Why is hockey so unimportant in the USA? - Miracle (2004) Discussion

[–] Warge 16 years ago

I for one doubt it is unimportant, especially the northern states. But ice hockey is an expensive game to play, and before you can go pro, you have to dish out a lot of money for the equipment. That is at least the reason I see in Europe when kids don't get to play ice hockey.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JazzMan599 15 years ago

Because it will never have a moment like this one again. Hockey peaked in 1980.

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[–] ivand87 15 years ago

The game is growing in the US. Very slowly, but it's growing. Pennsylvania in the last few years has produced more and more NHL players and prospects, and the success of the Penguins only helps. Also, I hear high school hockey is growing in Florida.

Football, baseball and basketball, as others have mentioned, are very inexpensive sports compared to hockey.

But the biggest thing is football and baseball are part of American culture and have produced generations of fans. Kids usually learn from their parents, and if their parents took them to football and baseball games, those are the sports they're gonna want to play.

Consider also that the NHL had only 4 American teams for decades until 1967. Expansion was slow and expansion teams didn't have much success early on. The Flyers are the only exception.

Hockey is too good a sport to not continue to grow though. Gary Bettman has done a very poor job with expansion and with marketing the game overall. It sucks that it's not on ESPN anymore. But I think in the long run, hockey and the NHL will only continue to grow a bigger fanbase and it will stop being the joke that some people think it is.

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[–] blackhawkswincup2010 15 years ago

Oh, please. Hockey is so freaking expensive. Basketball, all you need is a ball and a jockstrap. You need to rent expensive ice time at the rink. Equipment is incredibly expensive. Only the rich in warm-weather climates can afford it. And according to Bobby Orr about 35 years ago in his book My Game, the cold-weather kids are too distracted to want to spend hours out in the cold on the pond or river or sound or whatever body of water is frozen over at the moment. His dad once mentioned to him (in the 70s) that by then you could actually count the people skating on Parry Sound. When Orr was a kid, they skated before school, they skated after school till dinner, and all weekend long. That adds up to about 30 or more hours a week on the ice, freezing their lips off. That's why hockey isn't as big. Too many freaking Playstations.

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[–] vicvonfate 13 years ago

Hockey is definitely on the down turn in the USA even in the hotbeds like Minnesota and Michigan. You can trace that directly to the fact that the NHL has become more boring than watching paint dry. They pushed to phase out the physical play and fighting and what remains is soccer on ice. That is a TRUE shame.

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[–] cannonr 12 years ago

2 full intermissions (due to the 3 period format) is hard to stomach for most viewers who aren't rabid hockey fans.

The NFL has one 12-minute intermission. The NHL has two 17-minute intermissions for 34 minutes total per game. That's almost 3 times as long hockey viewers have to find something else to watch instead.

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[–] bznessman 12 years ago

I don't know if I'd relate the NFL and NHL breaks when talking about why hockey doesn't get the amount of viewers football does. Both are 60-minute games yet football is usually more than 3 hours of TV time whereas hockey is about 2.5 hours. That means football has another +30 minutes of commercials, timeouts, and interruptions that drag the game out. And with up to 40 seconds between plays, it isn’t uncommon to only see ~30 seconds of actual game play in a 2 minute time period. My point here is that football has a lot more downtime throughout the entire game then hockey does. I don’t think two longer breaks is a deal-breaker.

One of my biggest issues with televised hockey is the puck. A tiny black dot that is difficult to see even with HDTV. Depending on camera angles, you may spend a lot of time just trying to guess where the puck is by where the players are looking and moving. At one time they tried blue halos to help with seeing the puck but it was still common it got lost in the confusion at times. The design of the rinks also play a role in that. An overhead camera would make it possible to see the puck easier but it would be difficult to see what the players are doing. With my big screen, HDTV, it is nicer watching hockey now but still nowhere near as easy to see what is going on as it is in most other games.

Two other observations, and I’m not sure if they are accurate or not, is that Americans seem to prefer the games with frequent breaks (football and baseball being prime examples) and with just the right amount of scoring. Football and baseball are both a series of quick, distinct plays. Each tailored to suit a specific situation. And we get to see the results replayed over and over again as we wait for the next play. We can dissect every aspect of the play and go on to the next. And when it comes to scoring, football and baseball are usually pretty good about having decent scoring games. In comparison to basketball which is an over-abundance of scoring (almost desensitizing people to it) and hockey and soccer at the other end of the spectrum with little to no scoring in games.

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[–] barber2626 12 years ago

As a female I think its a worthless sport. We are already bombarded with so many sports to the point they are over running our tv/cable channels even when there are sports channels. I can deal with football and baseball but I think wrestling is just as stupid and worthless too.I just think to much money is involved in sports. If all the money they put into sport in 1 year was added up it would pay the American deficit plus more. Thats how much money is involved. Its sickening when there is so many other things money is needed for.

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[–] stickley85 12 years ago

The only thing I can figure out is,it is a very expensive sport to play.I played hockey all the way up until I was done with college.One thing that was brutal when I think back on it was when I was in youth hockey.We would play 2 games alot on saturdays and sundays.Usually one in the morning,early afternoon,and then again at night,late afternoon.The tournaments at the end of the year were always 2 games a day on saturday and sunday.

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[–] babz12 12 years ago

It's expensive, and most people don't grow up with it and people usually stick with what they know.

I grew up in Minnesota. Hockey is important to people here, and most people play, played or know someone who plays/played hockey. I don't come from a big hockey family, but my grandpa coached high school boys hockey, my dad and one of his brothers played it, one of my female cousins played it, my brother and sister played, and I did and still do. My high school (suburb just outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul) had boys varsity and JV as well as girls varsity and JV. If your kid can't or doesn't want to play with high school there are other options, but most states don't have that. Other places don't have the opportunities or the ice. I can drive 20 minutes in any direction and pass 2-3 rinks; in the winter there's tons of outdoor rinks made in parks plus those on lakes and ponds.

I lived in Phoenix for awhile, and the closest rink was 40 minutes from me. Less resources, more money. I paid almost double what I paid to play in Minnesota.

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