Wednesday for me, was set aside for the “Grill Room” , a daily Sun TV show, which I am a regular guest on. The focus of the program, is on all kind of sports issues, that most fans and media discuss. Among the topics we discussed on Wednesday, was the degree of exposure and air time given to Steve Nash in Canada, and the better than expected performance of his Phoenix Suns. The point of debate was whether or not Nash was getting enough recognition, in light of his very gritty performance, in playing through a blackened eye, and a broken nose. Nothing in this country has ever surpassed the Stanley Cup playoffs, and even with Nash’s brave performance, hockey is still going to get the lions share of air time, because that is what draws the largest TV audiences in Canada. Having said that, Hockey Night In Canada did recently take a TV camera, into the Suns locker room, during a meeting with coach Alvin Gentry and the players. Gentry did make mention of Hockey Night being there, with a giggling reaction from Nash, about the fuss being made over him. Considering the terrific entertainment that the NHL playoffs have provided this spring, as good as it has been in decades, I think that Hockey Night’s brief diversion to Steve Nash in the Sun’s dressing room, was a great gesture. The NCAA tournament, has been shuttled around on different Canadian broadcast outlets over the last 10 years. That is obviously because, it doesn’t get enough viewers to stay with the same network. The bottom line, is that basketball simply does not generate large enough audiences in Canada, to get much more than the exposure that it currently has, which I feel is quite a bit, considering the number of Raptors games that are on network TV. In a country where hockey still dominates, basketball has made some advances, but it seems that these gains are mostly in Ontario, where a few fans might chose basketball over hockey, once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin. But with the readily available technology that allows for recording programs, anyone who wants to watch Steve Nash leave his very Canadian imprint on the Suns surprising surge, can easily do so, and still enjoy what has been a most compelling spring of Stanley Cup playoffs.
For years we have been hearing and reading, that sports like soccer and basketball will eventually overtake hockey in Canada, in terms of participation, as well as TV viewership. It wouldn’t surprise me that either sport would surpass hockey in terms of participants in Canada. Both sports are obviously much more affordable. I have yet to see anything however, that suggests that TV viewership is moving away from hockey, to sports like soccer or basketball, when the respective games are on TV at the same time. That would be a very rare occurrence, that one might see, for example, if the Blue Jays were to be involved in another World Series. With the NHL playoffs being so entertaining, and with a great Stanley Cup final matchup about to begin, don’t expect any radical changes anytime soon.