Kevin Lowe said something interesting...

[North East Goon]

He mentioned that there is more registered youth hockey players in the U.S. than Canada.

[Coach]

not surprising considering they have 10 times the population lots of which are in the New York, Boston and Chicago areas all of which have a pretty good appetite for hockey

[Azure]

Not surprising, considering the northern most states have millions more people than Canada does.

Combine that with more exposure in southern markets such as California, Florida and Texas, all states which have at least 1/2 of many people as Canada does and obviously you'll have more youth hockey players.

The US is doing pretty damn good considering. A lot of good young players coming from down south in the past few years.

[afc wimbledon]

More youth soccer players in the US than any country in europe and have been for a decade or more. hasn't helped them much though.

[Phaneuf3]

Combine that with more exposure in southern markets such as California, Florida and Texas, all states which have at least 1/2 of many people as Canada does and obviously you'll have more youth hockey players.
While true, this kind of understates the hugeness of California's population. I prefer this comparison:
More people live in the state of California alone than all of Canada.

[MelBridgeman]

I was down in Phoenix for a hockey tournament in 1990 - and although the hockey wasn't as good as us Calgary teams it was still competive , heck we lost to a Edmonton 15 year old AA team 2-0 ( we were a 14 year old AA team)...20 years later, it must be greatly improved.

With all the kids coming out of California and they're a lot of them in the WHL and BCJHL...the influence of Gretz going to LA is coming to frution

[Coach]

Yeah I was in a tournament in Las Vegas about 5 years ago. We wiped the floor with most of the teams but they were decent enough. Also quite a few people came to watch and a lot of the casino's seemed to have hockey arenas in them.

[Reggie Dunlop]

I'm shocked that Kevin Lowe has said something interesting.

[valo403]

More youth soccer players in the US than any country in europe and have been for a decade or more. hasn't helped them much though.

Really? The US is at least on par with the majority of Europe and not an easy task for anyone.

[Coach]

Also, the California Wave, a bantam AAA team, regularly does very well at KIBIHT which is one of the best tournaments around for that age group.

[Coach]

Really? The US is at least on par with the majority of Europe and not an easy task for anyone.
I think he means the popularity of soccer in the US not how the national team does, which is very well.

[Yeah_Baby]

More youth soccer players in the US than any country in europe and have been for a decade or more. hasn't helped them much though.

Yeah, but they at least are capable of qualifying for the World Cup.

[valo403]

I think he means the popularity of soccer in the US not how the national team does, which is very well.

No he was talking about the success of the team, he was quite mistaken.

[Hack&Lube]

You can thank the Might Ducks 1, 2, and 3 for this!

[Hack&Lube]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/spo_ice_hoc_num_of_reg_pla_pla-ice-hockey-number-registered-players

# 1 Canada: 574,125
# 2 United States: 485,018

[Brendone]

I'm shocked that Kevin Lowe has said something interesting.
"We're close to a major deal for 12 players from Team Canada... pending their review of our promotional DVD"

[Hammertime]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/spo_ice_hoc_num_of_reg_pla_pla-ice-hockey-number-registered-players

# 1 Canada: 574,125
# 2 United States: 485,018

What a surprise. Kevin Lowe can't even get the stats right, let alone run a hockey club.

[afc wimbledon]

More youth soccer players in the US than any country in europe and have been for a decade or more. hasn't helped them much though.

I meant the US has a huge amount of youth soccer, it is the single most popular youth sport in the US apparently, and there are far more youth players in the US than any european country by dint of its population and yet the US senior squad ranks in the mid teens in soccer, which is nowhere, the equivalent of Germany in Hockey, and the country barely sustains a league.

[valo403]

I meant the US has a huge amount of youth soccer, it is the single most popular youth sport in the US apparently, and there are far more youth players in the US than any european country by dint of its population and yet the US senior squad ranks in the mid teens in soccer, which is nowhere, the equivalent of Germany in Hockey, and the country barely sustains a league.

1. Citing FIFA rankings is ridiculous
2. The US team is world class, they can beat anyone on any given day and are much stronger than the majority of Europe. They are nothing like the Germany of hockey. The US beating the likes of Italy or Spain would be a surprise only because they are the new kids on the block, the talent difference isn't anywhere near that of German hockey to the elite nations.

[afc wimbledon]

1. Citing FIFA rankings is ridiculous
2. The US team is world class, they can beat anyone on any given day and are much stronger than the majority of Europe. They are nothing like the Germany of hockey. The US beating the likes of Italy or Spain would be a surprise only because they are the new kids on the block, the talent difference isn't anywhere near that of German hockey to the elite nations.

And yet somehow they consistently lose once they leave concacaf, and often in concacaf. I love the fact that septics have a team and there is some interest in soccer down south, but they arn't close to beating the top ten on any kind of consistant level.

The FIFA rankings are way to kind to the US by the way, they rate them at 14, their real rank is about 20th.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I meant the US has a huge amount of youth soccer, it is the single most popular youth sport in the US apparently, and there are far more youth players in the US than any european country by dint of its population and yet the US senior squad ranks in the mid teens in soccer, which is nowhere, the equivalent of Germany in Hockey, and the country barely sustains a league.
It takes time, they're only now starting to get a lot of these kids of age where they're going to make an impact as pros. US leagues are getting better every year and I have no doubts that 10 years from now, they'll be a whole lot higher in ranking.
Hockey wise, same things. I fear the day when the US is the consistent favorite, and can see it coming.

[Knalus]

I meant the US has a huge amount of youth soccer, it is the single most popular youth sport in the US apparently, and there are far more youth players in the US than any european country by dint of its population and yet the US senior squad ranks in the mid teens in soccer, which is nowhere, the equivalent of Germany in Hockey, and the country barely sustains a league.

Germany barely sustains a league? When I was there last I saw plenty of advertisements and billboards for the German Hockey league. Many of the people I know over there seemed to think it was doing very well.

[afc wimbledon]

Germany barely sustains a league? When I was there last I saw plenty of advertisements and billboards for the German Hockey league. Many of the people I know over there seemed to think it was doing very well.

The US barely sustains a soccer league

[dre]

I was talking with a family from Orange County about hockey a few years back. They had their son, 13 at the time, in hockey in Anaheim. They loved the sport, but they were not sure if he was going to continue playing because it was costing them over 10k a year.
If I am not mistaken, they also said that as he gets older the cost of enrolling him after he reaches 15 was going to be over 25k(something like that). Not a lot of people can afford to play hockey in certain parts of the US, especially in California. Also, they played hockey for more then 10 month out of the year.

[valo403]

And yet somehow they consistently lose once they leave concacaf, and often in concacaf. I love the fact that septics have a team and there is some interest in soccer down south, but they arn't close to beating the top ten on any kind of consistant level.

The FIFA rankings are way to kind to the US by the way, they rate them at 14, their real rank is about 20th.

When does the US play competitive matches outside of concacaf? Once every four years?

2002 World Cup - Quarterfinals
2006 World Cup - Draw with Italy, otherwise disappointing tournament

They've defeated Sweden (twice), Spain, Poland, Denmark and South Africa and drawn Argentina since then. They've also played Brazil, England and Spain close in losses.

Your comparison to German hockey is laughable. The US squad is a legitimate world class team, their reputation is kept down more by the snobbery of Europe than anyhting else.

[valo403]

I was talking with a family from Orange County about hockey a few years back. They had their son, 13 at the time, in hockey in Anaheim. They loved the sport, but they were not sure if he was going to continue playing because it was costing them over 10k a year.
If I am not mistaken, they also said that as he gets older the cost of enrolling him after he reaches 15 was going to be over 25k(something like that). Not a lot of people can afford to play hockey in certain parts of the US, especially in California. Also, they played hockey for more then 10 month out of the year.

Hockey in the US is almost exclusively a rich persons sport. There are some areas (Minnesota, parts of Michigan) where hockey is affordable, but even places like Massachusetts are very exepnsive. The most obvious reason is the lack of rinks relative to Canada, there's not enough ice to go around so prices go up. At the older/elite groups travel costs become a big factor as there generally aren't more than a couple top tier teams in a region. Even Michigan based teams play weekend games against teams from Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Chicago in order to have more than a handful of opponents over the year.

[afc wimbledon]

'The US squad is a legitimate world class team, their reputation is kept down more by the snobbery of Europe than anyhting else.'

That and the 5 0 thrashing by Mexico, 3 1 by costa rica, losses to denmark slovakia etc.
They are a 15th to 20th team at best.

[valo403]

'The US squad is a legitimate world class team, their reputation is kept down more by the snobbery of Europe than anyhting else.'

That and the 5 0 thrashing by Mexico, 3 1 by costa rica, losses to denmark slovakia etc.
They are a 15th to 20th team at best.

Ah so when the old world teams (Germany, England etc.) suffer similar losses it doesn't count though, right?

[Heavy Jack]

Kevin Lowe said something interesting..."That the Oilers can compete this year for the cup??"