Biggest hockey city?

[Darkstone42]

Hockey will never be as popular as either of those sports though. Or baseball for that matter. It's good it's doing better, but Americans largely enjoy those sports more and watch them more because they grow up playing them while few grow up playing hockey.

Saying they are "for the most part" thugs is a bit extreme, no?

It's going to take a couple generations to fully manifest, but hockey will compete with those sports in terms of popularity. The number of kids getting into hockey at an early age is increasing every generation, and this recent surge and growth the NHL is experiencing is largely a product of the last generation. Many hockey markets, including places like Dallas, are starting to produce more and more hockey players, and when those kids grow up, their kids will be hockey fans, and the old people who weren't fans will die, and so on.

 

[dash]

Does Steve Perry know that south Detroit = Windsor?!?

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

And the Cowboys are America's team for a reason...A marketing ploy...

Says the Penguins fan.

 

[Darkstone42]

Says the Penguins fan.

I resemble that.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

I resemble that.

I keep forgetting you're a Pens fan.

I AM SUPPOSED TO HATE YOUR GUTS! Or something.

 

[elocomotive]

It's going to take a couple generations to fully manifest, but hockey will compete with those sports in terms of popularity. The number of kids getting into hockey at an early age is increasing every generation, and this recent surge and growth the NHL is experiencing is largely a product of the last generation. Many hockey markets, including places like Dallas, are starting to produce more and more hockey players, and when those kids grow up, their kids will be hockey fans, and the old people who weren't fans will die, and so on.

I agree it will increase, but I don't think it will ever compete with something like basketball. For starters, it's an expensive sport to play. To play basketball or football, you need $20. Heck you only need one friend who has $20 to buy a ball. So there are huge infrastructure disadvantages hockey will always compete with no matter how much people like it.

Then you also have cultural differences. Hockey and soccer are nuanced sports that are as much about the process as results, which doesn't cater to this American notion of results comensurate with effort. In football and basketball, the better team almost always wins. In baseball, the same is true over time. Sports like hockey require more patience, learning about the game, etc. that requires a patient and detail-oriented fan. It simply doesn't cater to American ideals of what a sport should be as much as other games, and there is more loyalty to baseball and basketball as games WE invented.

 

[mattola]

wasnt basketball invented by a canadian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith

 

[Darkstone42]

I agree it will increase, but I don't think it will ever compete with something like basketball. For starters, it's an expensive sport to play. To play basketball or football, you need $20. Heck you only need one friend who has $20 to buy a ball. So there are huge infrastructure disadvantages hockey will always compete with no matter how much people like it.

Then you also have cultural differences. Hockey and soccer are nuanced sports that are as much about the process as results, which doesn't cater to this American notion of results comensurate with effort. In football and basketball, the better team almost always wins. In baseball, the same is true over time. Sports like hockey require more patience, learning about the game, etc. that requires a patient and detail-oriented fan. It simply doesn't cater to American ideals of what a sport should be as much as other games, and there is more loyalty to baseball and basketball as games WE invented.

Basketball was invented by a Canadian...

 

[elocomotive]

Basketball was invented by a Canadian...

Fine, games we PERCEIVE were invented by Americans or games that have developed strictly or primarily in America. Better?

 

[Darkstone42]

Fine, games we PERCEIVE were invented by Americans or games that have developed strictly or primarily in America. Better?

Yeah, but I think the money issue is bigger than the whole game being invented here issue.

I mean, look at how was jai alai does here.

 

[elocomotive]

Yeah, but I think the money issue is bigger than the whole game being invented here issue.

I mean, look at how was jai alai does here.

I'm just saying they are all connected - cultural reasons, reasons of infrastructure, cost, climate differences, etc.

Cultural reasons have to be part of it, b/c soccer is also an inexpensive game (maybe the least expensive) and has caught on in America even less than hockey despite overwhelmingly being the most popular team sport in the world.

 

[Darkstone42]

I'm just saying they are all connected - cultural reasons, reasons of infrastructure, cost, climate differences, etc.

Cultural reasons have to be part of it, b/c soccer is also an inexpensive game (maybe the least expensive) and has caught on in America even less than hockey despite overwhelmingly being the most popular team sport in the world.

Yeah, I see what you mean there. I think soccer is more the frustration thing, though, because you just don't see any results early on when you start playing. Like you said, it's very nuanced. It doesn't help that there's not much scoring to go around, and unless you're pretty good, you're likely not going to score any goals. In football, you can get on the stat sheet without being all that great with tackles or a few yards carrying the ball or a catch or whatever. Baseball, you'll eventually run into a pitch and get a hit. Basketball, at some point you'll put the ball in the hoop.

I quit soccer because I sucked at it. I get the feeling a lot of kids just feel like they suck at it because they can't score, so there's no way to measure themselves as players.

 

[4thstreet]

Does Steve Perry know that south Detroit = Windsor?!?

Yea,Windsor,go spits

And the correct answer is Philadelphia.They have fans all over the world.

 

[evolver115]

pittsburgh has a good many loyal fans, but a large portion of their fanbase (for the steelers and pirates also) are bandwagoners.. and before pitt fans get pissed at that comment, take a step back.. there are a lot of passionate and knowledgeable fans, but please realize how many people pay very little attention to the teams until they are good.. the whole, literally all of it, city jumps on the bandwagon when a team is close to the championship (which is actually somewhat cool i suppose)

You just summed up every city in the country, outside of a very select few.

It doesn't piss me off that Pittsburgh has bandwagons because I know that other cities in the U.S. are the exact same way. I've lived in St. Louis, Houston, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, and every one of those cities populations has jumped and subsequently jumped off wagons... Rams, Astros, Angels/Lakers/Dodgers and Pirates are the teams I've witnessed this phenomenon with.

You can look at the Phillies as a prime example of this phenomenon. The attendance records of the 90's pale in comparison to the amount of fans in Citizens Park of the 2000's. It's carbon copy from city to city, regardless of the population size.

 

[beantownmaniac]

City? Well no one lives in Detroit, but the whole state of Michigan is quite devoted to their Wings. We're called Hockeytown for a reason.

Yeah, your owner was the first to think of using the name.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

Twenty straight playoff appearances, baby.

 

[SLY]

honestly how do you measure this? by jersey sales? by sellouts? by population?

if you want to go by passion alone Montreal would probably be #1 if it was 1970 through 1989. but of these days its really tough. take away montreal and toronto and do you see as many opposite fans in OTHER teams arenas in the last 2 years than the Canucks? doesnt mean we have the best fan base but we got a fucking big one.

if you go on passion of fan to fan that is impossible to measure. Im sure I think Im a bigger fan than beantown or jeff or auto and they reverse.

what I want to see in this NHL is just strong LONG term fan bases in EVERY market big or small. Buffalo survives on a small market LOVE of their team and it works.

I really need some of this BC bud...

 

[dash]

Twenty straight playoff appearances, baby.

Somebody needs to knock out SkyNet and then the cyborg Lidstrom will fall...

 

[elocomotive]

honestly how do you measure this? by jersey sales? by sellouts? by population?

if you want to go by passion alone Montreal would probably be #1 if it was 1970 through 1989. but of these days its really tough. take away montreal and toronto and do you see as many opposite fans in OTHER teams arenas in the last 2 years than the Canucks? doesnt mean we have the best fan base but we got a fucking big one.

if you go on passion of fan to fan that is impossible to measure. Im sure I think Im a bigger fan than beantown or jeff or auto and they reverse.

what I want to see in this NHL is just strong LONG term fan bases in EVERY market big or small. Buffalo survives on a small market LOVE of their team and it works.

Good post. I missed it while waxing with D'stone earlier.

The NHL should start taking notice that they often do better in markets where they aren't competing with every other sport. Buffalo is a great example, but even Columbus has done pretty well for a long time despite no success. As they are looking to relocate some dying teams (Phx, Florida, etc.), it makes cities like Portland and Las Vegas make more sense.

 

[ELYEAH82]

Says the Penguins fan.

There are 100s of articles on how it was a marketing ploy in Detriot around 96.