So, apparently, NBC Sports has stopped the Garden from hosting a Game 6 viewing party. Why? Because viewership during Game 4, when the Garden hosted their last viewing party, was low. And, hell, 7,000 people attended that viewing party.
Let's have a quick conversation about orders of magnitude. Apparently, Game 4 had 1.26 million home viewers nationally, a low for the series (as far as games broadcast on NBC Sports were concerned). Game 1 had 1.28 million, and Game 2 had 1.34 million, making Game 4's viewership about 80,000 people smaller than the series high.
Let's extremely generously that absolutely everybody who watched Game 4 at the Garden would otherwise have done so in their homes. None of them - these are the people who chose to go see the game in the most public place they could - instead go out to a bar and watch with friends. And let's, even more generously, assume that absolutely no one at the watch party was there with a friend. They were all single-ticket strangers, and they all went to their individual homes and watched the game with absolutely no one else. In that incredibly naïve scenario, viewership rises by an absolute maximum of 7,000 people. Which, if they're aligned correctly, at absolute best raise Game 4's viewership from 1.26 million home viewers nationally to 1.27 home viewers nationally. Making it a low for the series, about 70,000 people smaller than the series high.
Meanwhile, it pisses off 7,000 hockey fans who are dedicated enough to go into the Garden just to watch your broadcast on a big TV.
NBC Sports, your problem is that people don't know how to like watching hockey on TV, because you're shitty at showing it to them. If I'm in your shoes, inconveniencing and disappointing the handful of people that do want to watch my broadcast is probably not #1 on my problem-solving list!
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