Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
It goes beyond just professional hockey. I was at a Bantam House tournament for my son in Chilliwack and spent some time talking to parents from Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Hardly any of the Chilliwack patents had heard of the Heat, and of the Abbotsford parents, only a handful of them had been to a great game. They all told me playing hockey or even watching just isn't a big activity there. Lots and lots of sports, but hockey isn't king like it is elsewhere.
Case in point:
Chilliwack Bruins Minor Hockey serves approximately 100K people and only had 2 Rep and 6 house teams.
Kamloops Minor hockey has 3 Rep and 10 house teams.
By Midget the disparity is even bigger. They would need a serious grassroots movement for hockey to catch on in the lower mainland outside of the major hubs
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Thank you! Couldn't agree more.
I've had some discussions about this with some actual hockey people about this. They too say the Lower Mainland is far from a hockey market whether it's Abbotsford, Cloverdale, Vancouver, Coquitlam, Mission... it's not a hockey market. It's a Canucks market.
Only team that deserves to be down here is the Canucks and whatever minor hockey programs/teams they can get. Other than that, the BCHL and PIJHL aren't going to get any attention.