Do you think hockey is a dying sport?

Answer 1

no I don't feel it's a dying sport, but it doesn't seem to be picking up a lot of new fans, the lockout season hurt the sport also, you will always have your die hard fans but it would be great to pick up new fans to support the sport, I live in the Chicago area and it becomes very expensive to take the family to a game $20 to park $65 a seat for mid-level seats $10 for a soft drink and sandwich, all to watch a losing team??? people get tired of it! and I'm a big hockey fan

Answer 2

Yes, it is a dying sport thanks to incompetent commissioner Gary Bettman. The league is not marketed or advertised anywhere. The league does ont promote its players or its stars. The All Star game is a word of mouth thing along with skills night which is a major source of marketing. Bettmans lockout was like getting stabbed with a knife. There is no TV contract in the USA, we only get to see games during the finals in June. The other choice is to move to Michigan where they can get OLN. The media does not even cover the games on morning sports reports. The newspapers have a little column. It was not like this 15 years ago. Hockey was well known back then. Incompetent Bettman must resign to save the game from going the way of the dinosaur. Elect me as your new comissioner and I will bring hockey back in a big way!

Answer 3

Why would you think that? It's certainly better off now than before the NHL lockout at all levels from minor to junior all the way up to the pros. Internationally the tournys are now more even than ever. Attendance is way up in the NHl such that the cap has increased.

So forget the US TV ratings as that will never ever amount to anything in anyone's lifetime. The fact is hockey will always be a stronmg regional sport and now it's stronger in Tampa, Carolina and Columbus among the new markets...San jose too. Need to bag Nashville and Atlanta really. NHL would be better off with 21 to 24 solid teams rather than the unwieldy 30 (or more?).

Answer 4

Definitely not. The fact that professional hockey been able to make it in the South and in California is proof that it's not. It will always make it everywhere where hockey is a sport of the masses (Canada, Minn., Mich., New England). But it will also often make it in places where it isn't (Carolina, Columbus OH to name a few).

The NHL executive leadership and power-broker owners have had a long, long tradition of being at best just barely competent, and at worst incompetent + corrupt + never held accountable. That's what's always kept it from doing better.

Answer 5

Football (soccer) is #1 in the world Hockey is #2 in the world then Rugby as for popularity. Sure we had the lookout but if you look at the past years T.V ratings and Attendance setting records this past year, it is not dying its bigger then it was. all we need to do is to stop trying to sell the sport in the south cause its not working, sure Tampa Bay, and Carolina won the Cup, they still don't have the fan support, like you had with Canadian teams like Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques. through the playoffs you could go and buy your tickets the same day as the game its self. and with all this attendance crap with the media saying Tampa Bay was in the 19 thousands a game that is not true, its just trying to help with the T.V ratings and fans that don't really attend the games just to try and make them go.Hockey is bigger in Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech. Rep, Slovakia, Germany then what American football, basketball and baseball are in the USA its self.
Hockey rules the world period.

GO HABS GO!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Hockey is not going anywhere. It can only move up . The problem with the greatest sport no one watches is that the NHLs Marketing and PR departments need to be totally overhauled. The OLN network , what a joke . I had trouble finding it on the dish. They spend very little money in grass roots programs.

Answer 7

In what sense? The overall grassroots popularity of the sport is still strong (especially in Canada). The popularity of the NHL in non-traditional markets (ie the Southern States) is a matter of opinion. Giving free beer with the purchase of tickets to the Stanley Cup finals in Tampa 2 years ago says it all in my opinion.

Answer 8

I've been watching the game since the 70's, and I have to say "No".

The lockout hurt them badly. They're spreading themselves kinda thin, moving into markets that really don't understand the dynamics of the game...c'mon, Texans don't know what a frozen pond is, let alone what to do with that stick and puck. (No offense, to any Texans here) They need to restructure a bit...do away with some of the "fringe teams", get them back on TV regularly, (OLN did a great job last year...but we need a higher profile network. Let the local affilitates pick up the home games, just like they did in the 70's and 80's. Quit charging outrageous prices for tickets...its not the Super Bowl for crissakes!

The game will survive, but it needs to evolve and adapt.

Answer 9

With the rule changes the NHL instituted last year,you will see the rebirth of skill and speed in hockey.I think that the year off was a good thing,if that's possible.Bettman had a chance to make some wholesale rule changes and things can only get better.Game On!!

Answer 10

Not if Bettman leaves. Seriously, he's a good businessman, but he doesn't understand the game worth crap. He started all those southern expansion teams in the '90's, which both hurt the NHL financially (revenue for teams like, say, Phoenix and L.A. must be a joke, but I could be wrong), and diluted its popularity. That said, he did good on rule changes.