The Crosby Lottery

Sometime on Friday, the NHL will conduct the lottery for the 2005 Entry Draft in secret, with an announcement of the draft order coming sometime after 4:00 p.m. U.S. EDT. That's right folks, they won't be televising the actual lottery live. The results will be announced on TSN in Canada shortly thereafter, though there's no word at this time if a U.S. outlet will be picking up the announcement.

At this point, Some folks are smelling conspiracy. Here's Colby Cosh:

Wait a minute--after all that, the NHL isn't even going to televise the draft lottery? This is a joke, right? Tell me they actually mean to televise it. Tell me they mean to take advantage of the drama everyone has been waiting three years for. Tell me they don't intend to confirm the irresponsible speculations of every NHL-loving conspiracy theorist in the world. Reassure me, against all the evidence, that this game is being run by adults.

(snip)

This is a big deal: the NBA has never been able to shake the Ewing rumours, and something like 75% of basketball fans believe them. At the very least the NHL needs to videotape its lottery drawing, make the tape available after the TSN show, and above all get a proper independent accounting firm to oversee the process. C'mon, the NBA legal department??? How basic is this?]

James Mirtle breaks down the numbers on the lottery, if it's on the up and up, that is. HDH at Hockeybird has this choice insight:

Technically they can still fix the draft, but they are going to at least announce the results live, so will be able to see Glen Sather pretend to be surprised when they announce that the Rangers won the first pick. (I am just playing around.)

I am still bothered by the fact that they will be doing all of this during rush hour on a Friday afternoon in the middle of July.

Ok, let's play Devil's advocate for a moment. Say you're NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman and you've convened your PR and marketing team to determine the best way to use the 2005 Draft Lottery as a promotional vehicle for the league. Might you determine that:

1) Simply televising the lottery in the style of its NBA counterpart won't boost viewership or interest given the time of year and the time constraints the league has to operate under with a truncated offseason, and . . .

2) That by keeping the proceedings secret, you increase the drama leading up to the actual announcement, driving speculation that the lottery is fixed, something that a number of passionate fans already suspect, and . . .

3) Whether or not the lottery is actually fixed, all of the apparent skullduggery can't help but drive more media and fan interest in the draft.

Think about it: Before, the story was simply who would get to draft Sydney Crosby. But now, the question is not only who will get Crosby, but will a major American market get Crosby, fueling speculation that the fix was in?

So, in a sense, there may actually be a conspiracy in the works -- even if Bettman and company conduct the most honest draft lottery in the history of sports.

Ladies and gentlemen, I suspect that we are being played.

UPDATE: I missed the reports this morning that the league has backtracked, and will now air the actual lottery as well. No matter, they got a little extra pub for their trouble.

POSTSCRIPT: My friend Ben Wright dropped Jes Golbez, PJ Swensen and Mirtle a note earlier this week that caught my attention:

Given how many columnists, broadcasters and bloggers have gone out and said where they think Sidney Crosby needs to end up I thought it would be fun for each of you (and myself) to write a post about where you think Crosby could do the most good (for the league, himself, his team... whatever. Base it on anything you want). I also wouldn't mind seeing where you think he'd be wasted or do the least good. Are any of you up for the challenge? I'm thinking three top cities and the three worst cities. I've revived The Net Files and I'll post my thoughts sometime tomorrow evening.

Given how little there's going to be to talk about until the CBA is ratified I thought this would be a good time filler. Feel free to forward it on to anyone else you think might be interested. No offense will be taken if you don't have the time or interest to take up the challenge.

Jes has already taken up the challenge. Look for my take later today.

Eric 06:50 AM

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Posted by: at July 20, 2005 11:27 AM

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