Serious question about why the south doesn't like to watch hockey

Same reason baseball is the number 3 college sport in the south. It's hot here and we can play outside nearly year round.


The question is why isn't soccer bigger

It's soccer on ice to me. Although I will concede that real men play hockey and it's not filled with a bunch of grass ferries..

I can't get into it. Just not enough scoring. I don't like baseball for the same reason. I imagine it may be different if I grew up in the north. But I also played soccer and baseball as a kid and can't watch those sports now..

quote:

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Just not enough scoring.

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So you only watch basketball?

I like it, but it's not appointment viewing for me. If I'm laying around on the couch and nothing is on on a Sunday I'll throw it on. I'll try to watch the playoffs, but I honestly don't know when the games are as they are not really advertised. My only complaint about the game is the two long intermissions, but I understand why they have them. If I'm watching a game I'll change the channel during the intermission and forget about it until half way through the next period.

Ive lived in the south and followed hockey most of my life. My thoughts:

1. Very few rinks, so no one plays it as a kid
2. Not on espn so tougher to watch
3. The other sports leagues are extremely popular and people have limited time.
4. Dont understand the rules
5. Not many local teams.
6. "Queer stigma" due to ice skating, people associate it with figure skating

I guess I just don't like the game then. I can appreciate the entertainment factor of the physical aspect of the game, but it's hard for me to take a game seriously that will stop play so two dudes can literally box on ice. Is that a joke? How am I supposed to take you seriously as a sport when this is a standard thing that happens? I can see how it is entertaining, but it's not something I can take seriously.

Well, I can only speak for myself.

I loved going to Thrashers games. Their management was terrible, however, and never figured out how to build a successful franchise. They had one year where they had the pieces to do some damage and made a couple of late trades for a postseason run.

I believe that they built up a pretty solid fanbase. I went to about 10 games that year and the place was packed and rocking for most of them, especially late in the season. They blew chunks in the 1st round against the Rangers, and for whatever reason decided to blow the team up. That never made sense to me. There was momentum building up and they completely destroyed it.

Once they got rid of Kovalchuk and then moved away, I lost all interest in following Hockey like I did in the mid 2000s.

As everyone has said not enough rinks and you can't play hockey outside in the South. Plus, there's no high school and college hockey yet alone pee wee and squirts and youth hockey at any level and it is very expensive to play as a kid. The equipment and skates are very expensive. Since there are no school based teams there's a lot of equipment to buy and the lack of coaching. Most kids can have their dads teach them the basics of football, baseball, and basketball but for hockey that is a tall order in the South.

You don't need to grow up playing a sport to enjoy watching it. I never played a lick of hockey growing up and can't ice skate worth a shite. It's still my second favorite sport to watch behind football.

That being said, I completely understand why not playing a sport growing up results in people not following it.

I personally think the biggest factor is team location. Once the CBJ got a franchise, I became hooked.