Hockey has started on Long Island, where is the press?
Posted 10:42 PM ET | Comments 0
New York has numerous daily papers. The Daily News, The NY Post, Newsday, the NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The preseason has started, and only one newspaper (Newsday) has offered any type of Islanders coverage. Sports like the WNBA, soccer, NASCAR, and even lacrosse have received much more coverage from all the other papers. These self proclaimed (Daily News & NY Post) NY area best sports pages do not even have a beat writer to cover the team at the games. The Islanders have received out-of-town like coverage from these papers during the regular season since the last lockout.
Hockey is the 4th leading sport in the US, especially in the NY area (NASCAR does not have the following as it does in other areas of the country). Why are these papers ignoring a professional team that has made the playoffs 4 of the past 5 years? The Devils receive coverage in all the papers. Charles Wang, although unconventional in many of his methods, continues to spend his money year after year to try and improve the team, and wants to fund a new arena too. So despite what many hockey fans think, the Islanders are doing everything they can to put a competitive team on the ice.
I will not buy either the Daily News or the Post until they give the Islanders the respect they deserve. I am inviting all other hockey fans to do the same. People may not see it this way, but the growth of hockey is being stunted in the NY area by the media blackout. It effects the sport as a whole, and it needs to stop. Hockey is certainly more popular than lacrosse, the WNBA, and soccer in the NY area, and I guarantee there are more Islanders fans than fans of all these other covered sports combined in the NYC area. I think it is time to start a letter writing campaign to the editors of the Daily News and the Post, and force them to do the right thing.
Hockey is the 4th leading sport in the US, especially in the NY area (NASCAR does not have the following as it does in other areas of the country). Why are these papers ignoring a professional team that has made the playoffs 4 of the past 5 years? The Devils receive coverage in all the papers. Charles Wang, although unconventional in many of his methods, continues to spend his money year after year to try and improve the team, and wants to fund a new arena too. So despite what many hockey fans think, the Islanders are doing everything they can to put a competitive team on the ice.
I will not buy either the Daily News or the Post until they give the Islanders the respect they deserve. I am inviting all other hockey fans to do the same. People may not see it this way, but the growth of hockey is being stunted in the NY area by the media blackout. It effects the sport as a whole, and it needs to stop. Hockey is certainly more popular than lacrosse, the WNBA, and soccer in the NY area, and I guarantee there are more Islanders fans than fans of all these other covered sports combined in the NYC area. I think it is time to start a letter writing campaign to the editors of the Daily News and the Post, and force them to do the right thing.