Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
Well you live in an area where the two most dominant teams are at their lowest point in decades.
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This is true to a point, but my sense is that it's not the only part of the country where interest is either stagnant or waning.
Yes, the Leafs are resurgent on the ice but I don't sense the same mania there would have been a decade, or two or three ago. Hockey in the GTA while still arguably the top dog is increasingly challenged by other sports seen as "sexier" like basketball and soccer.
I am far away of course but to me interest seems stable in the western cities that have teams in the NHL, and slowly declining in parts of the country that are great distances away from NHL clubs.
As I have mentioned before, if you go to Anchorage Alaska the bars are packed with *attentive* people for Monday Night Football and other NFL games (especially the playoffs) even if the closest team is a half a continent away.
You used to have that for the NHL pretty much all across Canada (thinking of places like Halifax, Regina) for big Saturday night games during the season, and for the playoffs. But no so much anymore.