National sports are completely subjective. If a Mexican was living in the US, is his national sport soccer or football? If a Canadian is living in Mexico, is his national sport soccer or hockey? To make it even more convoluted, if a Canadian family raised their kids in America should the child's national sport differ from the parents'? Should they adopt hockey, football, baseball? Does it go by whatever country you're living in?
I know some of you think I'm going off with this, but my main point is that its allllllllll subjective. People who are saying that hockey is THEIR country's sport or football is America's sport really need to get their heads out of their ass. Sports don't belong to any one country, no matter WHAT country started it. So f***in what if your country invented it.......It's out there to be enjoyed by the world, and no single country has "dibs" on it. Now then, we can go by POPULARITY if you wanna make statistical observations. In that case, then yes, Football is number 1 in America, Hockey is number 1 in Canada and so on. That all makes more sense. But to claim this and that over origins, heritage, and all that other bulls*** is utterly retarded.
As for the low ratings. First off, don't think its the economy. Don't get me wrong......its complete s***. But as I've said in NUMEROUS other threads, Pistons and Tigers ratings were and are still doing fine. In fact, Pistons almost consistently sell out every game and are number 3 in the league in sellouts. Same goes for TV....viewership has not dropped. Hell, it even took 6 or 7 games into the Lions' season before people really started tuning out. So, no, don't think its the economy. Another argument is, not enough North American players. To that I say, I think you guys are giving the average Wing fan way too much credit. By that I mean I don't believe they think that deep over where players come from. Fans like good, fun, hockey players. Hell, I don't think most fans give a s*** if a player was an eskimo from Antartica or a communist supporter from Cuba. If they got the skills and ability on the ice, I think most of us would tune in to watch him. So, that argument is out. What do I think it is? As others have said in the thread, I think its simply a case of "Fair-Weatherism". We've become unbelievably spoiled by this hockey team that the regular season has essentially become the new PRE-season. I see it on the forums too. GMT's average I'd say around 600 posts or so for regular season games and at LEAST in the high one thousands for play off games. More and more fans these days are just tuning out. Also, nothing new or exciting has happened with this team in a while. Yes, they win cups.....but they still play in the the same old building (which I actually love) for the same old unjustified high prices with the same old lame promos. Its nothing people haven't already seen in 97,98, 2002, and 2008. I guarantee you, if this team didn't make the playoffs one year, the following one would be VERY interesting to say the least.
And to all you fair-weather guys out there.........watch some damn hockey! regular season or not!
