New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020nypost.comNHL’s targeted
Jan. 1 opener
may be on ice
By Mollie WalkerAs the calendar flipped to December, the
NHL’s target date of Jan. 1 for the start of the
2020-21 season is looking less and less attain-
able.
Between the coronavirus pandemic contin-
uing to ravage the country and the NHL’s re-
quest to the NHL Players Association to re-
visit specific areas of the collective bargain-
ing agreement, just four months after agree-
ing to a six-year extension, there are various
issues that need to be resolved before the
season can begin.
Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed
the current state of the league in a wide-ran-
ging interview on the Sports Business Jour-
nal’s “Dealmakers in Sports” program
Wednesday, noting the Jan. 1 start date is “a
work in progress, influenced largely by what
we’re hearing from the medical experts.”
He added the NHL’s focus is finding a way
through the 2020-21 season with the help of
vaccinations to get back on a normal sched-
ule, a season that runs from October to April,
by next fall.
“We talk to some pretty highly placed peo-
ple, without name-dropping,” Bettman said.
“COVID is going through a second wave,
which could be worse than the first wave.
And between Thanksgiving and the after-
math, we are taking our time and making
sure that as we look for ways to move for-
ward. We’re focused on health and safety and
doing the right things.
“We are hopeful and optimistic based on
everything we are hearing that we can get
back to normalcy in 2021-22.”
In addition to the uncertainty of the COV-
ID-19 pandemic, word spread roughly two
weeks ago that the league asked players to
defer an additional 16 percent of base com-
pensation for the season — on top of the 10
percent deferral that was originally negoti-
ated in July.
Bettman vehemently declared the NHL
was “not seeking to renegotiate” the CBA,
which took into account potential economic
distress created by the pandemic during the
previous negotiations. Instead, Bettman
pointed to the anticipated “stresses on the
system” as to why the league requested an
adjustment to the numbers.
He also expressed his displeasure with how
the situation has been portrayed in the media,
saying it’s “unfortunate” and “inaccurate.”
“We’ve been absolutely unequivocal with
the players that we’re not trying to renegoti-
ate,” Bettman said.
The Post’s Larry Brooks reported last
month that the request to renegotiate the de-
ferrals, as well as raise the escrow cap from
20 percent to 25 percent, angered the union
membership. Following the league’s request,
there was a reported week-long stalemate of
discussions between the NHL and NHLPA.
TSN reported that a member of the 16-
player Return to Play committee believes a
start date between Jan. 20 and Feb. 1 makes
more sense. There’s a strong belief that a full
82-game schedule isn’t possible at this point.
A shortened 48-game season could be in play,
similar to what the league implemented after
the lockouts of 1994 and 2011.
[email protected]
I
T IS an Opening Day victory, nothing
more, nothing less. Long term, it may not
foretell anything. But it is the first salvo.
And it went to “The Michael Kay Show.”
In Craig Carton’s return to FAN, ESPN
New York’s Kay Show beat “Carton & Rob-
erts” in his opening three days among men
25-54, according to Nielsen Audio. Depend-
ing how you view streaming, Kay either
won the first three days or took two of
three.
On Monday, Nov. 9, from
3-7 p.m. — when the pro-
grams go head-to-head —
Kay won 8.6-6.9 with FAN’s
streaming included. Two
days later, Kay won 9.2-4.3,
again with streaming. On
Tuesday, Nov. 10, Kay won,
6.1-5.6, in the traditional way Nielsen
present its numbers, but when you add in
FAN’s streaming — which is already baked
into ESPN New York’s share — then “C&R”
comes back for a 8.1-6.1 advantage.
Any way you look at it, this is just for the
first three days so, in the burgeoning after-
noon radio rating war, it is a blip, an open-
ing blip, but a blip.
The real sample size is three months, not
three days.
In four weeks, appropriately enough, near
Christmas, the first month will be available.
This will still be an incomplete portrait,
though, more telling.
The winter book that begins after the
New Year will be the truest, no-excuses
first measure whether the Carton-led
FAN can take the afternoon crown that
Kay swiped off Mike Francesa before hewent into retirement.
Radio still uses Nielsen Audio’s anti-
quated system that doesn’t even have the
two stations measured on the same stream-
ing metrics. The system is so clunky that it
was only Wednesday that we found out the
ratings for Carton’s first three shows, Nov.
9-11.
WFAN executives were already empha-
sizing that Carton won total audience
(among all listeners, not the
traditional 25-54 male met-
ric) for these three days. In
other words, the fight be-
tween the two stations is
back on.
The traditional battle,
right or wrong, has been
where radio sells its adver-
tising, which is men 25-54. This may be the
electoral college of radio, but it is how it has
been tallied. If you use the total audience
method, ESPN could counter that Kay’s
YES audience should then be included.
As for the content, Carton’s style doesn’t
seem to have changed much after his three
years away from FAN that included a year
in a minimum security prison due to a fraud
conviction.
Carton loves to talk about Carton. It is
why it is a divisive listen, because it is more
about him than sports.
On Tuesday, there was a caller-inspired
bit where Roberts said he would let Fran-
cesa give him a hot oil massage for a Jets Su-
per Bowl win. Carton proceeded to do a
whole routine, playing it out with Francesa
impersonations and voice drops of old
Francesa clips, pretending Francesa wasputting his “hairy” knuckles on Roberts’
“bird-boned” body.
It was either hilarious or gross, depending
on your point of view. What it wasn’t was
that classic “Mike & the Mad Dog” FAN aft-
ernoon sound. Carton and Roberts do mix a
little sports in sometimes.
Kay, with his sidekicks Don La Greca and
Peter Rosenberg, is not an all-sports show
either. They are on a winning streak after
taking down Francesa. The trio got the ini-
tial “W” against Carton, but it should be
lower case.
Quick clicks: CBS’ All-Access Champi-
ons League “The Golazo Show” is awe-
some. It is “NFL RedZone” for club soccer’s
biggest tournament. The idea of “NFL Red
Zone” emanated from Europe, so this is full
circle. What wasn’t excellent was the all-ac-
cess app crashing for a period of time on
Wednesday for some users. ... ESPN’s play-
by-player Dan Shulman was elected to the
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which is a
good excuse for me to say that Shulman
should be considered one of the greatest
baseball play-by-players of all-time. ... ESPN
play-by-player Jason Benetti has been on
the radar for a while now, but his skills have
been showing up again this week during his
college hoops broadcasts with Bill Walton.
Walton is just all over the place, over-
whelming the broadcast, which is entertain-
ing if you are a more casual fan of the teams
playing. Benetti’s rejoinders are the show-
stealer. For example, Walton said a first
year-player was playing the best he has ever
seen. Benetti quickly pointed out it was the
player’s second game of his career.
[email protected]Andrew
Marchand
AFTERNOON BRAWL: ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show” topped Craig Carton (inset) among men ages 25-54 in the
first three days of Carton’s return to WFAN after a prison sentence due to a fraud conviction. Jeff Skopin/ESPN; N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg