Tuesday 29 October 2013

Is this the right time to start a revolution?

When I woke up this morning I was greeted with the news on Twitter that Premier Sports has picked up the option to show live EIHL games starting with Blaze Vs Giants on 23 November 2013 from the Skydome. Happy days especially as Virgin Media were nice enough to give me and many others Premier Sports free until January. Now I am able to watch NHL and EIHL, this is great for feeding my love of hockey. Although there are no immediate plans to show a highlights programme, I can't see how anyone can be negative about this news? It's not like anyone else has picked up the coverage and there are sites out there such as KOTG who show match highlights from across the league and that's not to mention the increasing number of teams who have their own TV channel which is easily available on You Tube.

Followed by this was the news that Aaron Murphy was to front the coverage each week along with a local expert. This is a significant step in what could be considered a revolution for British Ice Hockey.

Fans took to many social outlets to express their pleasure that this might well mean no more David Simms from a broadcasting perspective. Now I am not going to talk about Simms, whatever your thoughts are on him, you can't argue with his passion and desire for the sport and in particularly the Sheffield Steelers.

But this is the time for media coverage to take a step forward in the country, especially if you want to try and increase the fan base. So for anyone who follows me on Twitter, you will have already seen my desire to see the boys who run Cats Whiskers TV get an opportunity to be a local expert for the Panthers.

Every week during the season, they take the time and effort to record a knowledgeable, informative show which isn't afraid to discuss issues surrounding the support. They do this off their own backs with no financial reward and they do it for the love of the game and the Panthers. Jono Bullard, Aaron Lord and Paul Balm are guys I want to see as a fan discuss live action and analysis from a Panthers perspective.

They are not the only guys out there and there are a number of equally talented and knowledgeable people who deserve to be given a chance to front the new television coverage. Paul Wheeler does this job well for the Blaze, Dave Sweetin and David Rennie do this for the Stars and there are other guys out there doing the same job for Braehead, Cardiff, Hull and Belfast. This doesn't even begin to cover a long list of other people such as Slapshot Scotland, Patrick Symth and other fan services such as Battle In The Bay, NPHockeyLive, EIHL magazine and many other fan run Twitter accounts all aimed at providing information for the fans.

So I ask Premier Sports, please can we start this revolution on 23rd November 2013. Can we get Ice Hockey coverage for the fans by those fans who dedicate their time and effort to promote and better a sport which we all love....

I hope we can......

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