The Official GMHockey 2010 Winter Olympics Thread - All Talk Here!

PKC wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

PKC wrote:

Dash wrote:How was it an ignorant comment? It was a generalization and probably true. Is it safe to assume that Hockey is deemed as Canada's sport? And would it be safe to assume that the sport that gains the most attention and media reporting is hockey?

And I believe I said it would be nice to see Canada win the most medals which means I want Canada as a whole to win, not just hockey. But you know that if Canada's Men's Hockey team doesn't win gold, it will be talked about more than the medal totals, right?

Not quite. Hockey has already been surpassed by soccer as the most played sport in the country. Approximately 3x more kids sign up for soccer teams in their youth than hockey, and that number is rising astronomically.

So, while yes, there is a certain pride associated with hockey in this country and people (including the most casual of citizens) rooting for Canada to win Olympic gold in both mens' and womens' the fact is that there are other sports that are getting massively popular and have already surpassed the popularity of "Canada's game."

When Soccer coverage over takes Hockey coverage in Canada then I'll be on board with your assertion that "Canada's game" has been surpassed in popularity.

There's a reason Hockey still gets top billing in terms of TV coverage in Canada and there's more to it than just numbers of people playing the game.

You're missing the point I'm making somehow. I said more people are playing soccer, today, in Canada than there are people playing hockey. That's a fact. How does that relate at all to TV coverage?

I guess I should make my argument more valid using your logic by saying Toronto FC have played to sell out crowds since their first home game making them easily more popular than the Leafs, Blue Jays and Raptors who don't always sell out their games.

Maybe I am missing the point. You used the number of people playing Soccer vs. Hockey as your indicator that it's now exceeded Hockey in terms of popularity.

You're words - ...surpassed the popularity of "Canada's game."

I simply challenged your premise. I personally do not believe that numbers of people playing the game definitively proves that it's more popular than Hockey. There are thousand and thousands of Canadian fans that don't play Hockey but prefer it over Soccer.

I am basically saying that TV coverage is a better indicator of popularity of a sport than what you're using as an indicator.

Clearly there's something being lost in translation here.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

PKC wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

PKC wrote:

Dash wrote:How was it an ignorant comment? It was a generalization and probably true. Is it safe to assume that Hockey is deemed as Canada's sport? And would it be safe to assume that the sport that gains the most attention and media reporting is hockey?

And I believe I said it would be nice to see Canada win the most medals which means I want Canada as a whole to win, not just hockey. But you know that if Canada's Men's Hockey team doesn't win gold, it will be talked about more than the medal totals, right?

Not quite. Hockey has already been surpassed by soccer as the most played sport in the country. Approximately 3x more kids sign up for soccer teams in their youth than hockey, and that number is rising astronomically.

So, while yes, there is a certain pride associated with hockey in this country and people (including the most casual of citizens) rooting for Canada to win Olympic gold in both mens' and womens' the fact is that there are other sports that are getting massively popular and have already surpassed the popularity of "Canada's game."

When Soccer coverage over takes Hockey coverage in Canada then I'll be on board with your assertion that "Canada's game" has been surpassed in popularity.

There's a reason Hockey still gets top billing in terms of TV coverage in Canada and there's more to it than just numbers of people playing the game.

You're missing the point I'm making somehow. I said more people are playing soccer, today, in Canada than there are people playing hockey. That's a fact. How does that relate at all to TV coverage?

I guess I should make my argument more valid using your logic by saying Toronto FC have played to sell out crowds since their first home game making them easily more popular than the Leafs, Blue Jays and Raptors who don't always sell out their games.

Maybe I am missing the point. You used the number of people playing Soccer vs. Hockey as your indicator that it's now exceeded Hockey in terms of popularity.

You're words - ...surpassed the popularity of "Canada's game."

I simply challenged your premise. I personally do not believe that numbers of people playing the game definitively proves that it's more popular than Hockey. There are thousand and thousands of Canadian fans that don't play Hockey but prefer it over Soccer.

I am basically saying that TV coverage is a better indicator of popularity of a sport than what you're using as an indicator.

Clearly there's something being lost in translation here.

And I can challenge your argument by saying that the term "hockey mom" has easily been replaced by the more popular "soccer mom."

And if numbers of people playing the sport isn't an indication of popularity, then I'm not sure what is.

I'm not sure how TV coverage plays into this when there are 30 NHL teams and countless minor to junior league teams and only 1 professional soccer team in Canada that gets coverage.

Also worth mentioning that all the major soccer games from overseas get top coverage in Canada including Premier League games from England to UEFA Champions League games and that more of the less major games are getting coverage as well as evidenced by the Score and SportsNet's ever increasing coverage of soccer.

That's great that they're getting coverage. It's just like MMA. It came out of nowhere and now there's a lot of coverage on major sports networks.

I'm not saying Soccer won't be more popular and I'm not saying the number of people playing it can't be used as an indicator it's just not the only thing to measure popularity and can't be used in isolation to show that it's now the more popular than Hockey.

You could make an argument that it's now more popular to play than Hockey but again that's a weak argument because there's mitigating circumstances such as cost.

A better statement would perhaps be: More parents are putting their kids in soccer over Hockey. I would not be surprised to learn that it has a lot to do with cost rather than preference for Soccer over Hockey.

In case you missed it. Getzlaf if good to go.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/news/newsid=42184.html?cid=rsstsn

After a 4 point game, it was predictable.

Surely I'm not the only one who's gonna miss NHL Hockey big time?

Cap'n Clutch wrote:In case you missed it. Getzlaf if good to go.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/news/newsid=42184.html?cid=rsstsn

4 points last night ya id say hese good to go

SpezDispenser wrote:Surely I'm not the only one who's gonna miss NHL Hockey big time?

I especially miss the BONANZA part.

But seriously, there is NO substitute for Senators hockey in my sports world.

We'll get to see much better hockey than NHL hockey for the next couple of weeks. Which will lead up to a trade deadline hoopla as soon as the Olympics are done.

SpezDispenser wrote:Surely I'm not the only one who's gonna miss NHL Hockey big time?

just have to watch a lot of olympics its going to be great this year, but ya i will

SeawaySensFan wrote:I especially miss the BONANZA part.

But seriously, there is NO substitute for Senators hockey in my sports world.

Me neither.

SpezDispenser wrote:Surely I'm not the only one who's gonna miss NHL Hockey big time?

2 weeks without any sens hockey is going to kill me the olympics arent the same although this little rest may help spezza keep up his point streak and decent play

SpezDispenser wrote:Surely I'm not the only one who's gonna miss NHL Hockey big time?

No way man. I'm already going through withdrawls. Olympic hockey is great, but I'm so used to talking about only the sens, and to go 2 weeks without any news on the sens is gonna be tough.

However, these olympics have been really exciting to watch. Never thought I'd be watching ski moguls and speed skating evens, but so much suspense around it!

dennycrane wrote:We'll get to see much better hockey than NHL hockey for the next couple of weeks. Which will lead up to a trade deadline hoopla as soon as the Olympics are done.

Yeah, but NHL hockey means a lot more to me than a one off in the middle of February. I'm not complaining, I just realized how much I'm gonna miss the Sens specifically, but the entire NHL race.

The trade deadline is my next "Christmas".

I'm gonna watch every Sweden game because, really if anything happens to Alfie we're seriously Diddled.

marakh wrote:I'm gonna watch every Sweden game because, really if anything happens to Alfie we're seriously Diddled.

lets just not even go there, i think alfie needed the break more then spezza, hese been looking so tired out there some games

marakh wrote:I'm gonna watch every Sweden game because, really if anything happens to Alfie we're seriously Diddled.

IF Canada falls out, they're my "bandwagon" team, so I'll try to watch as well.

SpezDispenser wrote:

dennycrane wrote:We'll get to see much better hockey than NHL hockey for the next couple of weeks. Which will lead up to a trade deadline hoopla as soon as the Olympics are done.

Yeah, but NHL hockey means a lot more to me than a one off in the middle of February. I'm not complaining, I just realized how much I'm gonna miss the Sens specifically, but the entire NHL race.

The trade deadline is my next "Christmas".

even if we only make one trade ? involving a D-man