Question about the average american's view on NHL

[brett 1,029]

Personally i could do with or without the fighting doesnt bother me. I wont lie i like a good scrap.

I think hockey would be more popular if there was more scoring? I think the game is too fast for most people too many rules, too long of a season

[Lord Stanely 39]

The only exposure I got to it was the Mighty Ducks movie when I was a kid and a story we read in one of my French classes about a kid from Quebec who was a Canadiens fan. Those two things, coupled with being really bored one winter break with nothing on TV to watch, were the only reasons I started watching hockey.

You must have read the story where the boy wanted a Rocket Richard Montreal Canadians Jersey but got a Maple leafs jersey instead from the Eatons Catologue? I have a video of the story on my facebook page.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/sweater/

[sleepwalker 512]

Costing more to play is a huge reason there aren't more American Hockey players. Only the rich kids can afford to play competitively.

This is true. I always wanted to play hocley as a kid, but we couldn't afford it.

Thinking back, it was pretty much the richedst kids in school who played hockey.

As a woman, I like the fact that I can go to a game - in "enemy" territory even - and just sit in my seat and cheer on my team without having a bunch of completely wasted jerks around me ruining it for everyone, home team fans included. I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't hesitate taking them. Football or basketball...I'd be a little less willing maybe.

But like you said, you're a woman, so you are less likely to have people harassing you as such.

As a man, I can say that hockey fans are no different that football fans. I have been taunted, threatened, had beer "accidentally" spilled on me, etc. at hockey games for wearing my Wings jersey in "enemy" territory. Pretty much everything except being physically assaulted. (and thats probably just because I am a big guy and would have knocked them into a coma)

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Pierre McGuire for example

When you use Pierre McGuire as a source, credibility for your question is lost.

Seriously, removing fighting would have zero affect on the popularity of the sport in the USA.

[MulesWillFly93 199]

You must have read the story where the boy wanted a Rocket Richard Montreal Canadians Jersey but got a Maple leafs jersey instead from the Eatons Catologue? I have a video of the story on my facebook page.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/sweater/

Yes!! We watched that video in class, too. Love it. Seriously, out of all the things we read in my French classes, that was the one that stuck with me the most (well, I liked Baudelaire and Rimbaud a lot, too, but that's beside the point). Thanks for the link - I'm going to watch it again in a second.

For anybody out there who hasn't seen this, it's called "The Hockey Sweater" and was written by Roch Carrier. It's a really cute kids' story about the effect of the Habs and Leafs rivalry on kids in rural Quebec in the '40s, but it also shows the bigger cultural divide between English- and French-speaking Canada at the time. Good stuff.

This is true. I always wanted to play hocley as a kid, but we couldn't afford it.

Thinking back, it was pretty much the richedst kids in school who played hockey.

But like you said, you're a woman, so you are less likely to have people harassing you as such.

As a man, I can say that hockey fans are no different that football fans. I have been taunted, threatened, had beer "accidentally" spilled on me, etc. at hockey games for wearing my Wings jersey in "enemy" territory. Pretty much everything except being physically assaulted. (and thats probably just because I am a big guy and would have knocked them into a coma)

That's true. Well, I did have this other chick taunt me after we lost to the Ducks last year, but that's about it. Do you think that families would be similarly immune to it, though, too? I mean, there are always some little turds that have to make trouble, but usually they go for the big guys, like you said. I wouldn't think, if a fan was the rowdy type, that they'd go for the family guy there with the wife and kids, right? I mean, it depends on the situation - things can always devolve quickly - but overall, it doesn't seem like people don't tend to get into it with families, do they?

[hokeychik22 17]

i love hockey and i love fighting.

i have watched the UFC a few times with friends at bww. its interesting to watch, but i would take watching hockey fights over it any day

[VM1138 1,921]

Honestly, it all comes down to cost. We can use sociology and fighting and everything else to justify it, but the fact is, most people of any nationality won't become fans of something they themselves have never experienced or have known someone who played. Up here in Michigan, everyone is a hockey fan because they've either played, had a local team to root for, or have relatives or friends who play.

There's a reason the fanbase for hockey doesn't exist in poverty-riddled areas. If you can't afford to play chances are you have no interest in watching unless you have already been introduced to it at an early age, like I was on TV. I never played but I knew people who did and I watched it on TV, therefore, I am a fan.

Southern markets without a winning NHL team culture doesn't make southerners want to watch hockey or appreciate it.

Make the sport more affordable and it becomes more marketable. But you can't do this when you're telling kids they need to have a $300 stick of a certain kind to be effective.

[Barrie 900]

I think they way for the NHL to grow among average Americans is to have more Americans in the league, or market the ones they currently have better.

[VM1138 1,921]

I think they way for the NHL to grow among average Americans is to have more Americans in the league, or market the ones they currently have better.

Honestly I don't think it matters. Yeah, on one level interest peaks during the Olympics and suddenly everyone in America knows Ryan Miller and Parise and all that, but football is hugely popular and a lot of players have names people can't pronounce. And since plenty of NHL players can speak to the media in clear and concise English I'd hardly say nationality is what is holding people back from being fans.