Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

[jake19ny]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

I think there are a multitude of reasons many which will never change. For starters someone pointed out the regional aspect. This is true but even in those regions the sport is still not popular enough. I think the NHL does a horrific job of marketing itself. Nascar showed just how good marketing can take a sport that was somewhat regional and make it boom all over the U.S. I also think the seasons start and finish are ill timed and to long for the casual fan or to attract new fans.... .and this will never change. Football Baseball and Basketball still trump hockey in the U.S. and the season starts around week 4 of the NFL as well as during the playoffs/world series for baseball. They then compete with the NFL season/playoffs/superbowl as well as the NBA. Then as the season winds down we hit warm weather and the start of baseball again. The Stanley Cup is played in June when much of the U.S. is having gorgeous outdoor weather and baseball well underway. The casual fan or non fan could care less about the NHL if there home team is not making a run for the cup. Like I said good marketing could help. the NHL players are probably the most fan freindly and down to earth people out of all the major sports and the NHL should use that to its advantage. Oh shutting your sport down once every 5 years is not going to help either.................

[Gotmilkman24]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

let me put it this way being American. We love hockey, hockey is the best sport out there next to football. Where hockey runs into trouble with its player base is the fact that football.. baseball.. and basketball people can just pick up a ball and play. Hockey is a very expensive sport to get into. It requires blades, gear, a net, sticks, and so on. In the end to get the full rush of hockey you would like to have all of the equipment. I personally do not want to get hit by a puck without body armor on lol..
Thats my opinion on why its not as big as the other sports our country is so big on.

[TjJunior]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

To paint brush and say Americans don't like hockey would be the same as someone saying "Why don't Canadians like baseball, football or basketball?" Shouldn't single out Americans in that kind of statement because last time I'm checked the majority of the teams in the NHL are based in America and a lot of the arenas are sold out. Who buy's those tickets??? Americans! I can tell you for a fact that here in Tampa, the Lightning have more of a capacity over the past few years than the Bucs and Rays! I for one love hockey and I know there are approximately 18,000 people in this area that love it. So to ask the question and label Americans is just wrong!

Just a litte story from my personal: I work overnight in a hotel, so I have to make breakfast for guest in the AM. I usually just sit here and watch paint dry until about 4:00 am, then I watch sports highlights sportscenter first, then the NHL network or NBA which ever sport is in season. About two weeks ago, Im watching highlights of the final NHL regular season games. A guest comes down from his room watches about two or three minutes and asks me to change the channel. I asked to what he said to anything but hockey, we're not in CANADA! My thoughts are as yours, most all teams are American teams, there is even an American Hockey League, but to SOME americans maybe the majority, hockey is seen as not American. Oh yeah does anyone know what back bacon is?

[rkwittem]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

I think it's simple, and most of you have outlined the main reasons:

1. It's low-scoring
2. It's regional. I grew up in the upper midwest and they love hockey there. Not as much elsewhere. Kids in Florida don't grow up going to Lightning games. They go to Gators games and Heat games and Dolphins games. Or any of the other 800 pro teams there. Football is the state religion in the south.
3. There aren't enough Americans in the sport. This leads to my main point.

4. It's hard to follow. I started watching the sport closely early this year. I still don't know as many of the players as I would like. I think most people watching a sport with athletes they don't know and have never heard of. Basically it boils down to them being super lazy. They don't want to go through the effort of learning it.

5. It's not on TV enough. I wish the NHL would be more aggressive with their TV stuff. Try to get games on as often as they can. Doc Emrick is a national treasure, yet most of my football-obsessed buddies have never heard of him. And that's a shame.

[ravensfan52]

Hey all. Been a few years since posting here on OS, thought I'd chime in on the subject.

I'm from Baltimore, 23 years old. Maybe it's because we didn't have an NHL team when I was growing up, but I did not care for hockey at all. I'm a sports nut, love all the others. (that being said I always hear from folks older than me that Baltimore had the minor league skipjacks and clippers, which had a nice following and drew decent crowds to our ancient downtown civic center)

Had no interest whatsoever, didn't know the rules or all the teams. Just seemed like low scoring and back and forth. I'd rather watch anything else. During the 04 lockout I was like "who cares, maybe it will drive away the fans they do have left." I couldn't care less!

Fast forward to 2007-08. Because I'm in Baltimore I get all of the Capitals games on local TV. Love him or hate him, I don't think you can argue that Alex Ovechkin is so much fun to watch. His play and the Caps playoff appearance that season got me pretty interested.

Over the past 5-6 years my love of hockey has exploded. I absolutely love the Caps, but I find myself watching any national game I can find. I watch the nhl network quite a bit too. (since espn's hockey coverage is atrocious).

I have bought the last 3 versions of NHL for ps3 and have played hours and hours and HOURS of games online. It is so much fun. I finally get all the rules, the line changes, the strategy. The strategy part I probably don't know as in depth as a lifelong fan. But man it is so much more fun to watch when you know what's going on.

I'm amazed during games how these guys will fly up and down the ice fighting for the puck, fighting for position. That's what I enjoy. Obviously everyone wants to see goals. But I really appreciate and respect the hard work that goes into a goal.

I've attended 3 caps games (including game 2 of this year's first round series against the Rangers) over the past 2 seasons, and I can't wait to attend more.

As others have noted, the amount of action in relation to commercial breaks is so nice! And how about overtime in the playoffs. Is there anything better than that? Zero commercials there!

So bottom line, I'm hooked on hockey. It's a great game, a wonderful sport. I'm quite embarrassed how ignorant I was about the game until I was about 18. But I'm on board now and I'm not going anywhere. Peace!

Sent from my Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2

[bwiggy33]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Hey all. Been a few years since posting here on OS, thought I'd chime in on the subject.

I'm from Baltimore, 23 years old. Maybe it's because we didn't have an NHL team when I was growing up, but I did not care for hockey at all. I'm a sports nut, love all the others. (that being said I always hear from folks older than me that Baltimore had the minor league skipjacks and clippers, which had a nice following and drew decent crowds to our ancient downtown civic center)

Had no interest whatsoever, didn't know the rules or all the teams. Just seemed like low scoring and back and forth. I'd rather watch anything else. During the 04 lockout I was like "who cares, maybe it will drive away the fans they do have left." I couldn't care less!

Fast forward to 2007-08. Because I'm in Baltimore I get all of the Capitals games on local TV. Love him or hate him, I don't think you can argue that Alex Ovechkin is so much fun to watch. His play and the Caps playoff appearance that season got me pretty interested.

Over the past 5-6 years my love of hockey has exploded. I absolutely love the Caps, but I find myself watching any national game I can find. I watch the nhl network quite a bit too. (since espn's hockey coverage is atrocious).

I have bought the last 3 versions of NHL for ps3 and have played hours and hours and HOURS of games online. It is so much fun. I finally get all the rules, the line changes, the strategy. The strategy part I probably don't know as in depth as a lifelong fan. But man it is so much more fun to watch when you know what's going on.

I'm amazed during games how these guys will fly up and down the ice fighting for the puck, fighting for position. That's what I enjoy. Obviously everyone wants to see goals. But I really appreciate and respect the hard work that goes into a goal.

I've attended 3 caps games (including game 2 of this year's first round series against the Rangers) over the past 2 seasons, and I can't wait to attend more.

As others have noted, the amount of action in relation to commercial breaks is so nice! And how about overtime in the playoffs. Is there anything better than that? Zero commercials there!

So bottom line, I'm hooked on hockey. It's a great game, a wonderful sport. I'm quite embarrassed how ignorant I was about the game until I was about 18. But I'm on board now and I'm not going anywhere. Peace!

Sent from my Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2

To me that's awesome. The rules are not hard to get if you just take a little time to learn them. There's some people, especially basketball fans, that won't even give the sport a chance. They just say they dislike it without even coming close to watching the game and understanding what's going on. It's just that hockey vs. basketball rivalry. People have to come in with an open mind before watching a new sport. Most of my friends were pretty much football and basketball fans. I converted almost every one of my friends to like watching hockey over any other sport. With them watching me play hockey in HS (5 years ago I graduated), and me watching so much hockey, they decided to learn the game from me. Since my senior year of HS we have all played countless hours of pond hockey, countless games of NHL, and countless hours of watching hockey. We all pretty much just graduated from college so we are able to watch the playoffs together once again. They are now asking me questions about the more complex issues of the sport.

With that I think another factor is many times people need someone to help them understand the sport. My friends knew most of the rules, but next to nothing about the actual game. The fact they had me to ask whatever they wanted helped them greatly. In fact they used what they learned from me to teach people they met in college about the sport, and have converted some of those people to like the sport.

It's all about coming in with an open mind. If someone actually tries playing or watching the sport and say they don't like it, then that's fine. However, when someone has no basis on why they don't like the sport that's when I get a little angry. I don't like basketball at all, but I've spent time watching it over the course of my life that I've formulated that opinion. I know exactly what's going on in the sport, the players (college and NBA), etc. I stay in tune with the sport, I just haven't watched over 1 minute of the NBA in 3 years.

[gopher_guy]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Yeah, it seems like basketball and hockey have the biggest "rivalry" between two fan bases than any other sport.

To be honest, I think most people who don't like hockey (or at least people who just have not been exposed to it) would be converted if they went to a couple games and sat with someone who knows the game and is willing to explain it to them.

When I got to college, I was a huge Minnesota hockey fan but my roommate couldn't care less about hockey. I convinced him to get season tickets with me; we went to the games and for the first 4 or 5 he was constantly asking me what was going on. About half way through the season he was hooked; huge hockey fan now.

[thedudedominick]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

I'm one of those Americans who grew up in a non-traditional hockey market in Arizona. If it wasn't for NHL 93 or 94 I never would have payed any attention to hockey. Because of those video games I tried to get my parents to let me play hockey, but the nearest rink would have been a 4 hour drive. Unfortunately this is why in a lot of the southern states the participation and interest in Hockey is so low.

I played football, baseball, and basketball growing up. My family didn't have to buy me any equipment outside of cleats, bats, and gloves. Unfortunately if I even wanted to play roller hockey in my area growing up they would have had to buy me a full set of gear even for a non-contact league. I never got to play hockey purely because of the costs and lack of available options/leagues.

Our winters were in the 50s-80s temperature wise so we didn't even have ice when it was the coldest. Me and some friends had a couple sticks and a street hockey ball that we used to mess around with, but other than playing in the driveway occasionally there was no big hockey following or anyone we could go to to help us learn the rules of the game.

Because of all this I never followed the NHL up until the lockout. I played the video games, but hardly ever watched it because my family wasn't into it and there was just one tv in the house. I moved to Vegas when I was 15 right around the same time they started the Las Vegas Wranglers (an ECHL team.). I didn't truly fall in love with Hockey until I saw a game in person. Once I went to an ECHL game I was sold and as soon as the lockout ended I became a fan. Being in the Vegas area I became a Kings fan due to getting to watch pretty much every game on Fox Sports West.

I mention all of this because I think a lot of Americans in non-traditional markets can relate to my story. It's not that we don't like hockey, we just don't know any better because of our lack of options. Those of us that do finally find the game it ends up being one of our favorite sports.

I think the key points (if you don't want to read all of this) to lack of interest in non-traditional markets is:

1) Availability. Hockey rinks and leagues as well as equipment is not readily available to us.

2) Cost. Because of the lack of availabilty, it would add to the already large costs of playing the sport to have to drive 200 miles just to play an organized league.

3) Lack of Coverage. We all know ESPN is terrible with their coverage of hockey post lockout, which is where casual sports fans get most of their sports information.

[Redacted01]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

I, for the life of me can not understand how people can watch a car drive in circles for 5 straight hours, but NASCAR is super popular.

Could I ever learn to like NASCAR, prob not, just like it would be tough to get someone from deep in the south to start watching hockey.

It is a natural talent one has to be born with. I've gotten a girl who wasn't into sports from the north into NASCAR (as well as football and baseball) and I got my best friend (and NASCAR fan) from Mississippi into hockey with last year's playoffs. He watches several games a week now.

And for those that just think NASCAR is cars going in circles, they just aren't able to understand

[BJNT]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Well for me hockey is pretty much my third favorite sport behind basketball and football. I got into it kind of late back in 1996 as a teen. I fell in love with the Colorado Avalanche's run to the cup and they became my favorite team. I also enjoyed the Anaheim Ducks back when they were the Mighty Ducks because I liked their logo and jersey. Plus, I thought it was cool that a team from a movie was made into a real life pro sports franchise. I enjoyed also the Dallas Stars being born and raised in Houston,Texas even though like most people from Houston I'm inclined to loathe anything Dallas. And of coarse we had the Aeros down here for a while.

And a lot of kids I went to school with had San Jose Sharks jackets although I doubt they knew that they were a real life team. They probably just liked the logo as did I. Hockey combines the speed and athleticism of basketball with the power and brute force of football. So it combines my two favorite sports into one. I doubt it will pass basketball and football as my favorite sport, but I do enjoy it. And definitely hope that my Avalanche take Seth Jones with the number one pick in the entry draft!

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Dallas Stars "born"? Blasphemy!

[BJNT]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Dallas Stars "born"? Blasphemy!

Lol. I was refering to myself as a born and raised Texan.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Lol. I was refering to myself as a born and raised Texan.

Ah yes. Misread on my part.

[canesfins]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Probably not enough exposure, most American sports fans like myself watch sports center and they are too busy with reporting what Tebow had for breakfast and talk about hockey for 5 minutes. Also not enough televised games for teams that aren't local. I just got into hockey this year. Also if you have a crappy dorm tv you can't see the puck Go Caps!

[canesfins]

Re: Why don't people (especially Americans) like hockey?

Also this probably has to do with tv contracts and deals, but how come I never see a nhl game on espn? For such a major sport it should get way more tv time.