Never mind the New Jersey Nets, the Toronto Raptors' biggest opponent tomorrow may be off court and on television.
The Raptors' season opener in New Jersey, carried on The Score, will go head to head against TSN's national broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game.
That's tough competition for Toronto's National Basketball Association team, despite the attraction, albeit fading, of the Raptors confronting their former star, Nets guard Vince Carter.
But TV analyst Jack Armstrong believes enough has transpired between the team missing the playoffs in the spring and its splendid 7-1 record in the preseason to stimulate interest and perhaps even inspire a few hockey fans to flip channels for a look.
"If you're a basketball fan, you're definitely excited," Armstrong said. "And, if you're a sports fan in general, I think you're intrigued."
There is certainly no shortage of programming to be intrigued about. The Raptors' 82 regular-season games will all be carried on television. The Score has 30; Raptors NBA TV has 24; TSN 20; and Rogers Sportsnet eight. Club-owned Raptors NBA TV will provide a 90-minute pregame and 60-minute postgame show for all the telecasts.
Chuck Swirsky will call the games on the four networks. Armstrong and Leo Rautins will continue to split the colour commentary, with Armstrong doing the Raptors NBA TV and Sportsnet games, and Rautins in the booth for TSN and The Score.
TSN's Raptors telecasts will be in high-definition television, but the games on the other networks will continue to be in standard definition.
For TSN, host Rod Black and analyst Brian Heaney will return to the studio show. But, at Raptors NBA TV, reporter/host Norma Wick has been taken off the road. For the away games, she will join the studio panel in Toronto.
Paul Graham, who will produce all the Raptors telecasts, says a priority is to familiarize viewers with Toronto's new players.
"Our focus will be to find out who these new players are and to really push their profile," Graham said. "We want the viewers to get to know them and have a better understanding of who they are."
The Raptors have at least nine new acquisitions on their roster, but everybody agrees the key signing was Bryan Colangelo, who joined the club as president and general manager in February.
At a reported $3-million (U.S.) a season, the Raptors are overpaying Colangelo by NBA standards, but Rautins feels the investment is worthwhile.
"He's worth every nickel," Rautins said. "Everything they're doing now points in the direction of creating a winner - everything."
Armstrong gives Colangelo thumbs up for bringing stability to the franchise. "None of the nonsense and theatrics and sideshows exist now," he said. "There's a sense of calm and professionalism and purpose. It's been a while."
The two analysts believe the Raptors have a shot at making the playoffs, but even if they don't, the long-term prospects are bright.
"I really think this is the start of something pretty good," Armstrong said. "I'm not saying they will win an NBA championship. They might not even make the playoffs, but I think people will start to get hooked again on tuning in."ƒo
Why CFL dropped
Canadian Football League regular-season television audiences were down from 2005 - 8 per cent on TSN (drawing an average of 356,000 a game) and 10 per cent on CBC (415,000).
Given the sort of season it was, the decline on both networks could have been worse.
TSN's telecasts had to compete against a Stanley Cup final in June involving the Edmonton Oilers. Then there was the World Cup of soccer in June and early July, which cut into CFL interest.
TSN and the CBC took a hit in Ontario (a 30-per-cent hit on TSN) because of the absence of an Ottawa market (the Renegades suspended operations before the start of the season), a poor year by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and slow start by the Toronto Argonauts. Baseball's improved Toronto Blue Jays also competed for audiences. And the number of one-sided CFL games increased, meaning half the audience tuned out in the third or fourth quarter.
Despite TSN's audience drop, its 2006 numbers still rank as second highest ever. That's because the network's 2005 average of 395,000 was a record.
- Fox Television earned an average rating of 10.1 (percentage of U.S. households watching) for the World Series (St. Louis Cardinals-Detroit Tigers), down 9 per cent from last year (Chicago White Sox-Houston Astros). That's the lowest ever for the Fall Classic. Fox has earned all-time low ratings for three of the past five World Series. Rogers Sportsnet averaged 533,000 a game for the 2006 Series, down 7 per cent from 2005.ƒo
- Last season, the Raptors averaged 119,000 viewers on TSN and 116,000 on Sportsnet's national telecasts.