The sale dip was in scandinavia. My qualified ;-) guess is that SI and Sega misjudged the PR a game gets when its on the shelfs and in the ordersites in the webbshops. People not in SIs sites didnt noticed the game at all. To bad this game is closing down.

quote:

Originally posted by crunch:

quote:

Hockey, in general, is struggling with profitability

Seriously! Are you just baiting us? The facts are in and hockey has never been more popular or profitable - Attendance and revenue figures are breaking records in the NHL and the strike certainly did no harm to amateur hockey.

Ugggh, your facts are skewed by our great Commissioner el-stupid Bettman. A general note is that if you look at the NHL pre-Bettman, NHL ratings and popularity rivaled that of the NBA and NHL was considered one of the Big Four entertainment businesses. Thanks to Bettman the NHL has been brought down to a level where we compete with COLLEGE FOOTBALL and oftentimes lose in TV ratings. Anyhow that is a very deep arguement with lots and lots of stuff up for debate. There was an article on this awhile back on www.thehockeynews.com if you want to look at some opinions and better facts.

Revenues are up because of overpriced tickets and merchandise draining the hardcore fans (430 bucks for the new Nike replica jerseys jeebus) and most of the places the expansion teams were placed don't even care much about hockey (Nashville can't even sell out half the season even though they are one of the top teams in the NHL as an example.)

I blame Bettman for this monstrosity (and clutch and grab) and thankfully others are smart enought that we are slowly moving the game BACK to the good old days...kinda...

Bleh anyhow, my rant is done

Just want to say that I recently decided to give EHM a whirl and I love and gutted now that this will be the last version. I hope sometime soon things pick up and EHM returns some day.

Thanks to all who made this game amazing!

Maybe in the USA there is trouble.Collectively, the lifeblood of the NHL...The Canadian teams have never been stronger. They make up 1/5 of the NHL, and are supplying 1/3 of the NHL revenue.

I hate Bettman, but I like the fact that the 6 Canadian teams are financially sound for the first time EVER!

Canadian teams always have pretty good fan support because afterall...it is a Canadian sport

But you can't ignore that Bettman has messed up heavily in the US market where most of the league resides. I mean...seriously OLN over ESPN? What was he smoking? And now on top of that we hired a NASCAR marketter to market the NHL...awesome...*sarcasm*

One of the reasons I have not bought EHM 2007 so far is simple. After buying the first two versions I just decided that I will skip this version. I wanted to give time for my game on previous version and thought that I'll pick up the next version when it "hits the shelves". I'm one of those guys who don't like "new game per year" method and that was another reason for my decision to skip EHM2007. And I think quite a many thought the same way.

Well, now it seems like I have to buy this version eventually

I don't know how good idea this is financially, but if it's anyway possible, could you please make a season update next September for the game? I don't mean rosterupdates or anything, I think there is community activity to sort that out, but the ability to start game for season 07-08 would be a boost for games lifespan. Surely that is not too difficult or time consuming to make available via download? [sorry if this has been discussed before, but I haven't been on these forums for a while and didn't want to browse through everything]

1. Not ignroing that Bettman sucks trust me. The Canadian teams are where they are in spite of Buttman. But there is no way that 6 teams should make up 1/3 of a league's total revenue.
The American teams gotta do something for themselves too. Nashville and Atlanta are at least trying to this year. Foppa, and Tkachuk. expensive though.

2. Cannot make that update yojimbo because of licensing issues. Would cost too much for em to do.

quote:

I don't know how good idea this is financially, but if it's anyway possible, could you please make a season update next September for the game? I don't mean rosterupdates or anything, I think there is community activity to sort that out, but the ability to start game for season 07-08 would be a boost for games lifespan. Surely that is not too difficult or time consuming to make available via download? [sorry if this has been discussed before, but I haven't been on these forums for a while and didn't want to browse through everything]

I'm afraid we cannot do this. We are bound by the terms of our license agreements and a season update is out of the question, as the licenses will have expired.

What about upgrading the cap and such before the licenses expire.

quote:

Originally posted by 19nazzy:
What about upgrading the cap and such before the licenses expire.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but you can edit a file and set the cap to whatever you want it to be. SI had that in mind =)

quote:

Originally posted by artlan:

quote:

Originally posted by 19nazzy:
What about upgrading the cap and such before the licenses expire.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but you can edit a file and set the cap to whatever you want it to be. SI had that in mind =)

Really? I was under the impression that the $44 mil cap was hard coded into the game. And that you could either have that cap, or none at all.

quote:

Originally posted by 19nazzy:

quote:

Originally posted by artlan:

quote:

Originally posted by 19nazzy:
What about upgrading the cap and such before the licenses expire.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but you can edit a file and set the cap to whatever you want it to be. SI had that in mind =)

Really? I was under the impression that the $44 mil cap was hard coded into the game. And that you could either have that cap, or none at all.

artlan is correc, its in some .cfg file but I forget which one

transfer_rules_config.cfg

I made that 2-1 to me, Zorbane.

I make it 10-0 to me as I made it possible to edit the cap.

quote:

Originally posted by Graeme Kelly:
transfer_rules_config.cfg

I made that 2-1 to me, Zorbane.

Weren't you the one who wanted to have the cap editable/removable so its easier for you?

Plus I'm at work I don't have EHM here

[QUOTE=EdL]
I make it 10-0 to me as I made it possible to edit the cap.
[/QUOTE]

EdL I wouldn't risk Graeme's wrath if you still work with him

bah wrong forum code? damn lack of edit

Sweet, so we can make the cap higher now?

Perrrrrfect.

quote:

EdL I wouldn't risk Graeme's wrath if you still work with him

He has escaped my domain, as has Riz.

This is such a cop-out! I can't believe SI have dropped this. Do not for one minute believe the pirating story - if you do a little digging around you'll find that all the copies available to torrent are actually the demo versions as per the SI website. It is much easier to get yourself a hacked version of FM.

If SI really wanted this game to succeed, they should have done more tie-ins with FM, ie offer it for £5 or something when you buy FM. EHM is still very far behind FM but has/had the potential to become just as polished. Such a shame that Sega couldn't be convinced to even attempt to market the game. It is very hard to sell a product when even hardcore hockey fans are unaware of it. One has to wonder whether SI were really ever bothered about pushing the product forward?

Riz, I hope you find a way to continue this project somehow, some way. You know how much your games have meant to us Ranger fans over the years! Thanks for all your hard work, you and the rest of the team. I just hope SI reconsiders down the line.

quote:

Originally posted by Terence_fong:

Ugggh, your facts are skewed by our great Commissioner el-stupid Bettman. A general note is that if you look at the NHL pre-Bettman, NHL ratings and popularity rivaled that of the NBA and NHL was considered one of the Big Four entertainment businesses. Thanks to Bettman the NHL has been brought down to a level where we compete with COLLEGE FOOTBALL and oftentimes lose in TV ratings. Anyhow that is a very deep arguement with lots and lots of stuff up for debate. There was an article on this awhile back on www.thehockeynews.com if you want to look at some opinions and better facts.

Revenues are up because of overpriced tickets and merchandise draining the hardcore fans (430 bucks for the new Nike replica jerseys jeebus) and most of the places the expansion teams were placed don't even care much about hockey (Nashville can't even sell out half the season even though they are one of the top teams in the NHL as an example.)

I blame Bettman for this monstrosity (and clutch and grab) and thankfully others are smart enought that we are slowly moving the game BACK to the good old days...kinda...

Bleh anyhow, my rant is done

Wow, how did I miss this?

You couldn't be more wrong.
Hockey before Bettman was no where close to rival basketball. They are on a comparable level when it comes to admissions, which hadn't been the case back then either, but everywhere else the NHL was never close to the NBA, not 30, not 20 and not 10 years ago.
Under Bettman's lead the NHL more than tripled revenues and got a national tv-deal, something it didn't have before/made no money with.

Ziegler led the NHL down the drain, and if the owners hadn't been so incredible stupid, they would have won the 1994 lockout. Instead they fell Bettman into his back, which led to the rule-change that Bettman didn't need to sign off on a new CBA unless more than 2/3 of the teams agreed to it. That won them the last lockout, which as of right now is saving the NHL. They could have gotten that deal earlier, if the owners had just listened to Bettman.

What monstrosity are you talking about?
Bettman wasn't the one who started expansion. Only the last four teams which came into the league did so under his "rule", all the others were brought in by his predecessor. Columbus and Minnesota are absolutely fantastic hockey-markets which put the oh so wonderful "hockey-cities" like Winnipeg or Quebec City to shame.

This may come as a surprise to you, but Bettman has absolutely nothing to do with rules or the way the game is being played. Clutch and grab came into existance, because the refs weren't doing their jobs.

Bettman is commisioner of the NHL, not god. He is neither responsible for everything successful, nor is he responsible for everything he is accused of (by those who aren't informed, usually).

The owners are the ones who have to judge how he fares, and by the looks of it, he is doing well enough for getting a new contract each and every time. They should know better than your run-of-the-mill fan, whether he is doing his job well or not.

Revnues up? What about costs and inflation?

The NHL has been LOSING money from teams since he entered office. For example last year the NHL claimed revenues went up to 2.1 billion, yet 20 of 30 teams reported losses and the actual cashflow was a LOSS of $225 million.

Under his miscontrol, Bettman has allowed salaries to go rampant by allowing ex-gms to grossly overpay their players and never once stepping in. Currently more than 75% of league revenues goto players, which is more than football and basketball, at 64% and 57% respectively.

Bettman's rule has seen the decrease of teams from Canada to areas that have no hockey interest if only to promote it as an american sport(debatable of course). Not surprisingly, these teams are not making money and rarely sell out arenas. Teams include Nashville, Phoenix, and to an extent the Hurriances. Panthers and Ducks came in 1993, not sure if that was part of his ruling or not but Bettamn started in office that year. If you are in Canada, you should know that Quebec City and Winnipeg have been lobbying to bring the NHL back into their cities. Infact Winnipeg was one of the front runners trying to claim the Penguins if they ever decided to move, however Kansas was probably a better destination as they have much more money.

Miscontrol of the referees previously resulted in the clutch and grab game. Those are Bettman's decisions to enforce, and the policy nor the willingness to enforce them is his fault.

National TV was a no brainer, if anything it was set on a silver platter for him to put into. Anyone could see it coming and all the major sports were going into it. It was not a hard decision. Even then, attendance has been decreasing PRIOR to the lockout. Our ratings are in the basement behind college football and we are signed with a television network that has nowhere near the coverage as ESPN and ABC

A popular theory that some believe is that David Stern of the NBA wanted the NHL to fail and sent Bettman to the NHL on his recommendation. Now that is a longshot and im not one to induce in conspiracy theory but there you go. Someone with totally ZERO experience is the enw comissioner of a league he knows nothing about.

If you want other peoples opinions, Bettman in 2005 of Business Weekly was voted as one of the top 10 worst managers of all time. Even the players hate him (see Chris Chelios comments).

What reason do you possibly have that Bettman is even remotely competent? Sure its going fine NOW. But he is merely fixing mistakes that he created years ago. Our ratings still are in the cellar, congrats on smart coverage.

Some further notes.

The new contract with Nike to make the new Jerseys? $430 bucks per jersey. Simply wow, lets bleed the fans even more, I mean who cares, its just a business eh?

Howabout the Upper Deck deal where it seems that all other companies didn't even have a chance to bid for NHL licences so now only one company owns all of the sports cards rights for the NHL.

Something that Bettman does quite well if you read between the lines of some of his speeches is that he glosses the truth.

There have been claims of attendance going up and such based on ticket revenues. How do you explain all the empty seats then? Example teams are St Louis, chicago and boston which ahve the tickets sold (presumably to corporations) but the fans are not there.

Zeigler is by far not the best either. Note his famous sportschannel america scam to get money. But Bettman is just as bad or even worse. We can't tell until the next comissioner arrives.

Oh yeah the numbers for the 2/3 teams losing money is from last years Wall Street Journal. There are several of those articles floating around though. Also you can read www.thehockeynews.com they had an article last month regarding Bettman and some numbers and facts included.

I can't believe someone actually defended Bettman.

And no, the owners do not know better than your run of the mill fan. The fans know hockey. The owners know money. If they knew hockey, they wouldn't need GM's.

The biggest problem is that neither Bettman nor the majority of owners understand hockey and/or hockey fans. Instead, they spend their time comparing themselves to other leagues and pointing out all the problems rather than promoting the game. Why would any potential new fans want to watch hockey when the league, the owners, and the media spend all their time criticizing the game.

I wouldn't say all owners don't know anything about hockey, but the majority of them are too money orientated and hurts the game. Overpriced merchandise and tickets really kills fan support.