There may be hope for you yokels yet-

Last night the 7th highest rated market for the hockey game- tied with Philly- was . . . .

NASHVILLE!!!!!!

Last Night’s NHL Triple Overtime - Best Game 5 Ratings in Six Years
June 3rd, 2008 by Robert Seidman Email This
Last night’s game five matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings where Pittsburgh won a very exciting matchup in triple overtime garnered the best ratings for a game since a 2002 contest betwen Carolina and Detroit and was up a whopping 79% from last year’s Stanley Cup game five. Even if Tiger Woods wasn’t among the viewers, that’s still a nice improvement.

Overall (not just the primetime portion) the matchup earned a 4.3/8 (household rating/share) from 8pm-12:45am EDT. The 2002 matchup featuring Carolina and Detroit netted a 4.5/8.

I still never saw local info for Saturday, but for last night the verdict is in — fittingly, both Detroit and Pittsburgh were “Hockeytown USA”, although even though the Red Wings have the trademark on “Hockeytown”, Pittsburgh won the Nielsen ratings wars. More than 1 out of 3 homes had the game on and of the television sets in use in Pittsburgh more than one out of two was watching the game (52%)! That was the case with almost one out of two TVs in Detroit (46%):

MONDAY’S TOP 10 MARKETS:
1. Pittsburgh, 35.4/52
2. Detroit, 29.6/46
3. Buffalo, 10.2/17
4. Denver, 7.2/12
5. Minneapolis, 7.1/13
6. St. Louis, 6.2/10
T7. Philadelphia, 4.9/9
T7. Nashville, 4.9/8
9. Washington, D.C., 4.7/9
10. Las Vegas, 4.4/7

By the way, the ratings share implies there were more sets on in Nashville than Philly. So much for Colin Cowherd's philosophy that "People up north stay inside more."

Anyway, in addition to the high ratings of last night's game in Tennessee, may I note to you-

A- Hockey is the fastest growing sport in Tennessee. Thanks to the Predators there are- last I looked- 30 high school teams all over the state. While that doesn't blanket the state- it is a sign that the sport is growing.

B- The Southeastern college with the longest hockey tradition? Tennessee- which started a club program in 1966.

C- Pro hockey goes back as far in East Tennessee as- get this- NASCAR DOES!

BMS opened in 1961. That was also the first year of the Knoxville Knights.

D- From 1971-75 Knoxville high schools offered hockey as a VARSITY- not club- sport.

With this sort of support and legacy, why is the local media not giving hockey more coverage?

And why are our local leaders talking about throwing away money into Freedom Hall when a new arena would allow our residents to embrace hockey the same way the rest of the state has?

I mean, other than the fact everything around here sucks.