Fixing the NHL?
March 8, 2022
An interesting email from the SIHR (that’s the Society for International Hockey Research, of which I am currently a member) list popped in my inbox this morning featuring an essay from a prominent member’s late father-in-law on how to make hockey more popular in the U.S.
There were four changes the NHL needed to make, he said. Ban fighting, shorten the schedule, go to international-size ice and severely punish flagrant attempts to injure. I can’t argue with the latter three. No major pro sports league goes through such a long regular season to accomplish so little. Both the regular season and the playoffs need to be shortened. The lost revenue from the reduction in the number of games can be offset, he argues, by adding teams in new markets. The move to an international-size ice surface would be an excellent one, and deliberate attempts to injure have no place in any professional sport or in society in general. As for the fighting, well, we’re long since past the era of the Broad Street Bullies and the Birmingham Bulls. Does the presence of what little fighting remains in the game keep large numbers of Americans from following the NHL? I doubt it.
The whole premise of the “rant,” however, was that it’s possible to significantly increase the popularity of hockey in the U.S. Sadly, that will never happen. No matter how much the game is “fixed” or marketed differently, hockey is just not part of their culture the way it is here. Sure, inroads can and have been made. The league has a number of thriving franchises in nontraditional markets. But not on a grand scale. Nothing can make hockey achieve the popularity of baseball, football or even basketball in many areas of the country.
If the powers that be want to do something really radical, they might try sticking to hockey instead of turning every game into a political indoctrination session. BLM, Every Child Matters, land acknowledgments, kneeling for the anthem, International Women’s Day, ad nauseam. You can’t turn on a broadcast without getting political messages rammed down your throat these days. Sure, we all have opinions and we’re entitled to voice them. But when you tune into a hockey game, all you want is to watch hockey. At least I do. When I was a Jets season ticket holder for five seasons back in the 1980s, I could have cared less what my favorite players’ political leanings were. All I cared about was whether they were any good. Nothing else.
That might be the best thing they could do to help grow their fan base.
And more importantly, stop losing the fans they have.
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