Show of hands - how many hockey people regularly visit ESPN?

Yeah, me neither. 

Most of the press about hockey is how bad the economy is and how badly run the league is and MMA is the new trendy thing, so that doesn’t surprise me a bit.  I am actually surprised to see soccer trailing.  I think it’s the right place for it, but you hear so much talk about soccer being right on the verge of breaking through, and so far it really hasn’t despite all the talk and all the kids who grow up playing it.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/12/09 at 12:16 PM ET

Espn now covers MMA. What a joke,LOL!!  Nothing but a bunch of rating wh*res (except for a few). No jounalistic integrity .I’m proud to say I’m from New England (come on Maine,get up to speed).

Posted by Lindas1st on 07/12/09 at 12:25 PM ET

Soccer was a way for Yuppies to get a babysitter in the 80’s. They would drop off thier kids at the suburban fields for a few hours. Then go to thier cooperate offices and srew the workin’ man. Alot of people assumed these kids would grow up and be soccer fans.  The U.S. would be a soccer nation.They didn’t. and it didn’t .And now the economy sucks. What a surprise.

Posted by Lindas1st on 07/12/09 at 12:33 PM ET

Im sorry about that last rant. I know this isn’t the forum for political discourse. Again,sorry.

Posted by Lindas1st on 07/12/09 at 12:35 PM ET

If the knock on hockey is that it’s low-scoring (because if you have final scores in the triple digits, it MUST be exciting, right?), I don’t see how soccer (with apologies to non-Americans for use of the term) will ever win any popularity contests. It doesn’t help that MLS is a) tiny and b) widely considered a sub-standard league.

Honestly? I think if you “get” hockey, basketball, or maybe even American football, you’ll “get” soccer. It’s a great sport. If I had the cash to spend on the MLS equivalent of Center Ice, I’d pick a team (the closest one to me is several hundred miles away and in Denver), probably based on totally arbitrary criteria such as “would a replica jersey look good on me,” and dig in.

But I guess therein lies the problem--maybe people generally like it, if only because they played as a kid, but it’s just not high enough on their list of sports priorities to merit much in the way of enthusiasm.

Posted by Bio on 07/12/09 at 01:09 PM ET

football is just as low scoring as hockey. its just cultural inertia that makes it “amazing” over hockey. 14-21 game in football is just 3-2 in reality. MMA is just as “boring” as hockey or any sport for the most part. unless you take on the cultural inertia and drama of the sport - ANY SPORT can be “boring.”

everything else is just a culturally chauvinistic excuse.

“baseball is amazing.” yeah, spin that 3 hours any way you want. watch guys shoot freethrows for 2 hours is great. etc, etc. you get the point. make up your spin.

making the cycle of peoples lives participants of hockey is the only way to make it worthwhile in the states. that starts at building the game at grassroot levels and making it more accessible to people of all class backgrounds and “races”.

Posted by Death Metal Nightmare from MKE on 07/12/09 at 01:42 PM ET

I get soccer fine - I just don’t like it.  It doesn’t mean I’m going to denigrate the sport or the fans of it, calling it stupid or boring or pointless - it just isn’t to my taste.  The only sports I really follow are hockey and baseball, and I don’t care for football or basketball at all.

I think which sports someone likes are a very individual thing, and just be advertising something out the wazoo won’t magically make people care about it.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/12/09 at 02:00 PM ET

Well, the question is:  “Which of the three sports has the brightest future in the United States?”

Realistically?  It pains me to say it but it’s MMA.  Standard man-to-man competition has far longer roots and benn far longer engrained since the Greco-Roman times...and we’re talking thousands of years.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 07/12/09 at 02:32 PM ET

We just have to lace Brock Lesnar up in a pair of skates and put a stick in his hand, sit back, crack a beer, and watch the hilarity unfold.

Posted by Hippy Dave from San Francisco by way of Detroit on 07/12/09 at 04:24 PM ET

@Baroque - I was talking more about people who don’t like soccer (or any sport) because they don’t understand it, not because they understand it but still don’t like it.

Fandom is a weird animal, and the more I try to think about it, the less it seems to make sense.

Posted by Bio on 07/12/09 at 04:47 PM ET

I’m totally disappointed in my state.  I mean, I know the NHL is practically invisible here but we are proud of our Badgers and WCHA mania is always in full effect.  I thought we’d be blue.  I guess we are really just a football and baseball state. 

I love my football too.  I was born and raised to be a fan of the game.  I don’t really follow baseball or basketball.  I enjoy going to games but watching them on TV is just not my cup of tea.

I think the biggest problem is national television coverage.  I like soccer and I’d care more if I was able to watch it more.  Unfortunately, this is also hockey’s biggest obstacle.  If you don’t get Versus or buy Center Ice, you are out of luck, even during the playoffs.  The game of the week on NBC is not enough to sustain even casual fans.  MMA is in your face all the time, you can’t avoid it.  They are able to grab new fans all the time and I suppose that two guys beating the crap out of each other is pretty exciting to a lot of people.

We just have to lace Brock Lesnar up in a pair of skates and put a stick in his hand, sit back, crack a beer, and watch the hilarity unfold.

Posted by Hippy Dave from San Francisco by way of Detroit on 07/12/09 at 04:24 PM ET

I might actually buy that on pay per view.

Posted by jennyquarx on 07/12/09 at 06:01 PM ET

I think it comes down to what sport can attract the best athletes. That is what fans want to watch; the best of the best. With soccer, if the talent base could ever rise to that of EU or South American levels, then soccer would have a really good chance in this country. I mean, I love watching soccer, but not MLS soccer. If some EU league play is on, I’ll watch. I definitely watch the World Cup. But I’m not sure that will happen either organically or through free agency in my lifetime.

The question with MMA is can enough money funnel through the sport for the athletes to forgo a football career for the MMA. Boxing is having trouble with that as all the best heavy weight athletes, which boxing relies on heavily, are in football. I don’t know all that much about MMA, but if they rely too much on a heavy weight division, it will be tough sell. They’ll have high growth rates for awhile, but at some point it will level out. If not, they might end up taking the future boxing athletes but I’m still not sure that would be enough for it to grow into a major sport.

With hockey, unless the KHL improves dramatically, the best hockey related athletes already play in the NHL. If a future hockey athlete wants to play with the best of the best and earn a very high salary, the NHL is the place to do it. Because of that, seems to reason that the NHL would have the brightest future.

Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 07/12/09 at 08:29 PM ET

@ UMFan -

Interesting analysis.

I wonder how much the delivery method affects popularity?  I’ve heard people who actually understand and love boxing lament the fact that it used to have one championship instead of what seems like a dozen, and it used to be on television a lot more than it is now, when it seems as though everything in pay per view so only the people who already understand the sport are going to pay for the match, and anyone else is not going to bother spending extra to watch people they don’t know perform in a competition which they don’t care for.

It will also be good to see if MMA has staying power or not.  I know it is growing by leaps and bounds now, but so was Nascar a few years ago - and now the economy and it’s effects particularly on the automobile industry is badly hurting the sport.  Despite what seem to be the best efforts of some people to destroy hockey, somehow it has managed to survive so far in spite of them.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/12/09 at 09:56 PM ET

MMA has the brightest future i guess

Posted by Muay Thai from USA on 07/14/09 at 02:59 AM ET