The other major sports draw much higher ratings, even baseball and golf. The NHL has done a really poor job marketing itself, IMO.

 

 

Until bigger tv sets became fashionable in the past few years I found it very difficult to watch hockey on tv. However, that said, it should be much more popular now IMO. It certainly is popular in MI. Maybe it's just the blue-collar thing or maybe in it's having a winning team for so many years. In any case, I'd like to see it marketed better and gain the respect it deserves.

 

Dave, I think it's popular in MI because people in MI play the sport. Hockey is very popular in the snow belt - Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, etc. Wisconsin seems to be a prime exception, but it's growing in popularity there, too. People who have never ice skated, much less passed a puck around on a pond, probably will never appreciate the game and how difficult it is. I've participated at some level in nearly every major sport (football, basketball, soccer, hockey, golf, etc - never really played organized baseball though), and hockey is far and away the hardest.

I think one of the things I'd be doing if I owned a team (outside of Canada and the aforementioned areas, of course) would be to set aside 100 tickets per game and give them to local youth organizations - that's 4000 kids a year seeing what may be their first game. If the NHL and its teams can't get kids south of the snow belt interested in the game, the league will never flourish the way the NFL (for example) has.

As fans, we should do more "take a n00b to a game" nights. I've dragged a bunch of people to games before, and 9/10 of them loved it - of course they had me to explain the rules and what was going on.

Another thing the NHL started, but seemingly gave up on, was the rules commercials (featuring Shania Twain explaining on-the-fly shift changes, Dennis Leary, etc); except they were only shown on ESPN during games. Most viewers watching a hockey game on ESPN probably understand already.

 

I personally, am not a big sports fan, but I think you gotta look at this whole hockey thing from the Canadian (and Calgary) perspective. Hockey may not be as big in most of the areas where the franchise has extended to since since the "old" days, but around here, basketball? --- You got to be kidding? I think more people pay to go see "wrestling" than they do to go see basketball. And golf? Not nearly the spectator sport as it is elsewhere. Football? NFL? Again, CFL is the bigger spectator sport here.
Remember when the NHL was primarily Canadian cities? If it ever got to the worse case scenarios and all the "new" franchises shrivelled up and died, there would still be a few of the steadfast teams playing each other. Mind you, by that time, I'll care even less about hockey than I do now.

 

WSB,

I never played any sports except school lot basketball where I managed to screw up an ankle for life. So I'm purely a spectator. I do recall trying to ice once when I was kid and found out that it wasn't for me. Baseball - way too slow and boring for me. Pro Football - that used to be game of choice for years and I was a die hard Steelers fan even before they won all those championships. Even after I came to Michigan I didn't just fall in love with Hockey. I remember getting free tickets to see the Wings game at their old arena but I didn't understand the rules, so I just watched the action. But somewhere along the way I grew very tired of football and picked up an interest in hockey. I don't remember any defining moment. Maybe it was because my son was a fan. I do know that getting a larger tv really peaked my interest in watching it on the tube and naturally I sorted out the major rules. I agree they need to do more schooling on rules during the games. I think I really started to appreciate the game when I realized what individual effort hockey players put out.

 

Yes... in Ottawa and Calgary.

 

It got down to 6*C a couple of nights ago. To remind everyone not well versed in metric, water begins it's freezing process around 4*C and is ice at 0*C. I truly hope that Mother Nature was just screwing with us.

 

I have a brother in Calgary. I'm due to visit him... I'd better make it snappy or I'll be needing to buy more winter clothes.

 

Don't feel bad, it was 7