How to grow the game?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by nik-

Does it makes me an ####### that I'm sick of hearing "grow the game" and that I really don't care anymore if more people watch it or not?

Nope it is called an opinion, you are free to have one.

Perhaps start a thread about how not to grow the game.

[_Q_]

I think growing the game brings legitimacy to the sport which in turn makes winning the Gold Medal/World Cup more valid.

If Canadians were the only people that watched or played hockey, how fun would it be to win the gold medal every year? Do we want nobody to care about the sport like Basketball and have the gold medal pretty much handed to our dream team every 4 years or do we want it to be a truly competitive world sport that we still excel at like Brazil is to soccer?

[AvsJerk]

^^^I don't really care if they grow the game either. I guess you could look at it as a sustainability thing though, and I'd like it if hockey could stay popular enough to stay in the t.v. market in the U.S. Other than that, I couldn't care less about growing the game.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Nope it is called an opinion, you are free to have one.

Perhaps start a thread about how not to grow the game.

Nah, I prefer efficient use of space.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by nik-

Nah, I prefer efficient use of space.

perfect then you won't waste anymore by not posting in this thread again.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

perfect then you won't waste anymore by not posting in this thread again.

Well the footprint is already taken, so it doesn't matter now.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by AvsJerk

^^^I don't really care if they grow the game either. I guess you could look at it as a sustainability thing though, and I'd like it if hockey could stay popular enough to stay in the t.v. market in the U.S. Other than that, I couldn't care less about growing the game.

If hockey doesn't grow into new countries, then we don't get stars like Kopitar or Vanek breaking into the NHL. And personally if I wanted to watch a sport that only Canadians cared about, I'd watch the CFL. How many countries can say they invented a sport that's popular around the world? (or at least the northern hemisphere)

[BigTuna]

It is growing. It just will never be more than a regional thing in the U.S. People need to accept that.

[AvsJerk]

^^^Oh no, I'm with you Hemi. I have no problem with growing the game, and agree that it has more benefits than negatives.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by _Q_

I think growing the game brings legitimacy to the sport which in turn makes winning the Gold Medal/World Cup more valid.

If Canadians were the only people that watched or played hockey, how fun would it be to win the gold medal every year?

From watching women's hockey, I'd say pretty damn fun!

[Coach]

I will say this:

In no other circumstance could I convince even some of my bigger hockey fan friends to get up at 5 am to watch a Canada Cup final. Or an Olympic gold medal game where I didn't even know the players. Bars would not have liquor licenses extended. And that's in Canada. Having NHL players in the Olympics help the game reach a wider audience.

[Turner]

Hockey draft for children 12 - 16.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I will say this:

In no other circumstance could I convince even some of my bigger hockey fan friends to get up at 5 am to watch a Canada Cup final. Or an Olympic gold medal game where I didn't even know the players. Bars would not have liquor licenses extended. And that's in Canada. Having NHL players in the Olympics help the game reach a wider audience.

Getting hockey fans to watch hockey isn't really growing the audience though, maybe less people would watch a 5am Gold Medal game, but that's more how the NHL is helping the Olympics, not vice versa.

[GirlySports]

There is no time for hockey in the NHL calendar which runs from September to June.

NHL owners are already going ape#### when their players go once every 4 years. There is no way there would be another tournament or even qualifying. In 8 years would you like to see Gilles and Baertschi play for Calgary on a Wednesday, go play qualifying for their country on a Saturday then come back to play for Calgary on a Tuesday and get hurt?

Hockey is a club sport, it's not really an international sport. Not just NHL, Russians love their local team, so do Swedes and Finns.

Keep the NHLers in the Olympics would be achievement enough.

-----

As an aside soccer had the best players in the olympics until 1928. Then they had the first professional World Cup in 1930. Los Angeles kicked soccer out of the 32 Olympics. Hitler put it back in in 36 but was pissed off the Germans lost. When the Austrians lost to Peru he kicked Peru out. So the entire event became a cluster####. Italy ended up winning, no surprise since they won the 34 and 38 world cups with the same team. After the war it became amateur in the Olympics and professional in the World Cup. Then in 92 it was changed to U-23

[Bourque's Twin]

Keep NHL players in the Olympics and continue to have the World Championships. This grows the game all over the world, especially in the USA.

Relocate Florida and Phoenix to Quebec City and Hamilton. Those are dying franchises and they don't make the game look good.

Do not continue to expand until more teams are making money. This will help not dilute the talent level in the NHL and force profit-making teams to cough up more money.

Keep fighting in the league.

Slow down the pace of outdoor games but continue to have them.

Have more 24/7-type shows and show the world the inside of NHL franchises.

[Huntingwhale]

I would love to see an all-star game like competition with the top all-stars from each league (SEL, KHL, NHL, etc) in an olympic like single game elimination tournament once in a while. Of course the NHL team would be the favorite, but I think every once in a while you'd see an upset occur and that will really energize the winning league's team.

Keeping the best players (NHL) players in the olympics is another big step. If the owners truly do have the fans best interests at heart like they say, they will keep allowing their teams to send players every 4 years. The owners won the last big PR campaign during the last lockout by making it out to be that they had the fans best interests at heart. I would imagine the PR backlash by pulling out their players in 2018 would be a step backwards for everyone and would make them look like the bad guys.

But I think more exposure of leagues overseas would be huge. Some of us know the big names in the KHL and SEL, but really fans here don't know much about those teams and players. Even some small things like more media reporting on their league standings, player awards, and championships might have more fans here interested in what goes on in Europe. Maybe even something like the league MVPs every year in the various leagues overseas are offered an NHL tryout contract as a reward. Or the league champ plays vs the Stanley cup champ. More intercontinental games (not necessarily the WC) would be good for everyone.

[GirlySports]

What do you guys think of sending the Stanley Cup champs to the Spengler Cup? They would have to leave the NHL for a couple of weeks and have those games made up.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

What do you guys think of sending the Stanley Cup champs to the Spengler Cup? They would have to leave the NHL for a couple of weeks and have those games made up.

I dunno if Davos would love having the stars over or if they'd be royally pissed off that beating "Team Canada" loses it's lustre after you get thrashed by the Blackhawks.

Almost certainly a non-starter though - playing an extra tournament would exacerbate the Stanley Cup hangover. International breaks that affect all the teams, or at least all the top teams, are a lot more fair.

[gvitaly]

The best way would be to stop global warming...

more ice=more hockey

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

The best way would be to stop global warming...

more ice=more hockey

Yup

There will be an Olympic Tournament in Qatar.