Sports in Canadian culture

[elly63]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

The idea of living in a place where I can go see a basketball game, baseball game, association football game, ice hockey, rugby league, rugby union, twenty20 cricket, box lacrosse, arena soccer, women's hockey, or Canadian football game simply amuses me. Makes me feel richer.

Ice hockey? Is there any other kind?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

It almost seems like you are a sports communist.

I think you're probably too young to know what the true meaning of "communism" really is.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

I don't quite understand what is wrong with liking sports that are not inherently "Canadian?" Or, to aspire to greatness at these sports as Canadians?

.

What I object to is people going out of their way to *not like* sports precisely because they're Canadian.

I know you've claimed the contrary on here but I am not sure if it's attempt to placate or if you actually feel that way.

Certainly much of the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new sports fan crowd (which is not limited to the GTA in Canada BTW) usually makes no bones about ignoring or even bashing stuff that appears to be too Canadian for their liking. Like the CFL, and increasingly it seems, hockey.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

I find the Wolfpack story compelling. Would you ignore it simply because it isn't natural? Perhaps keep things same old same old for their own sake? I am baffled. I have always found the beauty in sports (as exemplified by the Olympic Games) is in their diversity. The idea of living in a place where I can go see a basketball game, baseball game, association football game, ice hockey, rugby league, rugby union, twenty20 cricket, box lacrosse, arena soccer, women's hockey, or Canadian football game simply amuses me. Makes me feel richer.
.

I am a fan of rugby and soccer. I actually like them more than baseball. I also like hockey and gridiron football. Not too keen on basketball. Love Aussie rules football too.

I've been to the NRL rugby championship game in Australia, AFL finals games and to various derby and finals soccer matches in Europe and Latin America. Among other things.

I was a sports reporter at one time and so saw lots of sporting events of all kinds for work and also out of personal interest.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

Do you like Indian food? Jamaican? Mexican or Thai? Or no. Because they are foreign? If an Indian diner opens in Meaford, Ontario it will be "new" regardless of the fact it has fed South Asia for centuries...and...it will make Meaford a little more interesting, don't you think?

Wolfpack makes things a little more interesting.

Sure I like that stuff but OTOH I am not gonna get a boner simply because some place in Rio does poutine or because people are playing ice hockey in Singapore. Much less have that as an impetus to travel there for reasons of that nature. And most anyone around the world is the same.

People are usually going to be more interested in knowing what's unique to you. Not what you copied from others.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Originally Posted by elly63

Ice hockey? Is there any other kind?

Field. It's been around since the middle ages.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

Field. It's been around since the middle ages.

I think he was being facetious.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What I object to is people going out of their way to *not like* sports precisely because they're Canadian.

I know you've claimed the contrary on here but I am not sure if it's attempt to placate or if you actually feel that way.

Certainly much of the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new sports fan crowd (which is not limited to the GTA in Canada BTW) usually makes no bones about ignoring or even bashing stuff that appears to be too Canadian for their liking. Like the CFL, and increasingly it seems, hockey.

I have always found "not liking" a sport to be more political than personal. I will watch darts if there is a compelling story being told. How can you really dislike a sport? It's a game, not a person or despicable act.

But these are not "new" sports, as you have said. And many people in Canada have been fans of them forever. Technology has given those the means to follow the Indian Premier League or Australian Football League. I can watch Top14 rugby or the Euro Handball Champions League. CBC has every Rugby 7s tournament online. That option was way more difficult just a few short years ago.

In the Canada of old you were kind of forced to follow certain things. That's what was on tv. In the paper. On the radio. All we have to do is go on the Internet now. Perhaps choice has made many realize there is more and they like it. What is wrong with that?

I don't find hockey particularly interesting. I will admit I am somewhat detered by it's small global footprint and significance, but more so that it seems a game of chance rather than skill today. And the NHL competition model is...horrid. But I am not bashing it or ignoring it.

[thoughtsandrobots]

I would argue that nobody owns a sport. The beauty of football is that it is interpreted differently throughout the world - in which every country plays it - and thus, we have so many styles, so many imprints. Canadians playing rugby is not copying anything. When we send our water polo team to the Olympics (if) are we wannabe Hungarians?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

I would argue that nobody owns a sport. The beauty of football is that it is interpreted differently throughout the world - in which every country plays it - and thus, we have so many styles, so many imprints. Canadians playing rugby is not copying anything. When we send our water polo team to the Olympics (if) are we wannabe Hungarians?

The fact that your mind drifted to Hungary for waterpolo kinda proves my point.

Nobody around the world thinks:

Canada? Uh... waterpolo!

Canada? Uh... rugby!

Canada? Uh... basketball!

Canada? Uh... soccer!

Or even:

Canada? Uh... baseball!

Canada? Uh... gridiron!

Naaah.

You're right that we all play each other's games and no one "owns" any sport. That's perfectly fine.

But if people are looking for national or civic "cred" (and I honestly think a lot of people are), you're not going to get it with most of these "new" (sic) sports. Someone else is already sitting in that chair. So good luck with that.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

I have always found "not liking" a sport to be more political than personal. I will watch darts if there is a compelling story being told. How can you really dislike a sport? It's a game, not a person or despicable act.

But these are not "new" sports, as you have said. And many people in Canada have been fans of them forever. Technology has given those the means to follow the Indian Premier League or Australian Football League. I can watch Top14 rugby or the Euro Handball Champions League. CBC has every Rugby 7s tournament online. That option was way more difficult just a few short years ago.

In the Canada of old you were kind of forced to follow certain things. That's what was on tv. In the paper. On the radio. All we have to do is go on the Internet now. Perhaps choice has made many realize there is more and they like it. What is wrong with that?

I don't find hockey particularly interesting. I will admit I am somewhat detered by it's small global footprint and significance, but more so that it seems a game of chance rather than skill today. And the NHL competition model is...horrid. But I am not bashing it or ignoring it.

Hockey the game is fine. It's actually a pretty optimal balance between enough scoring to make it interesting, and scoring being rare enough for each goal to be important.

Compared to the extremes: basketball where a huge percentage of "scores" in a game are largely meaningless and soccer where scoring is very low. (Though I am a soccer fan BTW.)

That said I am one of those who thinks the NHL is slowly killing the game in a number of ways. I won't get into it but every year my interest declines as a result.

In terms of being "political" about the sports you like, on a personal level I actually like the NFL quite a bit but hesitate to jump in more fully as I have a bad taste in mouth as a Canadian over being force-fed the NFL for much of my life, and the analogous attempts by the media, corporations and even random fans to kill off the CFL so we could all live in NFL-only nirvana. BTW those NFL-obsessed people I am referring to are Canadians, not Americans.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Well...I am not going to insult your obvious knowledge or point. You are correct and I get it.

So what you are saying is: Canada....hockey!

My argument would be...not really? I mean, so few places even recognize hockey (the World Cup had to invent two teams to make 8 competitive ones) that I would say you're half right. People in Africa, South America, most of Asia and Oceania. Heck, people all over Europe would probably associate Canada as... 80th in the world or whatever our FIFA ranking is.

That's kinda the reality. So why not go forth and improve upon that. Why not become a rugby super power? A cricket test nation. When we win at hockey we are mostly doing it for ourselves. That's fine. We need that. My point is that I think we also need to win the Gold Medal in Basketball. A World Baseball Classic. An Americas Rugby Championship. The world is too diverse to limit ourselves.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Further to my point above:

Do you agree or disagree that a top 3-5 soccer player globally, from Canada, would instantly become the most famous Canadian athlete of all time? Perhaps not just athlete but person EVER from Canada?

I am talking if on the planet there was Ronaldo, Messi...and Burton from Winnipeg.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

Further to my point above:

Do you agree or disagree that a top 3-5 soccer player globally, from Canada, would instantly become the most famous Canadian athlete of all time? Perhaps not just athlete but person EVER from Canada?

I am talking if on the planet there was Ronaldo, Messi...and Burton from Winnipeg.

Sure, that would almost certainly be the case. But in order for that to happen you'd probably have to have Canada grow into some type of soccer power. Maybe even a super-power. So we'd have some type of "soccer reknown" as well that would go beyond the superstar status of a simple player.

[esquire]

For what it's worth these "new" sports aren't really that "new" and have generally been played at a high level in Canada for decades if not centuries. It's just that it takes some kind of foreign seal of approval to get Canadians interested in them.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

For what it's worth these "new" sports aren't really that "new" and have generally been played at a high level in Canada for decades if not centuries. It's just that it takes some kind of foreign seal of approval to get Canadians interested in them.

If only the Americans could get excited about curling, I swear all of sudden there'd be 50,000 millennials in Maple Leaf Square/Jurassic Park watching the Brier and screaming "haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarder!" in unison.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Originally Posted by Acajack

If only the Americans could get excited about curling, I swear all of sudden there'd be 50,000 millennials in Maple Leaf Square/Jurassic Park watching the Brier and screaming "haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarder!" in unison.

Tad overboard. You're implying that curling is a game that most young people find interesting enough but don't know it yet.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

Tad overboard. You're implying that curling is a game that most young people find interesting enough but don't know it yet.

I was being sarcastic. Though really, curling isn't significantly less fast-paced than, say, baseball.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thoughtsandrobots

Well...I am not going to insult your obvious knowledge or point. You are correct and I get it.

So what you are saying is: Canada....hockey!

My argument would be...not really? I mean, so few places even recognize hockey (the World Cup had to invent two teams to make 8 competitive ones) that I would say you're half right. People in Africa, South America, most of Asia and Oceania. Heck, people all over Europe would probably associate Canada as... 80th in the world or whatever our FIFA ranking is.

That's kinda the reality. So why not go forth and improve upon that. Why not become a rugby super power? A cricket test nation. When we win at hockey we are mostly doing it for ourselves. That's fine. We need that. My point is that I think we also need to win the Gold Medal in Basketball. A World Baseball Classic. An Americas Rugby Championship. The world is too diverse to limit ourselves.

My purpose is not to over-state the global importance of ice hockey. I know it ranks down the list but still, having travelled to much of the world it still is identified with Canada by a lot of people who don't know anything about the sport, but they will recognize it when they see it. Kinda like cricket for Americans: clueless about the rules and everything else, but probably most Americans would still say "hey, that's cricket!" if you showed them a video of The Ashes.

It's also worth noting though that ice hockey is more popular globally than gridiron football is. Gridiron football has a huge number of fans in the U.S. and quite a few in Canada but outside of that its global impact is minimal. (Again, like ice hockey and cricket, billions of people outside North America are aware the NFL's sport exists even if they aren't fans and don't get its appeal at all.)

Ice hockey is actually present as a fairly popular sport (either number one or number two or three) in significantly more countries than gridiron football is.

[thoughtsandrobots]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I was being sarcastic. Though really, curling isn't significantly less fast-paced than, say, baseball.

I know. And yes. However, are there curling equivalents of the home run, stolen base, catch of the week, hit batters, impossible double plays, etc...that millennials can YouTube or Instagram? Curling could take itself less serious on television, host games outside in urban areas or breathtaking and wilderness. Maybe let teams have their own coloured stones with logos.