Quote:
Originally Posted by JHikka
That's great, but half of the top teams aren't even located in Canada and the top two are in NHL cities that are already covered by broadcasters via the NHL. I don't blame TSN or others for not wanting to cover Spokane & Everett.
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The fact that many of the best-supported WHL clubs are in the US is a good example of the difference in mindset that Esquire referred to - and in this sense at least the Americans have it right.
Those teams in Spokane, Everett, Portland, etc. play in a league that's from another country, from cities that the average person in those states has never heard of, and people still go out and support their teams well.
Why is that?
Partly because of civic loyalty but also because they know the product on the ice is good and they don't rely on the blessing of corporate bigwigs in ivory towers to tell them what's good or not.
If anything, if there were even more WHL clubs in the US it might be their fans who'd eventually bring the corporate bigwigs into line (like what's happened with NCAA), as opposed to the other way around like it is in Canada.