[FlamesAddiction]

Hockey has never really been able to get out of the niche corner in the U.S. For other sports like baseball, basketball, and football, there are really no gaps in the fanbases. It doesn't matter if your state or region has a team, people tune in. Similar how in Canada, it doesn't matter that Saskatchewan or the Atlantic provinces don't have a team, people are just as devoted.

In the U.S., outside of a few areas, people outside of the city where a team plays, don't really care. Obviously people in places like Nebraska, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Hawaii, New Mexico, etc... are not tuning into hockey the way they do the other sports. Even in places like Tennessee and North Carolina, I heard once you leave Nashville or Raleigh, no one cares. Like no one in Memphis or Charlotte care about hockey for example, despite having teams in their state.

When it comes to reaching a national audience in the U.S., I think hockey just came in at a time when other sports already seized the gap due to those sports being woven in while American culture was forming. For another sport to try to force itself into that fabric, I think is almost impossible.

I personally don't care how popular it is in the U.S., other than the implications a lack of growth has on the financial stability of the league overall.

It also doesn't help much when a network like ESPN gets a contract to broadcast NHL games and does absolutely nothing to promote it. If you go to their website, they have virtually no stories of advertising for the NHL. I think right now, they have one all-str game related story buried in there with no thumbnail or anything. On an average day, there is nothing at all.

I almost get the sense that some of these networks bid on NHL broadcasting rights just to keep them away from competitors.