Television hockey returns with no fans in the seats and teams compete on glittering and dazzling ice surfaces like a glittering entertainment show on the floor.
The National Hockey League is rebooting its 2020 pandemic-era season with Grammy winner Michael Buble singing the national anthem for the New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes opening game on Saturday.
But beyond that, NBC, NBCSN and NHL Network viewers in the United States and Sportsnet and CBC audiences in Canada will see games like never before been broadcast, as the professional hockey league seeks to save a season devastated by the COVID-19 public health crisis.
They won’t be fans cheering or whining in the stands while scoring goals, and the team’s players for the next 60 days will be kidnapped from so-called “bubble” hotels and stadiums in Toronto and Edmonton as security precautions. And as NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer says THRThe professional league was never going to throw a hockey puck on silent, cold arenas.
That’s a big challenge as the roar and roar of fans who gather behind their teams during the Stanley Cup playoffs each year is a huge part of the energy and buzz that crosses the screens to connect with the public. from the television. Nor will the NHL disguise empty seats at Toronto’s Scotiabank Stadiums and Edmonton’s Rogers Place with virtual walls of fans or cardboard cutouts.
“With all due respect to my Korean friends, there was no way we would put stuffed animals on the seats,” Mayer says of Korean baseball filling empty spots with stuffed animals. The NHL, ending with a four-month pandemic hiatus, has gone into the Hollywood playbook and created giant televisions to bring fans in more than 160 countries closer to action.
In games that are played behind closed doors, EA Sports will generate crowd noise and the lower levels of both arenas will be surrounded by mega graphic panels, six LED displays that rise 30 feet in the air, and stages. “We want to give them a show,” Mayer said of the team’s fans watching from home, surrounded by friends and family, or connected with other fans through social media, Zoom and other platforms.
On those giant arena video screens, viewers will see zoomed-in videos, replays of games, recorded footage of their NHL heroes, team logos, and Undefined Creative graphics of superfans from the respective teams cheering at home. “We brought in a director of lighting for Hollywood shows. We brought in entertainment and Broadway sets. We consider it an event made for television,” Mayer insists.
In addition to additional cameras for new angles in game action, the bubble streams will include team cheers, songs, and speakers from each NHL team as audio. And the track-level microphones will enhance the game’s natural sounds: stopping metal skates on ice, knocks and players crashing on the boards.
However, NHL television broadcasts will have a slight tape delay to edit the colorful language of the players on the ice or on the team benches, which is a very important part of the traditional game. “We know we have kids and family watching, that’s important to the league,” says Mayer.
Returning this weekend to launch the NHL playoffs in central cities is critical to the NHL, as like other professional leagues, you could lose millions if you had to go without TV revenue tied to the postseason game.
Mayer, as a sports fanatic, has seen European football and now the NBA’s Major League Baseball and United States are restarting their 2020 seasons amid the pandemic, and he insists that the NHL did not deliberately take a different course with its eye-catching TV broadcasts that resemble brilliant floor talent shows.
“It is surprising that the sport has returned and we are not trying to be different in any way. We just feel that this was the right approach for us,” he says. To complicate preparations for the restart of the 2020 NHL season, everything needs to be done on the go.
In early May, the NHL knew a season relaunch was in the works, but the league did not know in which core cities. The NHL looked at ten cities in North America as possible tournament venues and efforts in North America to address the spread of the coronavirus.
“When you saw what was happening in areas of the United States and what was happening in Canada, it was a pretty easy decision. We went where COVID was not a big problem,” Mayer said of choosing Toronto and Edmonton as central cities. . The professional league then settled on a strict cordon around all NHL team players, coaches, and staff, requiring that everyone never leave hotels and tracks hidden behind concrete blocks and black curtains to interact with him. outside world.
“There’s no time to waste. Our protocols are so strong and strict. I’m wearing a mask. Everyone wears a mask and social distancing. Everywhere,” Mayer explains. And to create the events made for TV, the NHL decided not to receive phone calls and design drawings for weeks with its stage creators, led by Hotopp Productions, and quickly went into 3D modeling and construction.
Beyond this weekend’s relaunch, Mayer and his team are already reinventing how they will air the most authentic NHL television tradition: the Stanley Cup Uprising by the playoff-winning team, without yelling and applauding fans. in the team colors in the arena.
“We know that we have to give that due moment and make it special and make it unique for this year, what we are all going through and make it memorable because in 20 years, everyone will talk about this period of time, this playoff, this is very different” insists.
