Quote:
Originally Posted by dobbles
Heres my take as someone that grew up in rural Illinois and has spent the last 15 years in the south.
Reason 1 ..... Tulsa is a metro with a million people and we have 1 rink for all skating programs. In South Carolina we lived in a town with 100k and it had no ice surface. In Illinois my town was small 35k or so and had no rink. Had to drive 45 miles to towns with 1 or 2 sheets ....
Reason 2 for me is the evolution of the game ... most fans are still there for the fights. For good reasons fighting is reduced in todays game. But that doesn't play well with American audiences. Hitting is an extension of this ....
Last is access to viewers. Its been hit hard but for me a couple highlights... Bring tied to regional sports networks has hurt. Similar to baseball, its made it too hard to see games ....
Thats my top 3.
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It is hard to even comprehend that. Here in Cochrane, we have 4 ice surfaces, and also use Cremona and Morley to help with having enough ice. We still need to practice with U11 (9 and 10 year olds in Tier 3) once every 3 weeks before school at 6:30 AM because there is not enough ice to go around. It is unfathomable what the US deals with.
I didnt think removing fighting from the game would remove so many fans. That is very interesting! But, it makes sense; I always loved a good fight, and good Scott Stevens hit, even though I understand why its been removed from the game.
And yeah, the TV product is awful. HD should have been a huge benefit to the NHL, but instead, they used the better technology to add more crappy digital ads instead of way better picture quality. They could have had one camera zoomed out enough to see half the rink, analogous to row 1 of the second level, with no compression, and it would have been probably better than being in the arena. Instead, they zoom way too far in, and then they force digital ads and gambling propoganda right down our throats!