Felt like watching their vacation video, don’t think that’s what ESPN were interested in… Buy what do you expect.

From dealing with different sports of different sizes from a media perspective, I think ice hockey could use baseball as a good example of how to grow.  Baseball is the fastest growing sport in NZ at the moment, and is getting plenty of exposure as a result.  I realis that infrastructure-wise there’s some huge differences between the 2 sports, but baseball still has their own problems. I dont know how well ice hockey plays with the likes of inline hockey, but baseball realised they had to work with softball rather than against it, and it’s worked for them. And then they’ve been able to sell the players on the idea that there’s more opportunities playing baseball over softball.
A lot of the growth has also been focused on increasing the game at youth level. Again, infrastructure is a huge hurdle for ice hockey but I think it’s been done pretty well with the age group competitions and the like.
For the first time, Baseball NZ got itself a dedicated Executive to work on developig the game here. That’s meant one person can help coordinate all the different aspects of the game separate from the likes of the president and other administrators. The executive is the type of person who can also deal with media and do a lot of the PR for them.
There’s been a couple if huge things happen with baseball here lately and they’ve really capitalize on it, like NY Yankee Curtis Granderson visiting and running clinics, NZ getting into the World Baseball Classic, and players signing to play in the US. There’s no reason NZ playing in the World Champs getting more coverage or any players playing overseas.
Either way, just a suggestion…
Also interesting to hear someone involved with the “international” series saying the promoter made lots of money, after the US captain said all the money was going to charity to help Christchurch. It fair to say we e come to expect bs from the promoter but saying that is way crossing the line. Maybe it’s somethin the players were sold on to come and play. Craig, you’ve got my number, I’d love to hear from you to clarify ” title=”Wink” />

ice and inline traditionally don’t get along.  Ryan’s point is also valid.  At present, Auckland is the only city with a presence by both sports.  Christchurch was the only other one where both have been played however we no longer have a venue after the sept quake so inline in the South Island is collapsing.  Nelson is the only location with a team.

Not sure about rivalry but I don’t think there is any communication between the 2 bodies.  I think the Christchurch thing is over simply because the numbers have died away.  The few remaining active inliners play ice simply because there isn’t any inline to play