Is the NHL losing fans?
NBA and NHL attendance are way down from 2018-19, the last season in either league that COVID-19 didn't shorten. Through Thursday, 23 NBA and 23 NHL franchises were experiencing spectatorship decreases. Of those 46 teams, 27 have seen attendance dip by more than 10%. Eight clubs are down more than 20%.
NHL local ratings dropped by 23% this season, with only four teams showing increases. Not a great slate of local numbers for the NHL. While the NHL's national TV partners were quite happy with viewership in the 2021-22 season, it's a different story at the local level.
As a winter sport, ice hockey has defied all odds to become one of the most popular and richest among the professional sports leagues around the world.
The NHL is one of five major sports leagues in North America and is statistically the fourth most popular sport to watch behind the NFL, MLB and the NBA.
Viewership for Canada's sport on the decline, poll finds Back to video. A new Leger survey for the Association of Canadian Studies (ACS) found there has been a decline in sports viewership amongst most sports, but none as significant as hockey.
Games covered on ESPN, ESPN2, TNT and TBS averaged 768,000 viewers, an increase of 58 percent from last season on NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network.
Last year, the NBA averaged 17,319 fans at their games. The NHL, on the other hand, averaged 17,126. Most people may be surprised that the NHL is this close to the NBA in terms of attendance. However, when one looks at the numbers deeper it becomes clear that the NHL actually has the advantage.
Hockey: The Most American Sport That Americans Won't Watch | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report.
Not only has the NHL grown exponentially since the 1990s, it is continuing to grow even more today. After recently adding two new teams that cover two major sports areas (Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights), we can assume there will be some spike in viewership looking towards the future.
Fanbase. Ice hockey is traditionally popular in Massachusetts (and New England in general), Michigan, New York (especially Upstate New York) and Minnesota within the United States. Minnesota is known as the hockey capital of the US.
Does anyone care about the NHL?
Speaking on ESPN's “First Take” on Thursday, Max Kellerman said “no one really cares about hockey” in the country, adding that it wasn't one of the four major sports. On the show, Kellerman said, “I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but in the United States of America, no one really cares about hockey.
1. Chicago Blackhawks. It's not really that surprising that the Chicago Blackhawks have amassed the largest fan base in the NHL.
No team in the NHL has currently gone as long without a Stanley Cup victory, never mind an appearance. Toronto fans have had the most disappointing, anticlimactic 44 years of any franchise in the NHL yet boast the league's most perfect attendance record. Maple Leafs fans are the undisputed No. 1 in terms of dedication.
Many families simply cannot afford to have a child to play hockey. Some people don't have easy access to a hockey rink. Ice time can be pricey, and there may be select hours to practice. Markoulis also said the marketability of the NHL's top prospects is lagging when compared with basketball, baseball and football.
Where is ice hockey most popular? Ice hockey is immensely popular in Canada, where it is the national winter sport and arguably the country's most popular game. Hockey is also popular in the United States and in European countries such as Russia, Sweden, and Finland.
- 8 8. Switzerland.
- 7 7. Czech Republic.
- 6 6. Slovakia.
- 5 5. United States of America.
- 4 4. Finland.
- 3 3. Sweden.
- 2 2. Russia.
- 1 1. Canada.
More recently over the past several decades, American football has been the most popular sport in terms of broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century.
The foremost and most popular baseball league in America is Major League Baseball (MLB).
Football continues to be the most popular sport in the United States. According to Gallup.com, 37% of U.S. adults picked football as their favorite sport to watch.
A survey by Ampere Analysis from the fourth quarter of 2021 found that 49% of U.S. sports fans like soccer, compared to 37% who like hockey. Baseball came in at 57%. In 2020, 17.8 million Americans played soccer, compared to 2.3 million who played ice hockey, according to the Sport and Fitness Association.
How popular is ice hockey in the US?
Hockey ranks well behind pro football in a popularity contest among Americans. The game on ice is steady at 5 percent popularity in the U.S., ranking sixth among sports. The NHL is often referred to as the No. 4 league when it comes to ranking the popularity of North American professional team sports.
With its speed and its frequent physical contact, ice hockey has become one of the most popular of international sports. The game is an Olympic sport, and worldwide there are more than a million registered players performing regularly in leagues.
The NHL's best single-game U.S. TV audience from 2010 to 2019 was 8.723 million average viewers (for Game 7 of the 2019 Blues-Bruins Stanley Cup Final), with the NFL, Olympics, MLB, college football, NBA, college basketball, soccer, and horse racing all posting single events that pulled more than double that audience ...
