Olympic Odds and Ends

Aussie snowboarder Torah Bright


NHL wins gold

Well, it’s over. Sidney Crosby closed out the Olympics with an overtime goal between Ryan Miller’s pads. It was a great game and the US can be proud of a silver medal but I still felt pretty empty last night. With some more time we can move on and put the game in a larger perspective.

One thing that’s clear is that the NHL won gold with the way men’s hockey played out in Vancouver. All along the NHL had been looking for a US vs. Canada final to ramp up interest amongst US fans. They got that and more after the US upset Canada earlier in the tournament. The final game ended up being “a game for the ages.” Despite losing two weeks worth of revenue, this final has to be good news for a league operating in a very competitive market with in a country with only marginal interest in hockey. I think a US gold medal would have been even better but an overtime silver with an earlier victory against Canada is a close second.

And so does Nike

Likewise, men’s hockey made good on Nike’s decision to become the official sponsor of the winter Olympic games for the first time. All the hockey teams in the tournament were wearing Nike so it had exposure throughout the tournament. However, this final had to provide a big payoff in Nike’s mind. I hate to take anything away from a team like Finland or Slovakia, but those markets are so small compared with the US and Canada combined.

AT&T's bet falls a little short

I loved the AT&T ad with the Lou Reed song and Gretchen Bleiler wearing all white and flying out of the half pipe and into outer-space.The song is great and Gretchen Bleiler's looks and style are inspiring. It's a pretty strong ad though and clearly portrays Gretchen Bleiler as a superstar snowboarder.

The only problem is that Gretchen didn't win the gold. In fact, she put in an uninspired performance and came in dead last in the final heat. Australia's Torah Bright won the gold.

No big deal, we all have bad days and I hate to call out an “amateur” athlete. I'd be bummed, though, if I were AT&T because NBC ran a special story about the US women’s half pipe team right before the final round. Instead of talking about snowboarding and her dedication, Gretchen Bleiler was talking about hanging out and Japan and starting a clothing line. She didn’t mention that she’d been training or was stressed out about winning at all. She kind of reminded me of Lindsay Lohan. Not a good look for right before you come in last.

NBC's female sports audiences

Finally, a little gripe about Olympic coverage. I’ve read that 56% of the Olympics television audience was female. You can tell by the media placements.- the P&G and Wal-Mart campaigns directed at moms. My only gripe is the sport coverage. NBC is really light on sports and heavy on human interest stories. I heard numerous women tell me, I love the Olympics because you get to hear all the stories about everyone. It’d be appreciated if MSNBC or CNBC could just run sports coverage on the weekends instead of the paid programming they tend to run. kthanksbye