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

Macklin Celebrini is selected with the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks at The Sphere.

There's a lot to buzz about in Silicon Valley with the San Jose Sharks building toward what could be a bright future. But has the NHL inadvertently hindered a big night for the Bay Area's professional hockey club?

Team Teal selected Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick in last week's NHL Draft, and the countdown is on to watch the 2024 Hobey Baker winner make his debut in San Jose. That excitement was furthered on Monday when the NHL announced every team's home opener for the 2024-25 season, revealing the Sharks will kick off their home campaign against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, Oct. 10.

Just one caveat: The Sharks will have serious competition for viewers that night since puck drop with be during the San Francisco 49ers' Week 6 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday Night Football.

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.

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