THE CLUB - THE BRAND
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greeny
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Surely at this moment in time there cannot be a better advert for british ice hockey than the Steelers brand...Quality on ice product run professionally, good game experience, webcast ,merchandise etc, Sell out crowds and very big 50/50 pay outs. Shame that in this country ice hockey will never get the tv coverage that other sports get. Happy times at the moment
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Jayboy
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The sports needs a visionary, that sees a commercial venture to support going forward they need a person the likes of Sports promoter Eddie Hearn who can promote the sport and the league..greeny wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 10:55 amSurely at this moment in time there cannot be a better advert for british ice hockey than the Steelers brand...Quality on ice product run professionally, good game experience, webcast ,merchandise etc, Sell out crowds and very big 50/50 pay outs. Shame that in this country ice hockey will never get the tv coverage that other sports get. Happy times at the moment
If you can turn a sport you can play with a pint in your hand, into what it is now, imagine what the right person could do with Ice hockey in this country...
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greeny
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Yes eddie hearn and barry hearn did it with the likes of snooker and darts, as with alot of things its who you know. Shame as it is an addictive sport once you get the bug......If i remember right years ago they did have games shown on mainstream tv and recall seeing games on grandstand think it was..... showing my age abitJayboy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:26 pmThe sports needs a visionary, that sees a commercial venture to support going forward they need a person the likes of Sports promoter Eddie Hearn who can promote the sport and the league..greeny wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 10:55 amSurely at this moment in time there cannot be a better advert for british ice hockey than the Steelers brand...Quality on ice product run professionally, good game experience, webcast ,merchandise etc, Sell out crowds and very big 50/50 pay outs. Shame that in this country ice hockey will never get the tv coverage that other sports get. Happy times at the moment
If you can turn a sport you can play with a pint in your hand, into what it is now, imagine what the right person could do with Ice hockey in this country...
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Bryan
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Way before then, in my childhood, Saturday afternoon grandstand occasionally showed a league game.
I remember panthers games from the old parliament street. With the only 400 line black and white tv of the time the puck was almost impossible to see. We had no sense of a league existing. I think Hull featured occasionally.
I remember panthers games from the old parliament street. With the only 400 line black and white tv of the time the puck was almost impossible to see. We had no sense of a league existing. I think Hull featured occasionally.
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Jayboy
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Yeah even has a kid I used to pray for bad weather, Specifically bad snow, because the horse racing and or football got cancelled and thats normally when they would put the ice hockey on unannounced, it was brilliant!! 
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Doom
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I'm another one who enjoyed the ice hockey on Grandstand.
I'd regularly watch the highlights of the play-off weekend at Wembley, usually picking a favourite team I wanted to win it. I remember one final going to silly a number of penalty shots. I think it may have been Cardiff v Edinburgh, because I'm sure Tony Hand was involved (I think he looked for the pass on his penalty shots).
Back then Durham were the dominant force in British Ice Hockey, until the Devils came along with their new rink and bags of money, tempting the likes of the Coopers and Brebant to go and join them. I suspect it's one of the reasons Cardiff supporters dislike us so much, because we came along with our much bigger shiny arena and a larger player budget, which ultimately pushed them off their perch at the top of British Ice Hockey.
For the majority of the first Steelers season I followed the progress of the club in The Star. I think the main thing which caught my eye was the ever increasing attendances as the club broke record after record with supporter numbers. I also started following the sport through Ice Hockey News Review (older supporters will remember this). It was only towards the end of the first season I attended my first game, which also happened to be the Steelers biggest ever win.
As much as I enjoyed the sport (I was already sold through Grandstand), it was the atmosphere of the crowd which clinched the deal. This is one of the reasons over the years I've made numerous posts about making the sport affordable and getting supporters into the arena, because this is such a big selling point in it's own right.
Since Tony and his family have taken over the club I've not felt the need to make any long posts on this forum about ticketing and attracting more supporters, because they're doing a fabulous job as far as I'm concerned.
The Future's Bright, the Future's Orange.
Regards
Doom
I'd regularly watch the highlights of the play-off weekend at Wembley, usually picking a favourite team I wanted to win it. I remember one final going to silly a number of penalty shots. I think it may have been Cardiff v Edinburgh, because I'm sure Tony Hand was involved (I think he looked for the pass on his penalty shots).
Back then Durham were the dominant force in British Ice Hockey, until the Devils came along with their new rink and bags of money, tempting the likes of the Coopers and Brebant to go and join them. I suspect it's one of the reasons Cardiff supporters dislike us so much, because we came along with our much bigger shiny arena and a larger player budget, which ultimately pushed them off their perch at the top of British Ice Hockey.
For the majority of the first Steelers season I followed the progress of the club in The Star. I think the main thing which caught my eye was the ever increasing attendances as the club broke record after record with supporter numbers. I also started following the sport through Ice Hockey News Review (older supporters will remember this). It was only towards the end of the first season I attended my first game, which also happened to be the Steelers biggest ever win.
As much as I enjoyed the sport (I was already sold through Grandstand), it was the atmosphere of the crowd which clinched the deal. This is one of the reasons over the years I've made numerous posts about making the sport affordable and getting supporters into the arena, because this is such a big selling point in it's own right.
Since Tony and his family have taken over the club I've not felt the need to make any long posts on this forum about ticketing and attracting more supporters, because they're doing a fabulous job as far as I'm concerned.
The Future's Bright, the Future's Orange.
Regards
Doom
I've said on many occasions that Tony Smith and the off ice team should be congratulated for their efforts and hard work making our club better and better.
It's wonderful to see a well run financially stable club. Whilst there are recent comparisons with this side and the Grand Slam side of 2001, if I remember correctly that side weren't getting paid towards the end of season and only continued playing for the fans! A stark difference to how we are run now.
As with any sporting club ownership, they've made their mistakes and hopefully they are learning from them.
Personally the Gerad Adams and Paul Thompson debacle still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth regarding how many of the fans with a constructive opinion were turned upon by the club and especially by Dave Simms directly. Our media output still leaves quite a bit to be desired too.
However, on the whole I think we have a very good on ice product which is just missing the silverware success to match it. This year could finally be the year this changes, which in turn should bring even more fans in. If we reach the CC final and host the final, I really could see a case for extra seats!
The EIHL though is waaaaaaaaaaay behind. No mainstream TV deal is poor in my opinion. In fact media coverage in general is poor. I've emailed both Look Leeds and $ky Sports News regarding their recent coverage of the tragic events asking why they're nowhere to be seen on a normal match days. No reply received of course.
Attending regularly for me now is a little too expensive financially, but it's fantastic to see the numbers averaging over 7,000! I'm a dinosaur and miss the physical side of the game which is sadly confined to the archives, but I have to say this is the first season I've enjoyed more of the games then usual.
Looking forward to seeing if Mr Fox and the team can deliver us some silverware to match the excellent off ice efforts by the club
It's wonderful to see a well run financially stable club. Whilst there are recent comparisons with this side and the Grand Slam side of 2001, if I remember correctly that side weren't getting paid towards the end of season and only continued playing for the fans! A stark difference to how we are run now.
As with any sporting club ownership, they've made their mistakes and hopefully they are learning from them.
Personally the Gerad Adams and Paul Thompson debacle still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth regarding how many of the fans with a constructive opinion were turned upon by the club and especially by Dave Simms directly. Our media output still leaves quite a bit to be desired too.
However, on the whole I think we have a very good on ice product which is just missing the silverware success to match it. This year could finally be the year this changes, which in turn should bring even more fans in. If we reach the CC final and host the final, I really could see a case for extra seats!
The EIHL though is waaaaaaaaaaay behind. No mainstream TV deal is poor in my opinion. In fact media coverage in general is poor. I've emailed both Look Leeds and $ky Sports News regarding their recent coverage of the tragic events asking why they're nowhere to be seen on a normal match days. No reply received of course.
Attending regularly for me now is a little too expensive financially, but it's fantastic to see the numbers averaging over 7,000! I'm a dinosaur and miss the physical side of the game which is sadly confined to the archives, but I have to say this is the first season I've enjoyed more of the games then usual.
Looking forward to seeing if Mr Fox and the team can deliver us some silverware to match the excellent off ice efforts by the club
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ginger
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The problem with TV deal is that if it's not on a free to air channel that's got a decent viewership, then you only really get current fans watching. There's no incentive for a TV company to spend money on that.
What the league could do, is essentially put the programme together themselves, as this might be able to gain more traction with reluctant channels (i.e no real cost to them etc)
The problem with that being the cost is passed on to the league.
If crowds keep going up across the league, then it might become attractive, but whilst you have the disparity in rinks/arenas, it's going to be difficult to convince a TV channel that carrying hockey is worth their while.
What the league could do, is essentially put the programme together themselves, as this might be able to gain more traction with reluctant channels (i.e no real cost to them etc)
The problem with that being the cost is passed on to the league.
If crowds keep going up across the league, then it might become attractive, but whilst you have the disparity in rinks/arenas, it's going to be difficult to convince a TV channel that carrying hockey is worth their while.
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mark
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Correct , that is one of the reasons SKY came on board during the ISL days and also why they stopped. Discounting our own output, which is light years ahead of any TV coverage we have had before the coverage from local and national media is minimal. Gone are the days when big away games would have live radio commentary on Radio Sheffield, the Star is a shadow of it's former self ( along with almost all local newspapers across the country ) as the media landscape has changed. I don't think we will ever go back either, it will be streaming as a way forward and it will need the product being taken out of the hands of fans and placed in those of professional broadcasters or at least those who can do it professionally such as the two that do ours, and the production needs to be at a high level with output issued promptly, no more five day waits for the go-pro footage to be edited. The success of the new professional womens hockey league with it's free coverage on Youtube should point the way forward.