be pretty great.  I’d think after a night of Don Cherry and Glenn Healy, some sane and level-headed thinking would be a great way to cap the night off.

Here’s a pretty simple E-mail:

Where the hell did Chris Simpson from Versus go this year?

MS

We’re not entirely sure.  We assume she is still with NHL Net in some capacity, though those “Captains” episodes have stopped airing.  Can anyone help here?  She was, in fact, let go by VERSUS, by the way.

Al Ibrahim has a VERSUS-related complaint:

Steve,

Can you or some NHL media contact find out what the hell Versus is doing? They’re the cable home of the NHL but you don’t see anything hockey-related except for 1 or 2 times a week they broadcast a game. They also never televise a doubleheader. It’s a surprise when they more carry than 1 game a night.

ESPN’s coverage before the lockout was decent, NHL2Night was great, there were tons of highlights we even had a weekly NHL show w/ Cool Shots. Cool Shots was like what Inside Stuff is to the NBA. We got all those off-the-ice player features in a nice format.

Where is Versus w/ this stuff? We have 1 or 2 games per week, a 30-minute post-game show and that’s it for the regular season. In the playoffs, they at-least give us doubleheaders! They need to add either a 3rd game night or a daily highlights show. I would prefer the nightly recap show like NHL2Night but I’ll take any new NHL programming not Junior Seau being an equipment guy for one day on his own show.

And finally Versus is not winning this pissing contest w/ DirecTV right now. Their flagship property, the NHL, isn’t worth anything to casual sports fans who really don’t watch hockey a lot except for the All-Star Game and Playoffs.

-Al

Our take on this is here.   VERSUS, as always, needs to put more hockey on the schedule.

If you or someone you know would like to be a part of the Tuesday mailbag, please e-mail us at SMLepore@comcast.net or find us on Twitter.