Hockey Now As Popular as Basketball

[DigDug 5]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/don-t-tell-espn-poll-finds-hockey-popular-171014576.html

[goblue9280 33]

That's fine and all, but if you take the 36% who answered football, and had them answer which was their 2nd favorite sport, I bet basketball blows hockey away.

[DigDug 5]

Yeah, I think even the article's author doesn't buy it. Why is hockey so unpopular? No other scoring sport has as many scoring attempts yet so few goals. This is what makes it magical (that, and on-the-fly substitution).

[goblue9280 33]

Not to mention the physicality of the game, the quicker pace that being on ice allows, and the fact that if the gameclock is running, there is action.

I think popularity has a lot to do with exposure. I'm sure cricket and rugby are great sports, but having never been exposed to it during my life, I don't follow it at all. Everyone in the US plays schoolyard football, baseball and basketball growing up. Hockey, however, remains expensive and isolated. So the real question is, why the hell is soccer not more popular in the US?

[goaliemanshark 6]

Soccer is popular. But not at a professional level. Basically everyone I grew up with played league soccer in some way before they went to Middle School. But, I am in California.

Soccer isn't popular professionally becasuse there are no commercial stoppages, therefore, it gets little to no TV air time. This is the main reason football is the most popular sport, you have a bajillion commercials.

[DigDug 5]

Good points. I think soccer is not as popular, fully despite having a developed infrastructure as a youth sport, is simply because it requires a different sort of fan - the atmosphere at soccer games abroad, and to a greater extent cricket games - has an indpendence from the game itself. It is extremely common to see fans of the losing team dancing and singing together (with trumpets and drums no less) despite their team losing, I believe even the usually over-competitive Australian team has a fan base that enjoys themelces in a similar manner. This is really just not something I've seen in American sports, even in its rough counterparts (baseball being a good example of a no-clock game like cricket, yet away more serious). The only US sport I've seen something similar has been the young crowds at the Kentucky Derby on the infield (the polar opposite of the feeling in the stands). But that us its own unique event so it isn't a useful comparison.

[Chadd 916]

take all of the sports listed and ask which is their least favorite and hockey would be #1 or #2.

[sheffy 0]

chadd... i completely disagree with you

[DigDug 5]

Sheffy, I don't know if I agree with Chadd, but I do notice that people are overtly vocal about how much they hate Hockey. It used to be because of "the fighting", but now its more of an "I can't see where the puck is". Though, I must say that every non-hockey fan I've taken to a hockey game, has come away *amazed* at the excitement and atmosphere.

I don't understand the allure of basketball as a spectator sport, especially at the pro level - you can cut out the 1st 3 quarters and you'll still be at a 2-point difference. What the hell is the point?

[Chadd 916]

chadd... i completely disagree with you

Disagree all you want, but hockey is usually either someone's favorite sport or they don't care about it at all.

[ArrogantOwl 7]

Lacrosse is right up there with Hockey in gamestyle, but a lot less popular than it.

[BarDownGinos 3]

The more difficult the sport is to play, and the harder it is to understand, the less enthusiasm there will be for it.

GENERALLY, the dumbest hockey player comes off as a rhodes scholar compared with his equals in the other Big 3. Fans follow suit.

[Chadd 916]

The more difficult the sport is to play, and the harder it is to understand, the less enthusiasm there will be for it.

GENERALLY, the dumbest hockey player comes off as a rhodes scholar compared with his equals in the other Big 3. Fans follow suit.

Did you watch the all star draft? More than a few of the guys had the charisma of a puck. There are also a lot of fans that care more about fights and hits than goals and saves. There are more knuckle draggers on and off the ice in hockey rinks than most of us like to admit.

[iceNsteel 0]

Americans pretty much view soccer as something kids do until they're old enough for contact and then they play football. After middle school age soccer is pretty much a girl's sport. A larger percentage of American kids play soccer prior to age 12 than do British kids, but you hit that middle school switch to football and soccer becomes totally irrelevant on the men's/boy's side.

I've never been worried about the popularity thing all that much. Just being realistic I don't think hockey will ever crack into racial minority communities. It's too regional, too expensive, and tends to be viewed as a white boy's sport. Without cracking into minority communities hockey will not match basketball's popularity. As for white people, it's still largely a regional thing. If you're from the north east you're probably into hockey and outside of that there's a limited exposure to hockey. I also think the fighting is a huge turn off to a big chunk of the public. You can argue for the necessity of fighting, and you might even be right, but it won't change the general public perception is that it's thuggish.

End of the day though, it's really no big deal. Not being the most popular sport doesn't stop anyone from enjoying it. Rugby is never going to be huge here, doesn't mean I enjoy that any less. Not every sport can have the following that football does. But I think that leaves hockey a lot of potential for growth. Hockey is a game that you can play for life. Unlike football, which for most participation ends in the late fall of your senior year of high school.

[tareatingrat 4]

Yup. Pretty much comes down to exposure and expense.

You also can't just pick up hockey like you can football or basketball. Honestly, you pretty much start those sports in junior high, seriously in high school. If you haven't been skating since you were five, you're gonna have a lot of catching up to do.

[CaptainFantastik 0]

I don't want it to gain mass appeal. I like it just where it is, under the radar.

[DigDug 5]

I've never understood this. To me, the feeling of liking something less mainstream is far outweighed by the overall benefit that exposure would bring. Just think, if hockey was more popular, there would be just that much more competition among brands and all the obvious benefits that come from that (innovation, pricing, etc). More LHS's could proper. More teams could exist, more talent would become available, and there would be more hockey to love!

I don't want it to gain mass appeal. I like it just where it is, under the radar.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

I think both the past olympic run with Canada and the U.S. in the finals as well as the Winter Classic have really helped broaden the appeal of the sport. When I started in high school, we were one of the few towns with a team. Now pretty much all the towns have teams. And we went from having 2 rinks in the immediate area to currently having 5+. It's definitely been growing a lot over the past decade, I just fear with the cost of the sport and the recession we're in, that it may stunt the growth. Hockey's a money sport, no way around it, really.

[Chadd 916]

The game has not been growing in the US for several years. USA Hockey has hidden much of that growth by telling rinks that they will not get USA Hockey tournaments unless all youth and adult programs are registered. The 500-600 adults that were forced to sign up more than made up for the youth programs that have been cut by about 1/3 in the area. USA Hockey screwed up by not using the low cost of inline hockey to grow the game. There are still too many people that think hockey is only played on ice and it is not good for the growth of the game.

[mug25 2]

I just fear with the cost of the sport and the recession we're in, that it may stunt the growth. Hockey's a money sport, no way around it, really.

$250 OPS sticks....$800 skates. The rich kiddies parents still fork ove the $$$.

[Jason Harris 31]

Chadd, I'm not sure "hate" is the right word. There is certainly a large group who detest the fighting -- or what they've heard about the fighting, because many of them have never even watched a game -- but perhaps a larger percentage of people just don't understand it. While they think they don't like the sport, they actually can turn into fans by having someone explain the game to them. My lin-laws are a prime example of that, because The Big D turned into a solid hockey fan over our years together, her brother has enjoyed it whenever we've taken him, and her father is begrudgingly accepting the sport now that we've been able to find rinks that are warm enough for him to watch his granddaughters playing.

[Chadd 916]

Chadd, I'm not sure "hate" is the right word. There is certainly a large group who detest the fighting -- or what they've heard about the fighting, because many of them have never even watched a game -- but perhaps a larger percentage of people just don't understand it. While they think they don't like the sport, they actually can turn into fans by having someone explain the game to them. My lin-laws are a prime example of that, because The Big D turned into a solid hockey fan over our years together, her brother has enjoyed it whenever we've taken him, and her father is begrudgingly accepting the sport now that we've been able to find rinks that are warm enough for him to watch his granddaughters playing.

Your argument in favor shows exactly why hockey doesn't grow significantly. It takes time and, more often than not, some other reason for becoming interested in the game. It's not the type of sport that people happen to come across and become a fan. And I never said hate.

$250 OPS sticks....$800 skates. The rich kiddies parents still fork ove the $$$.

And usually taunt the kids that can't afford those high end items.

[Rumblefish 1]

When I was a kid on the verge of discovering hockey in the Detroit area, it was my father who, while watching a Leafs vs Canadiens game on TV, explained the game to me, told me the history of the teams, etc.. There was a reverence in his voice. As a kid, I knew what he was saying was important to him. This had a big effect on me. My father's love of the game was transferred to me. When it comes to growing the game, I think a lot of it comes, not from USA Hockey or other outside attempts to market it, it comes from learning about it from someone who has influence on you. In some areas of the US that kind of transfer to a new generation can't happen in large enough numbers. Same way that when a typical father in the US tells his son or daughter about soccer there won't be the same gleam in the eye as when talking about baseball. Kids pick up on this I believe.

[Jason Harris 31]

Your argument in favor shows exactly why hockey doesn't grow significantly. It takes time and, more often than not, some other reason for becoming interested in the game. It's not the type of sport that people happen to come across and become a fan. And I never said hate.

Are you playing games as a moderator? I could have sworn you wrote "hate!"

[DigDug 5]

This is a very good point, and I hadn't thought of it this way before. The funny thing, however, is that hockey is the one sport that I wasn't exposed to by people influential in my life, and its the one that I instantly loved. I think there is something about getting a stick and puck-handling as a kid that feels so good. The feeling gotten from performing a nice deke, is just *awesome* for lack of a better word and its something that doesn't, itself, take tremendous athletic skill to do.

When I was a kid on the verge of discovering hockey in the Detroit area, it was my father who, while watching a Leafs vs Canadiens game on TV, explained the game to me, told me the history of the teams, etc.. There was a reverence in his voice. As a kid, I knew what he was saying was important to him. This had a big effect on me. My father's love of the game was transferred to me. When it comes to growing the game, I think a lot of it comes, not from USA Hockey or other outside attempts to market it, it comes from learning about it from someone who has influence on you. In some areas of the US that kind of transfer to a new generation can't happen in large enough numbers. Same way that when a typical father in the US tells his son or daughter about soccer there won't be the same gleam in the eye as when talking about baseball. Kids pick up on this I believe.