TV coverage of the playoffs in Canada

  • Written by Mike on April 27th, 2006 |
  • Filed under General, Games

For the last three years, the National Lacrosse League has had a television contract with The Score — a sports broadcasting network. For some reason The Score wanted out of the deal early and it seems they left the NLL in a bit of a bind. Then, Rogers Sportsnet picked up a very miniscule amount of the slack.

While Sportsnet did broadcast some of the Canadian NLL teams it was a hit or miss as to which games were shown. This most likely had to do with hockey being back. Some also speculate — and I agree with it — that the executives at Sportsnet chose not to show more games because there were no Canadian teams playing. Certainly a sound decision right?

Wrong. What Sportsnet didn’t understand is that the majority of players in the NLL are Canadians. If you go to the 2006 entry draft this year and ask the draftees — or potential draftees — where they come from I’m sure half of them will answer BC and the other half will answer Ontario.

While NLL commissioner Jim Jennings has done some great things for the league some of his choices can be called bush league at best. I and many others believe he really dropped the ball with the lack of TV coverage this year. It was also disappointing to learn that the 2006 Champions Cup final will not be on NBC while it was last year. Why the change? Now we have to order ESPN2, otherwise known as The Duece, to catch the final — or do we?

FOX steps up to the plate

There is some light at the end of the tunnel for us Canadian fans of the game, albeit a little too late for Calgary Roughneck or Toronto Rock fans. The NLL announced this week that the remaining division final games, both east and west, will be shown on Fox World Sports this weekend. The same network will also air the 2006 Champions Cup match on May 13th.

Now, since the Colorado Mammoth took us out of the running this year, I think all Roughneck fans should tune into the game and cheer on the Arizona Sting. Sure they beat us last year and went to the final but c’mon, that was last year, we’ve got new enemies this year.

Other websites linking to this page

  1. Colorado Mammoth to play Buffalo Bandits for lacrosse championship | Go! ‘Necks! Go!

    […] As mentioned earlier, the championship game will be held in the HSBC Arena on May 13th, 2006. For fans in the US, the game will be televised live on ESPN2 starting at 6pm EST. For us Canadians that aren’t making the trip to Buffalo, the game will be broadcast by Fox World Sports. […]

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    SO if I tune into Fox Sports World on my sattelite on May 13, I’ll see the game? AWESOME! I thought it was only on ESPN2, which is usually only available in the ‘States!

    Written by Meathead on April 28th, 2006

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    As long as Fox Sports World is the same as Fox World Sports — the former usually plays a lot of soccer, rugby, etc. — yes you will be able to see the game.

    By the way, game time is 6pm Eastern. I forgot to mention that.

    Written by Mike on April 28th, 2006

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