It’s my Parting Shot for Part 2 of my answer as to why the Saskatchewan Rush’s National Lacrosse League championship win was, essentially, ignored by the national sports networks…..
To clarify, the omission of the Rush’s achievement by the national sports networks was a 24-hour thing…at least from my observation. It certainly wasn’t immediate. Neither T-S-N or Rogers Sportsnet had any mention of it on air or on-line on their respective websites. I did say Jay and Dan mentioned it a couple of times Sunday evening and overnight into Monday while the T-S-N website posted a Canadian Press wire story…a feather in the cap of the author, Darren Steinke!
But, that still begs the question, why no immediate coverage? Yesterday, I cited size of our city and lack of professional teams here as a pair of secondary reasons. The main reason is…the N-L-L doesn’t have a T-V contract!
To their credit, the National Lacrosse League runs a Game-of-the-Week through Twitter and their website. They are ahead of the curve when it comes to the eventual broadcasting of sports events by “digital” means instead of “over the air.”
But, when will that happen?!
People are still buying large-screen television monitors that they get cable companies to hook up for them to transmission boxes. All they have to do is put a couple of batteries in a remote, click power on and find what they want for a reasonably small cost. But, the N-L-L isn’t available via that method…and, for the foreseeable future, until their games are readily available on “over-the-air” television channels, the sport of lacrosse will languish behind hockey, football, baseball, basketball, curling, golf, etc, that get the prime time coverage the N-L-L obviously craves!
That’s my Parting Shot, I’m Les Lazaruk...