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]

Originally Posted by Azure

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by valo403

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[valo403]

Originally Posted by MattyC

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/sp...stered-players

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

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

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]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/sp...stered-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]

Originally Posted by 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]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

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]

Originally Posted by valo403

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.