Durban Sandshark

Creating and adding commercials here involving Olympic athletes, sponsorships, and themes without bringing up the Great Wayne Gretzky so far. Well, this changes right now! During his time with the Edmonton Oilers during the late 1970s upwards to 1988 becoming the dominant legend that he is shattering goal and points records in the NHL acting like Babe Ruth or Wilt Chamberlain on ice skates, Wayne instantly became a Canadian pop icon (as well as its own royalty) when creating incredible poetry in motion on ice that greatly appealed to many and thus the most sought-after Canadian athlete pitchman during the early-mid 1980s, someone that even Americans will know about with his frequent trips south of the border on the road with Edmonton. Up in Canada by 1982 all in his early 20s, he had several endorsements like 7UP soda, Jofa hockey equipment, GWG Jeans, General Mill's Pro Stars cereal, his own table game, his own doll. Not to mention winning year-end sports publications' accolades as "athlete of the year" from The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated, who couldn't ignore his accomplishments. Too bad he couldn't win a medal in Nagano in 1998 when NHL players were fully permitted to compete as it tried to make their own version of the NBA's Dream Team with various hockey power nations as it tried to spread the hockey gospel to the lucrative East Asia; Canada for its part perhaps could've used his friend Mark Messier, a very strong leader, to get there. During those Nagano Winter Olympics Gretzky was by far the most popular Olympian with thousands of messages sent to him daily. But four years later in Salt Lake as Team GM for Canada, there was golden success though he couldn't get a medal. Following TV commercial we have is a popular Canadian 1981 one with Wayne getting into the peak of his athletic powers and talents doing those popular "Feelin' 7UP" commercials while "sharin' smiles" and 7UP drinks with cheering hockey kids, all who surely loved being with their national sports heroes the Gretzkys during the commercial's filming. And this features his little brother Keith, still sporting his now-defunct hometown OHL's Brantford Alexanders jersey engaging in a silly brother rivalry fun with Keith claiming it was he not Wayne "teaching him everything he knows" in picking up the puck with the stick and hit it like a bat. They all enjoyed themselves. Keith was only moderately successful there. Despite the Buffalo Sabres selected him with the 56th pick in the 1985 NHL Draft, Keith never made it to the NHL on a regular season roster. Did appear in a few preseason games, including one with female goalie Manon Rheaume as teammates. Later bounced around in some minor league hockey teams like five seasons with IHL teams and a couple with two ECHL ones and then onto Finland and Britain. Turned onto coaching and scouting like even with the phantom roller hockey team Toronto Waves in 1994. Keith is currently Edmonton's Assistant GM with Wayne as advisor to owner Stan Katz. Interestingly, their baby brother Brent managed to get into the NHL by getting selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992. He made it to the regular season for 13 games, scored a goal and made three assists alltime. Even managed to play against his successful brother Wayne in face-offs in winning 1 of the 15. Together they had the most combined NHL points for brothers. Never as successful as Wayne, Brent managed to forge a lengthy minor league career before becoming an Ontario Provincial Police officer. Middle brother Glen never played in the NHL either. This is the first of two 7UP Canada commercials Wayne and Keith made together. This would be years before Wayne would ditch 7UP and head towards Coca-Cola. By then, he was of course extraordinarily traded in August 1988 to Los Angeles, and, consequentially, earned even greater endorsements and a higher American Q rating. Another fun one from that "feeling 7UP" early 1980s era coming up. Future Dream Teamer Magic Johnson and Ann Meyers, then in her WBL's New Jersey Gems days, from the first women's pro basketball league, happily sharing the outdoor basketball court, very likely filmed in Los Angeles, with cheering kids in 1980 doing their things. We all know about Magic--but I absolutely HATE the Lakers, him included (Phoenix Suns fan here)! Ann Meyers meanwhile was already an Olympian being part of the first United States Olympic women's basketball team in women's basketball's Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976, where she and her team won silver that also included the late Pat Summit. In 1979, she caused headlines by becoming the first woman to land an NBA contract (a one-year one) with and tried out for the Indiana Pacers. Mind you this was in the era of the ERA. Didn't make it, but the Gems matched that Pacers offer with $50,000 on the first year. A legend at UCLA, Meyers was one of the first women's pro sports athletes to pitch products with 7UP, basketball included. In print ads, she would appear in her old UCLA uniform. Went to marry the late great Los Angeles Dodgers pitching great Don Drysdale and now works as a Phoenix Mercury GM in the WNBA. Anyway, the two and the kids surely had loads of fun as both have strong LA ties and were tailored-made for the charisma the city exemplifies. Magic, living up to his name, shows the kids his magic trick in turning the basketball disappear into a bottle of 7UP. Ann confidently one-ups him in the end. Certainly the two are still good friends.

As far as we know this is the only localized version of the Olympic Channel set to exist on the TV side worldwide. Yet we don't know of any other plans worldwide right now or forthcoming. Any European plans of one there outside of Russia HAS to deal with Eurosport's involvement and consent with the multiple languages offered. Be curious as to see if Australian, Canadian, Kiwi, Brazilian, and Pan-African editions will eventually exist--and to what degree with the TV rights to some events in other nations may be tied up at another broadcasting entity. Just needed to be reminded about the "no actual Olympic sports competition going on during the Olympics". Should read up the thread to remind myself. Silly me! The news, analysis, and talking heads are what we can expect to see like a Meet The Olympic Press Pyeongchang and Tokyo versions. Featured documentaries, other features, and other material too, as you say Quaker.

Does make me wonder what role exactly will the Olympic Channel will play for Tokyo and Pyeongchang since this is fully owned by NBCUniversal. I would imagine along with analysis and news and ceremonies replays, sports that tend to get short shrift within the regular NBC Olympic roster of TV networks will head in that direction like sailing, handball, judo, fencing, wrestling, and some early sessions of gymnastics and track and field. Could be wrong.

NBC's version of the Olympic Channel, the new home of Team USA Olympic Sports, hits the linear airwaves July 15 as the replacement to Universal Sports. Also explains why Universal Sports got shuttered for this: http://awfulannouncing.com/olympics/nbc-officially-announces-olympic-channel-launch-july-15.html http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-sets-olympic-channel-launch-date-1013975

Had three arenas just until mid-2016 with the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, far and away the oldest of them and was the site for the 1984 boxing, met its end several months ago to make way on that real estate for the 22,000-seat Banc of California Stadium, the future home of MLS' Los Angeles FC. Too bad it can't be used for rugby. From 1999-2016 with the Staples Center and the Forum. And that's to say nothing of the Long Beach Arena, the Honda Center, the Pauley Pavilion, and the Galen Center, to name several out there. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was city, county, and state-owned, by the way.

Quite possibly McDonald's hyperextended itself with the IOC, FIFA, and the NFL in its stable.

Interesting and odd. I've only known with the Olympics all my life, like a lot of people here. Doesn't McDonald's make the bulk of their money off of real estate the company owns? Who do you see that will overprice themselves as a TOP sponsor as a food company to replace the Golden Arches? Burger King? They have no sports sponsorship right now since the NFL several years ago.

Yeah, Inglewood City Council approves the new Clippers arena's 3-year negotiation plans. This will give the Los Angeles Clippers--LA's REAL pro basketball team since 1984!--time to plan for it. But you have to wonder about the MSG-owned and operated Great Western Forum, as it's in its 50s but enjoys a great recent renaissance with concerts in the long term beyond the Olympics. I'm sure the LA 2024 Organizing Committee is watching closely at this: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20170615/clippers-take-first-steps-to-inglewood-arena-while-keeping-options-open http://arenadigest.com/2017/06/16/20170616inglewood-approves-la-clippers-agreement/ I hold no doubts because it's the Clippers proposed new arena that the sight lines won't be an issue (but please make sure it learns the lessons to include good hockey sightlines when needed unlike in Phoenix's Talking Stick Resort Arena and Brooklyn's Barclay Center). Agree on the venue distribution for the others. But would the basketball (or maybe handball too) finals be used at Staples because of the strong basketball pedigree after the gymnastics is over. Or will RG get use of it at the end of the Olympics? Where would handball head to if the Clippers arena get built? Nice arrangement if agreed upon.

But that's some time away, depending on the Inglewood City Council vote today. Unless it did get approval now. Even with that I can't see the planned 18-20,000-seat new arena across the street from Stan Kroenke's dome be completed and opening in time for 2024, the year of the end of the Staples Center lease. Should Los Angeles gets the 2028 bid, the venue can be worked in

The good times keep rolling for South Korean ice hockey as they continue to improve on the world scene leading up to being the Pyeongchang hosts and hopefully beyond. I will get more details about the latest exploits next week. But South Korea actually won a stunning promotion to the ultimate level of IIHF hockey in Kiev, Ukraine for the first time ever with Austria next year bound for Denmark, becoming the first Asian nation at that level Japan in 1998-2004 with the South Koreans now overtaking the Japanese as the top Asian ice hockey nation. South Korea is now ranked 22nd with 1915 points in the IIHF Women's World Ranking, up a spot ahead of the British women who tumbled two spots after the Women's World Ice Hockey Championships in multiple levels.

And I can now present ABC's Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympics schedule that was 50.5 to 51 hours of coverage, more than any previous American TV coverage of the Winter Olympics at this point. You know the one with the Miracle On Ice USA team against the all-powerful Soviet Red ice hockey machine that actually was on tape delay, though shown in its entirety on February 22 causing an expansion to 7:30pm CT. Oh, and Eric Heiden's 5 golds. But the CBC which does show the OCs twice, showed it live. NBC technically does show the ceremonies twice but after the primetime airing it goes on to the late night repeat. But never live from the location and then on primetime. Interestingly, the Opening Ceremony was aired twice on Wednesday, February 14 1-3pm CT live and then at 8-10pm on delay. The following ABC schedule from Zander Hollander's Lake Placid 1980: The Complete Handbook of the Olympic Winter Games that later went through some changes (too bad it isn't detailed here about what viewers expect to see like speed skating, skiing, and figure skating). Why was the late night segment just 15 minutes long when no less than a half hour would suffice. Don't worry Panamfan, keep on giving us the details including this one when you get to it: All times were Eastern.Tuesday, February 12th, 1980: 9-11 P.M. (Olympic Preview)Wednesday, February 13th: 2-4 P.M. (Live Broadcast of Opening Ceremonies)and 9-11 P.M. (Rebroadcast of Opening Ceremonies)Thursday, February 14th: 8:30-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Friday, February 15th: 8:30-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Saturday, February 16th; 1-3:30 P.M., 9-11 P.M., and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Sunday, February 17th: 1-3:30 P.M., 8-11 P.M., and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Monday, February 18th: 9-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Tuesday, February 19th: 8-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Wednesday, February 20th: 9-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Thursday, February 21st: 8-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Friday, February 22nd: 9-11 P.M. and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Saturday, February 23rd: 12:30-3:30 P.M., 8-11 P.M., and 11:30-11:45 P.M.Sunday, February 24th: 12 Noon-6 P.M., and 8-11 P.M. (the latter a Live Broadcast of the Closing Ceremonies) Although ABC scheduled 50 1/2 hours of coverage from Lake Placid (and eventually broadcast 51 hours; see below), it was still much more television coverage than any previous Winter Olympics. I think ABC broadcast some 37 or 38 hours from Innsbruck in 1976.As I mentioned above, there were two changes made to the above schedule. The first was a few weeks after the book was printed. The Lake Placid Organizing committee decided to move the start time of the first of the two hockey games on the final day of the Olympics (February 24th) from 12 Noon to 11 A.M., and ABC's daytime broadcast schedule for that day was adjusted, so coverage was seen from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. and again from 3 to 6 P.M., both Eastern time.The second change to ABC's broadcast schedule came during the Games. Once the U.S./Soviet Union matchup in hockey was set for February 22nd, ABC expanded that night's prime-time show from 9 to 11 P.M. EST to 8:30-11 P.M. EST in order to show the game in full (However, it was NOT broadcast live--it was seen on a three-and-a-half hour tape-delay). By the way, although the game was on tape (as was the men's slalom ski race, which was edited down to two ten-minute segments and shown between periods of the U.S./U.S.S.R. hockey game), studio host Jim McKay was live, and I recall he opened that evening's prime-time broadcast by noting that there was "a lot of excitment here in Lake Placid. Tonight, we're going to show you the big hockey games between the United States and Russia in it's entirety, a game that ended just about an hour ago. It's possible you may already have heard what happened. Let's watch the game, as called earlier this evening by our Al Micheals and former Montreal Canadiens all-star goaltender Ken Dryden...".After the tape of the game was shown, there was enough time for McKay to come back to close the prime-time broadcast by saying something to the effect of "The game you just watched was taped earlier this evening. The scene you're now watching in the streets of Lake Placid is live, and it's fans who have been celebrating all evening what has to be the biggest upset in the history of sport. Teenagers are singing 'God Bless America'! When was the last time we heard teenagers sing that?? Congratulations to Team U.S.A., and join us Sunday at 11 A.M. Eastern when they take on Finland for the Gold, live here on ABC!".By the way, only three of the seven team U.S.A. hockey games during the 1980 Winter Olympics were shown in their entirety by ABC: The Norway game (live on February 16th), the Russia game (on a 3 1/2-hour tape delay February 22nd) and the Finland game (live on February 24th). I think the Finland game may even have been shown live on the West Coast, where it would have aired live at 8 A.M. PST. Maybe someone in California can answer that question for me.Despite being shown on tape, the U.S./Russia hockey game was one of the highest-rated television programs of the entire 1979/80 television season. I'm tempted to say that Super Bowl XIV and the season finale of "Dallas" where J.R. got shot were the only two television programs during the 1979/80 season that drew more viewers than the U.S./Russian Olympic hockey game.http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?460819-Retro-Olympics-ABC-s-Broadcast-Schedule-For-The-1980-Winter-Games-In-Lake-Placid Yes, the Miracle On Ice game. When word came around that the United States had a good chance in staying toe to toe with the Soviets as things unfolded, ABC programmers announced the game will be shown in its entirety which explains in part the delay. Had the game proceeded with the expected Soviet shellacking, it would only just get a segment or two while bouncing around to other events, confirming the lack of optimism coming in with that brutal 10-3 tuneup game in New York's MSG as touched on in the Emmy Award-winning 30 For 30 Of Miracles and Men. Look kids! It's Jaime Farr from M*A*S*H* enjoying the game! Same game and commentary but with all of the ABC presentation like Jim McKay introducing and emotionally closing it along with Jim Lampley's postgame interview outside the ice rink with many proud fans with reflecting interviews during the two intermissions from the players. I kinda like having the whole hog you know, when it comes to matters like this (don't worry, just click on). All on ESPN Classic:

Agreed because we at least have another outlet to turn to along with YouTube for ceremony watching. But at least they're doing something to compensate the deletions at last. The Olympic Channel, by the way, recently put up the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony documentary called Viva. Wonder if this was on Globo TV/SporTV back in Brazil: https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/viva/

So there IS ample evidence that NBC DID broadcast an offshore non-Americas-based Opening Ceremony live with Tokyo, something we can't expect with next Tokyo Olympiad in less than three years. And it was during the late night hours. Surely NBC was promoting this OC having in color for the first time and via satellite. But at the time slot it was under back then and not many Americans yet to have color TVs, NBC presumed not many Americans will be able to stay up and watch. Too bad there's little surviving footage of NBC's coverage of these Tokyo Olympics because NBC underwent a cost-cutting measure to re-record footage onto other shows with its videotapes for they were expensive until the early 1970s, deeming the practice too expensive. A shame since had they survived we would certainly see many of them on YouTube now. Seeing the schedules on ABC, NBC, and CBS back then from this Olympic era with the limited number of TV hours aired on American TV overall, it was amazing if during the slots they got that were usually no more than an hour a day save for perhaps on weekends they would be able to cram a lot of action from various Olympic sports. So strange to see this largely restricted to the late prime time/late night hours or in pre-syndication early evening/late afternoon. What they likely did was maybe save for the top Olympic events, perhaps bounce around the sports while they're in progress or more likely presented them in daily highlight package with summaries. Indeed some Olympic sports were neglected or skipped over due to the fact that they weren't popular in the United States or that we Americans lacked serious medal contenders in them or failed to enter. Like for example the dearth of soccer and field hockey in the TV schedule. Granted, there were less sports in this era than they are now. With TV space at a premium and no cable back then much less the Internet to amplify the Olympic broadcast further like we do nowdays, I stand to reason greater emphasis was placed on the United States Olympic Teams and little bit of the Soviet bloc in the sports the former were in. Wasn't until seeing the Mexico City 1968 TV schedule that I noticed that track and field started earlier than swimming, a rare thing. And that equestrian traditionally ended things before the opening ceremony. Modern pentathlon started very early too in this era, but there was men's team competition then.

It's why I would grant the Olympic Channel people some time in converting from SD onto HD with past ceremonies. Much less 8KTV UHD. One thing I spot with these online at the Olympic Channel is that the showing goes right from the countdown onward instead of giving aerial shots of the Olympic Stadium and surrounding areas and the moments spectators are awaiting anticipation (like seeing themselves on the scoreboard and waving) of the start unlike we would see from the global TV broadcasters. Being an international channel and not wishing to show any bias to broadcasters regardless of language is to keep them at venue audio only (aka the world feed), though broadcast rights holders like, say, SuperSport, are free of course to inject theirs into it during broadcast. Also, and we surely noticed this already through YouTube, I think it wasn't until 1988 that we're now hearing the PA announcer saying the required IOC two official languages (and the host nations' ones that aren't them included like Spanish and Catalan with Barcelona). Around that time period if maybe a little later with both male and female PA announcers speaking in different languages to represent gender equality. It will take a while for Moscow's and Lake Placid's to get included. I'm willing to wait...

Canadian Olympic Committee hosted a 2-day Team Canada Pyeongchang 2018 Media Summit at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre this past weekend with Canada's 75 Olympians and Paralympians made available for it to coincide with the Olympic Lab that was going on too: http://aroundtherings.com/site/A__60283/Title__Canada-Hosts-PyeongChang-2018-Media-Summit----Conferences-and-Conventions/292/Articles TV3 Lietuva plans for an Olympic Day celebration live from Ayltus with a short live broadcast throughout the day and also more from 19:30 Lithuanian time. It will also get involved with the broadcasting of the LTeam Olympic Festival, LTeam Sports Awards among others with association and co-production from the LTOK. Came upon the announcement that TV3 and TV6 Lietuva and the tv3.lt portal will act as the official Lithuanian Olympic broadcast platforms: http://sportas.lrytas.lt/startai/2017/05/25/news/ltok-vykdomojo-komiteto-posedyje---ir-ziemos-olimpiniu-zaidyniu-atgarsiai-1398734/ http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2017-01-17-2018-ir-2020-metu-olimpines-zaidynes-transliuos-tv3-televizija/154266