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Clay Travis of 104.5's 3HL got Nashville Predators fans stirred up this morning with an observation tied to Goodlettsville's outstanding run so far at the Little League World Series:
Goodlettsville's LLWS game yesterday does a 5.9 in Nashville. Higher rating than any Predators game in 14 years. Really.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID) August 20, 2012
This, of course, elicited a spirited response from many Preds fans, which allowed Travis to reply with this:
I need to start doing a column with Pred fan excuses for why no one watches the Preds on TV. Even Bama fans think logic is worthless.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID) August 20, 2012
But my thinking is, rather than complain about Travis kicking hockey fans around, why not ask what can possibly be done to improve the team's local TV ratings? We all know that some ideas may be impractical, but let's get 'em out there at least. Here are a few which occurred to me:
- Get all games on a single channel, no more bouncing around from Fox Sports Tennessee to SportSouth (and alternates)
- Even better, partner with a local station (i.e. 2, 4,
75, 17) as Kevin Ingram suggested on Twitter. - What's Heather Locklear doing these days? She sure seemed to boost ratings for every show she joined.
Seriously, rather than moan & groan about perceptions, what constructive ideas can people come up with to improve ratings? We all know that establishing a culture which tunes into hockey on a regular basis is a long-term challenge in the South, and it seems like things are headed in the right direction, but how can the team build upon that momentum?