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Hockey is a niche sport like tennis golf or nascar in the U.S. Hockey was actually a bigger deal in the U.S. in the 70's when Bobby Orr was king playing the Blackhawks Flyers and Rangers hockey was a bigger deal than basketball as the NBA finals were broadcast on tape delay. Had it stayed in northern U.S. markets and expanded into markets that made more sense be it Milwaukee or Seattle instead of the southern strategy folly I think the NHL would be more popular today with better rivalries and markets with more rabid fan bases than a Florida or Carolina that only moderately watches hockey if the team has a deep playoff run to the cup finals.
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I said pretty much this exact thing for formula one racing. Bernie ecclestone and the stakeholders that enabled him mortgaged the future of the sport by abandoning traditional racing hot spots for races in far flung locales that have no tradition whatsoever all because those countries bent over backwards to his ridiculous money demands.
Canadian GP was missed one year and French GP for nine years! Ya the place that invented the automobile and Grand Prix. Thank god that tool is gone but the damage is done. |
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The growing the game initiative may have been a flop relative to other leagues, but I fail to see how opting not to grow the game would have resulted in a better outcome? Quebec City is watching hockey regardless of whether the Nordiques exist or not. The same can't be said of fans elsewhere. |
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Large cities are able to pull in far more television viewers. The US has 3/4ths of the teams and an even higher ratio of new teams. It makes sense that they possess the majority of the weak teams. |
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The Predators are relatively new and they are profitable. |
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To support my point, the salary cap has reached the point that if the Winnipeg Jets spend at the cap they have to make a deep run in the playoffs to break even. They lost money last year for the first time since their move from Atlanta, and that pressure will only persist as the cap increases in the future. Quote:
I don't actually think the NHL's initiative was a failure relative to other leagues at all. Hockey is pretty strong in a few markets right now, in particular Nashville, Dallas, and Tampa, among others. Los Angeles churns out a surprising number of hockey players right now and Arizona is very much on the up. I don't get why people don't see the value in growing this sport for the betterment of its long term interests. Quote:
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With 13000 average attendance in Sunrise there is obviously some creative accounting at work. No one would call that a healthy franchise.
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The thing about a few of the southern teams that Canadians love to deride is that the "problem" franchises have never been good for any sustained amount of time. Carolina has had blips of success (I don't consider them an issue) but aside from a single run neither Florida or Arizona have had any lick of success in twenty years. Certainly that plays a role in penetrating local markets. Nashville's success has done wonders for that market, as did Pittsburgh's run of success for Western Pennsylvania as a non-southern example. |
People in Canada would bitch about and finger point the sucky Sunbelt teams a million times less if only Quebec City and maybe Hamilton had teams, and perhaps if we'd won a Stanley Cup more recently than 1993.
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You guys do realize that if the NHL stays in the US Northeast and Canada that it remains a very small sport akin to lacrosse or curling, right? Were people this salty in 1967 when LA and Oakland came online or were they actually excited that more people got to experience and enjoy the sport they love so much? |
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_N...ion#Opposition Quote:
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I recall in the early 90s Canadians were not especially salty as there was not yet a perception the NHL was robbing Peter to pay Paul. Then the Jets and Nords left the country and the rest is history. Winnipeg got back in by being lucky and playing their cards perfectly. But the lingering impression is of a league that doesn't give a damn about its roots and history. |
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The curling comparison was mentioned... I mean, could you imagine if the curling powers that be just said 'screw you' to the likes of Sudbury, Edmonton and Red Deer and just started giving the big events to Tucson and Bakersfield instead? And then quadrupled the price of tickets of events in Prince Albert and London in the name of "growing the game"? It's absurd. |
As a result I long ago pledged to give the NHL as little as possible of my direct sports entertaiment dollars.
Over the past couple of decades I have violated this pledge on occasion but not that often really. |
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Now that we are up to 31 teams, I'm not sure I could even name all of the teams if I were put on the spot, and I really do wonder how somebody who lives in Florida or California relates to the game - I'm sure they do on some level, but I would hesitate a guess to say not nearly to the extent as somebody in the northern areas, who has spent their childhood playing pickup games on their local frozen pond or lake... Just my opinion, of course... |
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For their other games Carleton and UOttawa probably draw 800-1500 people. Even playoff games may not even break 2000 fans. It's not really equivalent to quasi-big-time NCAA sports which is where I'd place Syracuse in football and basketball. They sometimes play teams like Clemson, West Virginia, Penn State, etc. in football and made the March Madness Final Four in basketball 2-3 years ago. If you're there when there is a game happening there is a very tangible buzz in the city (hotels, restaurants, etc.). And this is a reasonably large metro (600,000?) and not a college-only small town. |
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I've known people who have. Both basketball and football. Actually, I've known two people - unrelated and from two different periods of my life - from Ottawa who had SU football season tickets. One was about 20-25 years ago and one was 5-10 years ago. Neither had any family link to a player on the team. They just liked football a heck of a lot. IIRC these people were Rough Riders or Renegades or Redblacks season ticket holders as well. If you are into that thing it's not that big a commitment in terms of time and travel since SU football only plays 5-6 home games a season. |
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