Questions And Coincidences

from Larry Brooks of the NY Post, Of all the contracts signed this summer, the 10-year, $2 billion deal the NHL gave to Comcast/NBC is the most curious.

Unless, that is, you?re Comcast/NBC/Ed Snider/the Flyers?.

There may be every good reason for the league to be on NBC and NBC/Versus, which is giving the sport major league status, rather than on ESPN, which never did and likely never would.

But for the NHL to have essentially made an inside deal that lasts for a decade in which there are no triggers, no escalators, no options, no out-clauses, regardless of the ratings or other potential opportunities, is as short-sighted as it gets.

Unless, of course, the deal has something to do with the fact the NHL has full lockout protection for next season and will receive its $150 million or $155 million (the rights fee increases somewhere around 4-percent a year over the course of the deal) even if there isn?t a single game played.

There?s something slightly questionable, isn?t there, when the league strikes a deal favorable to Comcast/NBC when Comcast/NBC also controls the Flyers?

What a coincidence that the Flyers happen to be in the Winter Classic for the second time in the last three years.

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Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/questions_and_coincidences/

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