FROM THE ARCHIVES: Hockey in America -- The United States’ Dilemma in Promoting Canada’s Game
This article was originally published on July 10, 2017 for The Gametime Guru.
When the topic of major North American sports leagues comes up, the focus usually rests on the “Big Four”: The National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). The order is not coincidental, as these four leagues are respectively listed greatest to least in attendance and television revenue*. The last ranking league in both categories, the NHL, hasn’t seen quite the amount of coverage the other three leagues have received in the U.S. market (though trailing only slightly behind in the NBA in average attendance).
The NHL — and the sport of hockey in general — has floundered in the American market for one reason or another. The game itself has the rich, historical background of Major League Baseball; the fluidity & on-the-fly strategy of the NBA; and the aggressive, bruising nature of the NFL. So why does this league struggle in pockets of the country when the other three of the “Big Four” have made sizeable dents to garner adequate network coverage and nationwide followings?
My opinion is that there are multiple factors contributing to hockey being classified as the “lesser than” of the major sports leagues in the United States. The perception of the game, national sports identity, direct competition from other leagues, difficulty of playing the game recreationally, and a lack of minor league stability all have a part in hockey’s tendency to go unnoticed and unappreciated by the majority of Americans.
*Note: Both the Canadian Football League and Major League Soccer have higher average attendance numbers than the NBA and NHL, but for the purpose of this article, the focus will remain on the traditional “Big Four” major sports leagues of North America.
Hockey, oftentimes, is a low-scoring affair
I’ll get the low-hanging fruit out of the way first. Hockey gets a bad rap for a lack of scoring. Soccer, the sport ahead of hockey in attendance but behind it in TV ratings, is plagued by the same argument. In the Western culture of instant gratification, it is no wonder that our desire is for a game with bursts of expected action and lots of points on the board. Excitement throughout the game seems to be the aim of the average sports fan in America.
Like any sport, if there is not a constant barrage of scoring & fans are not familiar with the rules (let alone the subtle nuances), there is going to be a lack of interest. Kids that didn’t grow up in hockey markets (or with their parents taking them to the games themselves) may view the low-scoring game of hockey as a bore, preferring to talk about (and play) football, basketball, or even baseball on the fields readily available for their use. That’s another talking point; I’ll circle back around to the topic at hand.
One may ask, “Well, what about baseball? Isn’t that a fairly low-scoring game with short bursts of action?” You would be correct there, but the indoctrination of kids into baseball is a far more common thing than it is for hockey. Kids can grow up in the smallest of rural communities, yet still have a chance at playing in baseball leagues across the country. This happens only in portions of the U.S. with the game of hockey. Baseball has been America’s game for decades. Hockey, on the other hand…
Hockey has never been “America’s Game”
The game of hockey was invented and galvanized in Canada. The NHL is the only professional sports league in North America that was founded in Canada. Hockey is so ingrained in the psyche of Canada, the treasury placed a scene of children playing the game on their five dollar bill from 2006 to 2013. Hockey is, simply put, Canada’s game.
Baseball was considered our national pastime for decades until the NFL decided to flex its muscle and become the ratings juggernaut it is today. It is not an accident the NFL Network has a series called, “America’s Game”. It has eclipsed baseball as the nation’s favorite sport, by and large through the number of fans attending both high school, college, and professional football games while dwarfing baseball attendance figures.
Ironically, it was a Canadian-American that invented the game of basketball in 1891. The first opponent of the storied New York Knicks basketball franchise? A Canadian team. In spite of this, just as the game was first played in Massachusetts, so the fate of the sport would forever be tied to the United States. However (and oddly enough), the NBA and NHL would share deeper similarities as the years went on…
Hockey has direct competition from basketball
Since the 1940’s, the NHL has begun its regular season in the month of October. Another league that begins its season in October is the NBA. Aside from about two and a half or so weeks, the leagues are almost identically synced throughout their respective seasons, with both leagues playing 82 regular season games. The two leagues also had major mergers when competitor leagues ceased operations in the 1970’s — the NBA absorbed four teams when the American Basketball Association (ABA) folded in 1976, while the NHL inherited four teams from the World Hockey Association (WHA) when it collapsed in 1979. The NBA grew from 18 to 22 teams; the NHL expanded from 17 to 21 teams.
The NHL and NBA, being so linked, have become natural rival leagues. As previously mentioned, both leagues have very similar attendance figures, so their competition lies in TV ratings and revenue. In August of 1988, NHL legend Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. Hockey’s greatest player (and Canada’s national treasure) had been shipped south to California, and the league looked to capitalize against the ratings cashcow the NBA had become by the late 1980’s and into the early 90’s.
Enter Gary Bettman. On February 1, 1993, the former NBA senior vice president was hired by the NHL with hopes of moving the game forward in the American market. His tenure has been controversial, to say the least. He has increased league revenue from $400 million to over $3 billion in less than two decades, yet there has been three lockouts under his 24-year reign as commissioner, with the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season being the first fully nixed season of any major sports league in U.S. history. He let two teams move from Canada while trying to broach the southern United States as a viable market. He allowed the Phoenix Arizona Coyotes to suffer financial hemorrhaging and poor attendance for years while hockey hotbeds like Quebec City and Hamilton, Ontario were/are without the NHL.
It seems good ol’ Gary hasn’t learned the simple lesson that…
Hockey needs ICE...sometimes
Hockey’s popularity is, unfortunately, tied to a lack of ready-to-use playing surfaces in suburban neighborhoods. Natural ice only comes around during the winter time, with freezing temperatures being an obvious key component on whether or not you can have a rink outside. Considering a vast majority of the United States has a fairly short winter, it is no surprise that both space and time work against hockey gaining more traction amongst our nation’s younger demographics.
Comparatively, all you need is a large open field and the respective game balls to play football or baseball (with mitts necessary for the latter). Basketball courts litter parks and gymnasiums across the country, making it an automatic staple in physical education. Again, all you need is a ball to play the game; finding a court is easy. As for a traditional ice hockey rink, one may have an abundance of ice sheets to choose from (like in pro hockey markets) or just one recreational hockey complex in the entire metropolitan area (reference: Boise, ID). Plus, with all the hockey gear to purchase, kids (and parents) might find it easier to default to one of the aforementioned sports than ice hockey.
In contrast, roller hockey increases the odds of kids in warmer climates playing the “Coolest Game on Earth” (1990’s NHL marketing! YEAH!). This is how I played hockey as a kid, lacing up my roller blades and relying on the goal nets of my neighbors to get a game going with my friends. This caveat, combined with the state of Colorado receiving a transplanted NHL club in the Avalanche, kindled a passionate love for hockey that I still have to this day.
But, the Colorado minor league hockey scene has always been a bit hit and miss, leading to my final point…
Minor league hockey is fickle
If there’s going to be any increase in interest for the sport of hockey, a good idea is to establish a solid minor league fan base. Minor league baseball has done this masterfully, tallying attendance marks higher than the NFL, NBA, or NHL. The problem with minor league hockey (we’ll focus on the Tier II minors, where the local Idaho Steelheads are) is that the average franchise only lasts about six years before folding or moving to another city. How can hockey take root in communities when the growth period is capped at six years?
The Steelheads are a pleasant exception to the short lifespan rule of a Tier II hockey club. Idaho celebrated its 20th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, being the only former West Coast Hockey League team out of fourteen (the league folded in 2003) to remain in its original market in the ECHL. Author Thomas Malm dedicated almost a whole chapter in his 2009 book Absolutely Vulnerable, the Crisis of Strategic Business Planning in America to the successful business strategies of the Steelheads (“Planning to Be Vulnerable”, pg. 56-69). For the 5000-seat CenturyLink Arena in downtown Boise, the Steelheads attendance record is proof positive that minor league hockey is here to stay in Idaho.
The Steelheads “not only sell a lot of tickets…(t)hey have found ways to link their brand to the community” (Malm, p.65-66). Sadly, this business model isn’t adopted by more minor league ice squads, and the popularity of hockey in the United States suffers greatly because of it. In major sports leagues, a community can be 110% behind a club and still have the team fold or moved for financial reasons. In the minors, however, if locals simply claim identity with the team (like in the Treasure Valley), the franchise will often be successful. Short-lived clubs will not usually yield such emotional investment from a fan base, let alone a passion for a game pushed to the margins of the American sports landscape.
Conclusion
The timing of this article couldn’t have come at a better time, as the Stanley Cup Final (the NHL’s championship round) is well under way. The NHL is winding down its Centennial season, celebrating 100 years as a professional sports league. The Stanley Cup is 124 years old, being competed for in multi-league tournaments from 1893 to 1916. The NHL was part of these competitions for the cup from 1917 to 1927, until becoming the exclusive NHL championship trophy thereafter.
I hope that this article has given some helpful insight and arguments as to why the sport of hockey has a difficult time gaining traction in the United States. Much like soccer, it is slowly beginning to carve out a niche amongst fans who appreciate sporting events that transcend the high scoring affairs of football and basketball. More kids are playing hockey across the country; growth is happening for the game, slowly but surely.
For Canada’s game in America, hope springs eternal.
Did You Know?
The first Stanley Cup champion from the United States were the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1917. They defeated the Montreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five series. In an odd parallel, the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup were...the Montreal Canadiens! In 1993, they defeated Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings four games to one in a best-of-seven series.