Did NHL do Celebrini, Sharks a disservice with home-opener scheduling?

The 49ers remain one of the biggest draws in the Bay Area sports landscape and are part of why the greater San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area ranks 10th in the country in sports team TV market size, according to Sports Media Watch.  In fact, Awful Announcing reported in January that the Niners' divisional playoff game against the Green Bay Packers averaged 37.5 million viewers, making it "the most-watched Saturday telecast on any network since the 1994 Winter Olympics."

That's tough competition for the local hockey franchise, which plays just down the freeway from Levi's Stadium. A historically bad start to the 2023-24 season hit the Sharks hard both in viewership and in-game attendance, and playing opposite Christian McCaffrey and the Niners surely doesn't help.

So while diehard Sharks fans will obviously tune in on Oct. 10 regardless of what other sport is playing, it's hard to ignore that more casual fans will be tuned in to football if given the option.