Hockey in US

Question
Rob
I am originally from the U.K. (Manchester) now living in Canada. As you probably know its all about hockey up here. My son is playing so I am involved now.
I have travelled to the states  in the past few years on buisness and have made the following observation.
Even though most of the NHL teams are in the U.S. and the U.S. won the gold medal, and in the opinion of many was the best team, the sport still doesnt seem to get that much attention.
I have been to Chicago, Nashville,Minniapolis, and Tampa, cities with NHL teams and most of the people I talk to about hockey dont give it much thought and many dont even know they have a team in their own city. It seems to be football,basketball, and college sports in that order. There is barely a mention in the sports pages or on the evening news. I just returned from Nashville and the NFL draft of all things was the big news of the day-a day on which the predators were plaing the black hawks at home.
However, as I mentioned, the US seems to produce a lot of good players and must have a good development program.
Maybe I just havent been in the right places?
I often go online to chat with my associates, and have noticed that there is only one hockey chat room, and the night I was on, with four NHL games on, only two people were in the room-both Canadians.
As an American I was hoping you could offer an opinion.
I am traveling to southern Ontario and an associate says he can get tickets for Red Wing playoff games so I hope to go with him. Apparently they arent hard to get and he says a lot of the fans are from Windsor and southern Ontario.
Thanks for your thoughts.
BTW I am cheering for 'The Habs' (seems to be a lot of fans even in the west where I live) and I am going to take skating lessons. myself!

Answer
Well, lets try this again.  For some reason, every time I try to make this post, lap top battery dies or power to the house goes off.  Figures!

Anyway, promoting Hockey in the the USA.  You have kind of touched on a subject that is kind of dear to my heart.  I'm pretty passionate about this.  First for the last 100 years, hockey was a Canadien sport.  And as far as the Canadiens are concern, NO one can play hockey better then them.

If fact, hockey has been filled with Canadien players on every team in the NHL located here in the USA.  Well, my philosophy has always been that hockey is a business.  Yes, but it's an entertainment business.  But still a business.  It's always been my opinion that when a foreign company moves their business into our country is that they hire American workers.

This means that if the NHL moves their teams into the US, they should hire US hockey players.  Don't even say that US hockey players are not good enough. because we both know that they are.  But is all  the so called "billets" are filled with Candien players then how can an American kid get a chance.  The NHL is a "Boy" club for Canadien players.  I don't know how many NHL players kids have been scouted and are now playing major juniors, because dad use to play in the NHL.

Why?  They player is really that good.  But because dad use to play, the kid has a ticket to play.  Do you think at the time when Brett Hall made it, it was because of his ability?  Now, don't get me wrong.  He's a good player.  But trust me when I tell you, there were a lot of great American players that played with him on the same team.  but there dad's didn't play in the NHL.  You see what I mean?  You can say..."Wait Rob, Brett was born in the USA!"  Yep, this is true.  But he is what is know as an "Anchor Baby."  Born here in the US while his dad played for Chicago.  A dad who is Canadien.  Oh, and FYI...once a Canadien, always a Canadien.  You are not allowed to give up your citizenship.  So says the Canadien Government.  His parents are Canadien...he's Canadien.

So, how can hockey grow here in the USA if all of the Canadiens have 80% of all of the Billets that are available?  Now, the Canadiens are upset because the number has dropped to 70%.  Why?  Now more European players are moving into the NHL market.  Now it's even harder for American kids to find a place within the NHL market.

Can a kid playing hockey with in the US get a fair chance? The only thing I can say is...thank god I'm not a Senator of my state.  Because them I would be forcing USA Hockey and the NHL to look at why they are doing business like that with in the USA.

If a foreign automobile manufacturing plant moved into your state, there would be an up roar if they brought in all foreign workers.  What's the difference?

Yes, people don't know that hockey exist within their town.  But if they had a kid that played in the NHL from their town, it would be like having a NFL player come from their little town.  You know, the kind of little towns that have a big bill board that says..."Home of what's his name."

It's hard to promote hockey when hockey doesn't care about the local talent!  Sorry, but I can go on and on about why I think hockey is treated like the red headed step child in the media.  But it always come back to...how can ESPN get excited about a sport that has only/maybe 5% Americans in it?

Heck, ESPN will cover the National Spelling Bee, before it promotes hockey.  Heck, two old guys in the park playing chess, will get coverage first on ESPN before hockey will.  Even in your local newspaper, it generally on the back sports page as a side mention that goes something like this...Hockey: Blackhawks 1 Flyers 0  And that's it!  Wow...thanks for the update.  This is why newspapers are going out of business.  Why would anyone pay for advertising in a newspaper.  If I am investing in advertising and I open the newspaper and there is nothing there about a subject I like or and marketing towards, and there is nothing to attract the read, then why buy ad space.

Same with ESPN.  ESPN doesn't understand the buying power hockey players have.  It's not like going down to the store and buying tennis shoes and running out on a court to shoot a ball through a broken bushel basket.  ESPN doesn't understand the buying power we have!  As you know, a parent can spend about $500 on equipment without blinking an eye.  Heck now a days $500 might buy you a pair of gloves and a stick and that's it.

Here's some food for though.  There are 400,000 registered teams with Hockey Canada and 300,000 registered teams with USA Hockey.  Each team has an average of 12 players per team.  That's 8.4 million players.  Take that number and multiple it by the cost of equipment and ice rental.  It is a billion dollars business.

However, ESPN just doesn't understand the concept and the buying power we have as a whole.  Why?  If they did, ALL of the playoff games would be aired on ESPN and not VS.  You see, more hockey on ESPN would mean more people watching it on ESPN.  More people watching it would mean more companies buy ad spots on ESPN.  More AD spots and coverage means more growth for the sport.  More growth for the sport means more kids in the sport.  More kids in the sport means more viewers.  More viewers means more people watching ESPN.  More people watching means more ad spots...blah,blah,blah!   But, basketball is more important to them.  

Well, there it is.  It's just a crazy business we are in!

Rob Lopez - CEO
Pass the Puck, Inc.
www.passthepuck.net