Biggest hockey city?

[Eddie_Shack]

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

Really? I googled it, and got no results.

 

[ELYEAH82]

Here, and there are a ton of others, your google must be broken

Why Is Detroit Called Hockey Town? | Hometown

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08146/884709-61.stm

 

[elocomotive]

Does it really matter? Would anyone argue Detroit is one of the top 3 hockey towns in America?

 

[ELYEAH82]

Does it really matter? Would anyone argue Detroit is one of the top 3 hockey towns in America?

I am not arguing or debating their place in US hockey. Just pointing out facts. Kind of relevant after the "Says a Pens fan" And "I googled it"

 

[Automattic]

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 named my first born son after Nicklas Lidstrom.




Your move.

 

[elocomotive]

I am not arguing or debating their place in US hockey. Just pointing out facts. Kind of relevant after the "Says a Pens fan" And "I googled it"

I got ya. I think he was just joking. Cool beans.

 

[elocomotive]

I named my first born son after Nicklas Lidstrom.

Your move.

I'm naming my first kid Spacebar.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

I'm always joking.

EDIT: Especially when it comes to swamp-like references.

 

[ELYEAH82]

I named my first born son after Nicklas Lidstrom.




Your move.

You named a kid Over Rated?:confused2:

Just playing before the rant starts.

 

[Automattic]

You named a kid Over Rated?:confused2:

Just playing before the rant starts.

I know, I know....thats a minus one for me....

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

I know, I know....thats a minus one for me....

Minus two and a Norris, dumbass. Get it right!

 

[elocomotive]

Minus two and a Norris, dumbass. Get it right!

Can't believe they would deny the Bruins' fans the Norris after the terrible year they had.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I named my first born son after Nicklas Lidstrom.




Your move.

Bad news Auto....

....you probably should have named him Ovie,

 

[awaz]

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.

i'm not saying it doesn't happen everywhere.. that would be very ignorant of me seeing as pitt is the only city i've lived in, aside from philly when i was in the single digit age range..

just commenting on the fact that pittsburgh looks like a great hockey town right now because they've won a cup in the past 3 years..

 

[ELYEAH82]

i'm not saying it doesn't happen everywhere.. that would be very ignorant of me seeing as pitt is the only city i've lived in, aside from philly when i was in the single digit age range..

just commenting on the fact that pittsburgh looks like a great hockey town right now because they've won a cup in the past 3 years..

I get the reasoning, but the collapse in Pittsburgh was epic. They went from the ECF to last place in 2 years while selling every player they could get a nickle for. It is tough to fault anyone for not buying tickets to see that.

 

[recon]

Atlanta

 

[juliansteed]

no.

I'm not 100% sure about that. Montreal and Toronto have the most passionate NHL fanbases but I'm not sure they are the most passionate hockey fans overall, at least not by an untouchable margin though they do belong as part of the discussion. I'd put all, if not most, of the other major Canadian cities ahead and maybe even a few American cities when it comes to all around passion for the sport and not just the local NHL team. Montreal just lost their 3rd or 4th QMJHL franchise within the past couple of decades. The Habs are always expected to be #1 but you would think with a city of Montreal's size and supposed love for hockey that they could manage to get 3 3 or 4 thousand regular supporters of junior hockey. Especially considering the lower cost involved and the better availability for tickets. My understanding is that its not much different in the Toronto area. They had the Top Prospects game a few months ago at the ACC and only drew a few thousand fans. During the Memorial Cup in Mississauga people could walk up the day of the games and get tickets. Games vs Owen Sound (a much smaller community) in Mississauga were like home games for Owen Sound. Obviously Montreal and Toronto are big league cities and aren't as interested in the small time stuff that smaller cities are interested in and I think that's to be expected but at the same time I think its a bit of an indication that maybe their passion for hockey in general (as opposed to their NHL teams) is a bit overstated. The other 4 cities with NHL teams (excluding the recently rejoined Winnipeg) all have junior teams as well and my understanding is that they are all supported reasonably well despite not being the main team in town. Same thing with some places in the US like Minnesota, Michigan, upstate New York, throughout New England etc. Their NHL teams might be popular but not as popular as the Leafs or Habs but a lot of fans are just passionate about high school, university, and AHL hockey. Other than the NHL the only hockey most people in Montreal and Toronto get excited about are major international tournaments like the Olympics, World Juniors, and World Cup of hockey.

 

[Darkstone42]

Wouldn't New York City technically be the "biggest" hockey city?

 

[juliansteed]

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.

Yeah every city has bandwagonners. The difference is that Pittsburgh has a smaller population from which to draw than most other cities so they depend more heavily on their bandwagonners for attendance. In larger markets like NYC, Philly, Toronto, Montreal etc. the games are going to sellout anyway no matter how well the team is doing. The bandwagonners just determine how far in advance they sell out, how much profit ticket scalpers can make, and merchandise sales.

 

[juliansteed]

Wouldn't New York City technically be the "biggest" hockey city?

Ha! Yeah I was thinking the same thing.