Gone are fans blindly following these Dolan Knicks. This the 1st step to getting Dolan understand that we no longer will be supporting an inferior product.
Keeping Carmelo Anthony and viewers interested is a Knicks priority
The alleged 'plan,' the one James Dolan and Steve (Mummy) Mills are supposedly constructing to put the Knicks back on track, isn’t just about convincing Anthony to stay on Broadway. It’s about providing an on-court product capable of generating hefty ratings and high profits.
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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, March 1, 2014, 4:40 PM
Struggling Knicks are praying for wins and ratings.
Carmelo Anthony can’t carry the Knicks alone. He isn’t a big enough Lone Star to juice the ’Bockers’ TV ratings on the Madison Square Gulag Network, either.
Eyeballs are abandoning the poop deck of this sinking TV ship. MSG has lost about a third of its Knicks audience this season. Even James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan would consider this a disturbing trend.
We call it alarming.
Through 50 games on MSG, Knicks telecasts had averaged a 2.33 household rating, compared to a 3.36 through the same number of games during the 2012-2013 season. That’s a decrease of 31%.
Unless the Knicks turn things around fast, which doesn’t seem likely, the ratings will decline even further.
While the allure of “The Mecca of ‘B’ List Celebrities,” and a newly renovated building, has kept the box office humming, losing is driving the largest segment of the team’s fan base, its TV viewers, away from an unwatchable product.
The Knicks, not “Four Courses with J.B. Smoove,” are MSG Network’s biggest attraction. Even with this ratings decline, the team doubles and triples the test pattern-like ratings the Rangers, Devils, and Islanders generate individually on MSG.
While the Knicks’ ratings plunge does not impact (at least not yet) the carriage fees cable and satellite providers pay MSG, they do affect the advertiser and corporate sponsorship revenue. Next season, the rates MSG charges advertisers will decline. Some advertisers and corporate sponsors will bail altogether, not wanting their products associated with a loser.
That’s why this alleged “plan,” the one Dolan and Steve (Mummy) Mills are supposedly constructing to put the Knicks back on track, isn’t just about convincing Anthony to stay on Broadway. It’s about providing an on-court product capable of generating hefty ratings and high profits.
Another season of Anthony surrounded by a nonsupporting cast will produce the same ratings results, probably worse. And if the message to viewers is MSG is selling hope, waiting another year until Dolan tries to sign marquee free agents, well, the fans (the ones who are not delusional) have been there before.
The credibility gap will widen.
Winning begets an influx of eyeballs. Yet it has been proven that a Knicks team that at least is competitive, that plays hard for four quarters, can hold an audience. This should be the minimum requirement for Dolan/Mills moving forward.
Unless they want to see their TV product sink deeper into the toilet — with or without Carmelo Anthony.
BRING IN DA NOISE
How pathetic is it getting for the Knicks?
Well, when Valley of the Stupid Gasbags start making a bigger deal over how much noise the Gulag crowd makes than the result of the game, things have hit rock bottom.
RELATED: LUPICA: GARDEN OF GLOOM
For reasons known only to him, WFAN’s Evan Roberts decided to go gaga over the noise fans produced in the final two minutes of Knicks-Mavericks Monday night. He called the atmosphere electric — or something like that.
The talkie should now campaign for all Knicks games being decided by the results of a Decibel Meter.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/raissman-keeping-melo-viewers-interested-knick-priority-article-1.1707483#ixzz2uorHtKWB
3/2/2014 11:11 AM