# Why isn't hockey heavily discussed in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 5, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009 "2019-11-05T02:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/41 "2019-11-06T01:53:55Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > that’s what I don’t get. it’s actually an exciting, fast-paced game to watch. Baseball bores me to tears ( **20 minutes of action** packed into 3 hours) and football is not much better with all of the stoppages and reviews. Soccer may be a great game to play but I can’t get into watching it. 90+ minutes for a 0-0 tie isn’t all that engaging. I have a hard time believing that baseball typically has “20 minutes of action” packed into 3 hours. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/42 "2019-11-06T01:59:42Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > It seems to me that falling down in the grass is an important part of modern professional soccer. I’m half-Chilean. Soccer is “in my blood,” so to speak. I played it when I was younger and I used to watch the World Cup religiously. But my interest in the sport has waned over the years, for several reasons. But probably the top two for me are: **1** ) all the time-wasting, and **2** ) all the feigning of injury one sees in the modern game. For me it’s gotten to the point where when I see a soccer player “go down” I just switch channels 'cause I never know whether or not an injury in a soccer game is legit. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/43 "2019-11-06T02:01:38Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I wonder if that influenced the SuperSonics changing their colors the same year (1996). They went from the green, yellow, and white they had since 76 to an ugly green orange and red. Basically identical but replace teal with green. > > They wisely changed the colors back in 2002. > > Then in 2008 they went away forever. ☹ I have to dissent. I actually liked the Sonics’ uniform change. Mostly because I’m generally not a fan of the color yellow. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/44 "2019-11-06T02:59:35Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > But in Chicago, I’d say the Blackhawks get the third most attention after the Cubs and Bears. I’d say the Bulls, especially now with the Hawks being what they are, get significantly more attention than the Hawks. And during the Jordan years, of course, it was all Bulls all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/45 "2019-11-06T03:29:10Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > We’re impressed with them just staying upright. Excellent post - user-name combo! ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/46 "2019-11-06T04:06:49Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > Even in the New York metropolitan area, you don’t hear much Rangers/Devils/Islanders/Flyers enthusiasm like the Knicks/NY Giants/Yankees day in and day out. > … Just to back this up, someone once called in to WFAN (the NYC sports radio station) to ask which teams callers wanted to talk about most often. The response was off the top of the host’s head, and I may have a couple of details wrong, but the list went roughly like this: 1. Yankees, then a big gap 2. Giants, then another gap 3-5 clustered closely Mets, Jets, Knicks, then another gap 3. Rangers 7-9. Nets, Islanders, Devils, not much interest among callers So yeah, hockey definitely attracting much less attention among listeners of that station anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/47 "2019-11-06T04:24:44Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > I have to dissent. I actually liked the Sonics’ uniform change. Mostly because I’m generally not a fan of the color yellow. I figured somebody somewhere liked it, now I know who. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/48 "2019-11-06T12:15:09Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > I’m half-Chilean. Soccer is “in my blood,” so to speak. I played it when I was younger and I used to watch the World Cup religiously. But my interest in the sport has waned over the years, for several reasons. But probably the top two for me are: **1** ) all the time-wasting, and **2** ) all the feigning of injury one sees in the modern game. For me it’s gotten to the point where when I see a soccer player “go down” I just switch channels 'cause I never know whether or not an injury in a soccer game is legit. [Soccer players pretend they’re hurt. Hockey players pretend they’re not.](http://hockeygods.com/system/gallery_images/10431/normal.png) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/49 "2019-11-06T13:50:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > WAG: Hockey isn’t as popular to watch or discuss as other major sports (at least in America) because fewer people played it as kids. The “barriers to entry” are higher than with other sports: you have to have ice skates and be able to get around quickly and easily on them, and you have to have a special place to play a game of hockey. When I was growing up, hockey was only played in the northern U.S. and in Canada - basically in the places where kids would have grown up with ice skates and skated (and played hockey) on icy ponds in the winter. While it’s been quite some time since hockey moved to the more temperate climes in the U.S. (not to mention the downright hot climes :)), it takes more time than one would think for a spectator sport to really take root with a fan base. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/50 "2019-11-06T14:09:02Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > I think part of it just comes down to weather. Ice-skating at all is not an option for a significant portion of the country–we don’t get much in the way of suitable ice during the winter, so you have to go looking for an ice rink to even learn the basics, and they’re not all that common. There seem to be only 2 in my home state, and only 6 or 7 in DFW (which is home to an NHL team) meaning less than 1 rink per million people. > > Consequently, most of us in the warmer parts of the country never even consider learning to skate, let alone to play games on skates. What are we qualified to discuss about hockey? We’re impressed with them just staying upright. There are six rinks? I would have guessed fewer. And at least two of those are related to the Stars (local Dallas NHL team). Another way to look at it is that if you’re a kid in the South, or really anywhere that winter sports aren’t a thing, your main exposure to hockey is going to be from one of two avenues- television, which is something you more or less have to seek out, and video games, which is also something you have to seek out. Even now in November, the Stars are generally third, behind the Cowboys and Mavericks in sports coverage. And if there’s a Rangers(baseball) related story, that’ll come ahead of the Stars on the local news. Hell, in the past couple of months, the biggest single hockey related story isn’t about the Stars lackluster play, or injuries, or anything on-ice, but rather that Tyler Seguin’s mansion got destroyed by a tornado. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/51 "2019-11-06T16:57:10Z")
[Hockey rinks per capita by state](https://i.imgur.com/HNVE8ok.jpg). Also consider, this is just indoor rinks. I grew up playing hockey in rural Minnesota. My town had an indoor rink and two outdoor rinks. It has to be below freezing for long stretches of time to maintain outdoor ice, and even a little further south it isn’t feasible. Hockey is popular in places where it’s easy to play and there’s a strong culture surrounding it. That doesn’t exist in most of the US. [NHL players by state of birth](https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/state-totals/nhl-players-career-stats.html) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/52 "2019-11-06T17:15:33Z")
> [@bump](#): > > There are six rinks? I would have guessed fewer. And at least two of those are related to the Stars (local Dallas NHL team). I may have actually undercounted, because there are multiple facilities with variations of “Starcenter” as their name. Google’s insistence on including roller rinks in the result further confuses matters. In the interest of correcting the exaggeration in my previous post: 2 x Children’s Health Starcenter Starcenter Starcenter McKinney Starcenter Community Ice Rink Richardson Stars Center Allen Community Ice Rink Comerica Center (This is an arena with a Stars practice rink. Not sure if the rink is ever open to the public.) Galleria Ice Skating Center Nytex Sports Center ICE at The Parks Panther Island Ice (Outdoor rink open only from late November through late January.) Classic Holiday Ice Rink Rentals (Which is a weird one. They rent portable “ice rinks” with plastic “ice”.) I think that’s an exhaustive list, so there are 12 in the metroplex. (Not counting the rental place, which I don’t think factors in a discussion of hockey exposure.) Some may not be open to the public, and one is closed all but 2 months of the year, but there’s somewhere around 1.5 accessible rinks per million people. That doesn’t make for a lot of opportunity to get hands-on with hockey. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/53 "2019-11-06T17:24:08Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > I think that’s an exhaustive list, so there are 12 in the metroplex. (Not counting the rental place, which I don’t think factors in a discussion of hockey exposure.) Some may not be open to the public, and one is closed all but 2 months of the year, but there’s somewhere around 1.5 accessible rinks per million people. That doesn’t make for a lot of opportunity to get hands-on with hockey. And all that spread out over about 9300 square miles. I can’t imagine that it’s not a massive undertaking for a DFW kid to play youth hockey. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/54 "2019-11-06T19:29:43Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Look at the stats. Fighting numbers have been in a steady decline for years. [Cite](https://www.tsn.ca/fighting-continues-to-fade-from-nhl-1.1216252) from last year. > > The main thing is that hockey translates terribly to TV. But, if you get people out to see live action hockey they get hooked. This is my opinion as well. I LOVE going to hockey games, but you can’t follow that little puck very well on television, even with HD. The same issue occurs in baseball, but at least you know where the ball is going 85% of the time - towards the plate. Even then, you have all kinds of TV imagery to show where the ball crossed the plate, the strike zone, and the path of the ball for replays. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/55 "2019-11-06T19:37:22Z")
Individual games are nearly meaningless. Winning or losing a particular game doesn’t matter until in, or at least near, playoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/56 "2019-11-07T02:45:36Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > This is my opinion as well. I LOVE going to hockey games, but you can’t follow that little puck very well on television, even with HD. The same issue occurs in baseball, but at least you know where the ball is going 85% of the time - towards the plate. Even then, you have all kinds of TV imagery to show where the ball crossed the plate, the strike zone, and the path of the ball for replays. This as well. It is probably good to go to a hockey arena or stadium and _watch_ a game, instead of watching it on TV. You cannot see the puck. You can see the football. You can see the basketball. You can see the soccer ball. You can see the baseball. Also, not to cause any controversy, but the game of hockey is overwhelmingly white. Other than Evander Kane and PK Subban, not much black hockey players are well-known. The game may be isolated towards America because of the diversity thing. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/57 "2019-11-07T03:04:14Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > I have a hard time believing that baseball typically has “20 minutes of action” packed into 3 hours. I am not sure if you meant it should have more or less than 20 minutes. [Baseball](https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2018/apr/06/snapple/are-there-only-18-minutes-action-baseball-game/): 18 minutes of action per game. [NFL Football](https://curiosity.com/topics/the-average-nfl-game-has-only-11-minutes-of-action-curiosity/): 11 minutes of action per game. Hockey and Basketball at least are constant action with the exception of time-outs and commercial breaks. IMHO Hockey has not flourished as much as the other three top sports due to limited television coverage - maybe one game per week nationally televised, and less advertising dollars, compared to the other sports. The two are dependent on one another, and I think have high impact to hockey’s popularity and general awareness outside cities that have a team. Also, as stated, the difficulty of casually watching the game on TV (being at a game in-person is great, tho!). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/58 "2019-11-07T07:01:39Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > Also, not to cause any controversy, but the game of hockey is overwhelmingly white. Other than Evander Kane and PK Subban, not much black hockey players are well-known. > > The game may be isolated towards America because of the diversity thing. It’s true that the NHL player base is very white, though I suspect that, if the lack of diversity does play a role in the sport’s comparatively low popularity in the U.S., it’s probably not among the biggest drivers. I strongly suspect that some of the other factors listed in this thread (e.g., relatively few Americans ever play the sport themselves, the sport traditionally had only been popular in certain regions in the U.S., lower TV exposure for the sport in the U.S., particularly in the past) play substantially bigger roles. Also, a big factor in the NHL’s lack of players of color is where hockey players come from. [This page](https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/nationality-totals/active-nhl-players-2018-19-stats.html) shows the breakdown on NHL players from last season – 44% are from Canada, a country with a substantially lower percentage of black citizens ([about 3%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada#Visible_minority_population)) than in the U.S., in addition, about 30% of the NHL’s players are European, mostly from Scandanavian, Germanic, and Slavic countries, which also have comparatively low black populations. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/59 "2019-11-07T15:13:16Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I am not sure if you meant it should have more or less than 20 minutes. I love baseball, but I was also wondering whether the poster thought that estimate was too high or too low. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009/60 "2019-11-07T15:37:00Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > This is a common refrain but is in defiance of the facts and common sense: > > 1. Fighting in hockey is WAY down. There is far, far less fighting in hockey than there used to be; it’s now a fairly unusual event, and it basically never happens in the playoffs, and yet hockey hasn’t become substantially more popular. > > 2. The idea that Americans won’t love sports with fighting and violence is bizarrely at odds with the plain facts. People love sports where fighting is the literal entire sport, like MMA and boxing. They even love professional wrestling where people just PRETEND to fight. > > 3. There just is not any real evidence fighting inhibits the sports’ popularity. No one has been able to find a cohort of sports fans who would like hockey if not for the fighting. They’ll never get it. Hockey is a full contact sport. You can break a guy’s back with a legal check, blind guys with high stick, slice their face open with an errant skate, but a little fist fight between guys slipping around on the ice is the violence that scares the powers that be… at the TV networks. That’s who cared about the fighting. Hockey had a hard enough time getting network coverage, the whole league depends on that revenue. So right about the time hockey was about to consider ‘goon’ an official position, they went along with the networks and turned the sport into a version of the Ice Capades. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-hockey-heavily-discussed-in-america/843009.md?page=4)