Ice hockey starts to slip as Canadians also fall for soccer (from FT UK)

[Rivaldo]

Not at all.

When you wrote that, were you refering to Toronto or the USA?

[Macksam]

When you wrote that, were you refering to Toronto or the USA?

USA.

Well, evidently JPG has refuted my claim so it's probably dodgy at best.

[Bertuzzi44]

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=312025

"80 percent of Canadians watch Gold medal game"

26.5 million people out of a total national population of roughly 33 million watched at least a portion of Sunday's gold medal game between Canada and the USA. Considering this, this thread's topic seems amusing. Not to mention, the article itself was atrocious!

Congrats to our national Men's and Women's ice hockey teams!

[jpg75]

^ Nice one, i forgot about this thread. Also, 16.6M (or 50% of the country) watched the entire game. Hockey is alive and well in Canada.

[Bertuzzi44]

Sorry, I had to post this:

http://deadspin.com/5488435/canadians-also-win-gold-for-synchronized-peeing

[TFC07]

You guys make me laugh! If Canada was in world cup (soccer), I am sure there will get huge ratings. In fact, didn't last U-20 world cup get very high ratings in Canada? What about summer Olympics? Don't they usually get high ratings even though Canada isn't summer sports friendly country?

Like I said before, come to Toronto and see how many kids are playing hockey compare to soccer and basketball. See how many people are wearing hockey jerseys in Toronto compare to soccer and basketball jerseys. Go visit a local school in Toronto and see which sports kids are talking about these days. Hockey will remain number 1 sport in Canada, but in Toronto's case, it might not be a case.

[Keano]

You guys make me laugh! If Canada was in world cup (soccer), I am sure there will get huge ratings. In fact, didn't last U-20 world cup get very high ratings in Canada? What about summer Olympics? Don't they usually get high ratings even though Canada isn't summer sports friendly country?

Like I said before, come to Toronto and see how many kids are playing hockey compare to soccer and basketball. See how many people are wearing hockey jerseys in Toronto compare to soccer and basketball jerseys. Go visit a local school in Toronto and see which sports kids are talking about these days. Hockey will remain number 1 sport in Canada, but in Toronto's case, it might not be a case.

While I seriously doubt the bolded portion, I think that we're talking about two different things: the current state of the Canadian hockey audience is under no threat, while the future of Canadian hockey enrollment has been for a while now.

[argh1]

Well I don't think hockey will die soon.

Most municipalities can't build ice surfaces fast enough to keep up with demand. Mind you that includes the tremendous growth of female hockey as well as meeting the demand of figure skaters, ringette and speed skating.

It's not a competion between soccer and hockey alot play hockey in the winter and summer sports including soccer. But I wouldn't put hiockey in the coffin yet and yes soccer will continue to grow as will basketball and baseball and football. Participation in all sports are putting demands on municipalities just look at the number of aquatic centres built in the last 10 years,

[red card]

Canada/France in 86 had over 1m viewers on CBC - so, I can easily see at least 2m if Canada plays a round robin match in the WC today. That would be on par with HNIC or of an Olympics not occuring in Canada. Last Euro final had over 1m on CTV.

On non hockey night, Vancouver Olympics were averaging 4-6m per night (basically a World Juniors/Grey Cup/Super Bowl audience every night). So, rather than just happening in our dreams, if Canada actually made it to the quarters or beyond, the rating should be in the similar range.

[TFC07]

Minorities to rise significantly by 2031: StatsCan

About one-third of Canada's population — up to 14.4 million people — will be a visible minority by 2031, Statistics Canada projects.

The country's foreign-born population is also expected to rise to as much as 28 per cent, about four times faster than the rest of the population, the Statistics Canada study projects.

The projections suggest that whites will become the minority in Toronto and Vancouver over the course of the next three decades.

South Asians, including Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, are expected to make up the largest visible minority group, at 28 per cent, thanks in part to high fertility rates, the study projected. The proportion of Chinese-Canadians, who have one of the lowest fertility rates in Canada, is expected to decrease from 24 to 21 per cent.

Visible minorities, as defined by the study, are "persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour."

Settlement primarily in urban centres

The vast majority of visible minorities — 71 per cent — are projected to live in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, building on a trend that has seen immigrants move to urban centres in large numbers.

The largest proportion by far is projected to live in Toronto, where Statistics Canada says 63 per cent of the population will be a visible minority, up from 43 per cent counted in the 2006 census.

In Vancouver, the population of visible minorities is projected to reach 59 per cent, up from 42 per cent in 2006.

In Montreal, the population of visible minorities is projected to reach 31 per cent, more than double the 16 per cent counted in 2006.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/09/statscan-minority.html#ixzz0hhlsVx36

[buckley17]

Definitely congrats to Men's and Women's hockey teams.

Still that Gold Medal match is kind of like the Super Bowl and it does not indicate that all those people regularly watch hockey. The Gold medal match and the match against Russia are the only 2 hockey games I have watched since the last Olympics. See you again in 4 years!

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=312025

26.5 million people out of a total national population of roughly 33 million watched at least a portion of Sunday's gold medal game between Canada and the USA. Considering this, this thread's topic seems amusing. Not to mention, the article itself was atrocious!

Congrats to our national Men's and Women's ice hockey teams!

[Guest Ed]

Don't really see the leap in logic that an increase in the % pop of South Asians and Chinese is going to dramatically improve soccer.

[Admin]

Canada/France in 86 had over 1m viewers on CBC - so, I can easily see at least 2m if Canada plays a round robin match in the WC today. That would be on par with HNIC or of an Olympics not occuring in Canada. Last Euro final had over 1m on CTV.

On non hockey night, Vancouver Olympics were averaging 4-6m per night (basically a World Juniors/Grey Cup/Super Bowl audience every night). So, rather than just happening in our dreams, if Canada actually made it to the quarters or beyond, the rating should be in the similar range.

Are you kidding?

2M for Canada in the World Cup? Not a freaking chance. It would be waaaaay higher.

If Canada made it to the quarters of a World Cup, or beyond, the ratings would be very very high.

[Admin]

Advertising works. Hockey is not part of my 'soul' or any crap like that.

Personally I am sick of the Molson Canadian 'Beer and hockey' Canadian culture brand. It's tired, old and irritating.

Before moving to Toronto, I grew up not knowing a SINGLE person who played hockey.

Hockey has in some areas dodged a bullet. By that I mean the shear total incompetence of soccer at every level not to capitalize on what literally FELL into their laps.

As long as the TV stations can jam ads into the game at will, it will be number one. But watch out 'canada's culture' as soon as the TV stations find something more profitable, it will be your next cultural icon.

Your culture is for sale, as long as it is defined by beer ads.

[argh1]

Definitely congrats to Men's and Women's hockey teams.

Still that Gold Medal match is kind of like the Super Bowl and it does not indicate that all those people regularly watch hockey. The Gold medal match and the match against Russia are the only 2 hockey games I have watched since the last Olympics. See you again in 4 years!

It's not just the people who watch hockey on TV. It's the development of the game of hockey in Canada maybe to the saturation point.

I'll stick to just Junior hockey, the CHL (Major Junior) claims over 9 million customers in 2008-09. The CJHL (Jr A) has teams, leagues.

http://www.cjhlhockey.com/leagues.html

Then there's Jr B, Jr C, on down the alphabet.

When we see the growth of soccer to near this point at the U-20 level then there'll be something to smile about.

I also don't see it as either hockey or soccer, or any other sport. Why can't we have all?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

In cold weather European countries hockey is sometimes the main winter sport, while soccer dominates in the summer months. No reason why Canada can't be like Sweden or Russia in that regard eventually. For it to happen baseball is the sport that needs to be eclipsed and that is already well on the way to happening amongst the younger generation.

[Canuck Oranje]

Some random comments:

As a spectator sport, hockey in Canada has no equal. As a participation sport, its challenge has less to do with culture than it has to do with the cost of participating and that challenge is self-made. In my opinion anyway.

Soccer as a spectator sport had been held back primarily by the inability of spectators to see the best in the past. With the advance of communications technology over the past 20 years, it is now possible for the curious to watch a game from almost anywhere in the world whether it be on cable or through live streaming on the internet. As someone who saw the World Cup games for Canada in 1986 on TV, that broadcast would seem amateurish by today's standards.

The globalization of communications works both ways. In recent conversations with Brazilian friends (via Skype), the Vancouver Olympics were always discussed. I fully expect to see hockey shirts and roller hockey games the next time I travel to Brazil.

The globalization of sport hit home for me three years ago when in the home of the family of a teenager playing in the biggest U18 soccer tournament in Brazil. After his game that day, he was allowed to stay with his family that evening and I found him in the TV room watching NFL football when games of his tournament could be found on 2-3 TV channels at that time.

TV sports in different nations are finding new viewers. It doesn't mean the dominant sport in a country will be supplanted. It more likely means a readjustment of viewer choice. The mastering of a new sport has far more challenges than changing the TV channel. In the case of soccer, high participation levels have been in existence in Canada for a couple of decades already. Its place as a spectator sport is only catching up now, but, not necessarily at the expense of hockey viewing.

Hockey and soccer are complimentary and this complimentarity has helped the sport gain as a participation sport.

[Bertuzzi44]

Advertising works. Hockey is not part of my 'soul' or any crap like that.

As long as the TV stations can jam ads into the game at will, it will be number one. But watch out 'canada's culture' as soon as the TV stations find something more profitable, it will be your next cultural icon.

Your culture is for sale, as long as it is defined by beer ads.

Funny, I think hockey was pretty popular in Canada even before those Molson Canadian ads came out. In the 1990's, 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's, 20's, 10's etc.......

That is called history. Like it or not, hockey has a long history in Canada, and has been the most popular sport in our country for I'd say at least the last 100 years, so yea, I'd say it is part of Canadian culture.

I live in Japan, and when I ask people here "what do you think Canadian culture is?", ice hockey always pops up.

That doesn't mean everybody likes it, and I am certain you are not alone in not giving a shit about hockey, but taken on a whole I'd say one could make a pretty compelling argument that hockey can be viewed as a non-trivial component of Canadian culture. Beer ads or not.

[argh1]

Funny, I think hockey was pretty popular in Canada even before those Molson Canadian ads came out. In the 1990's, 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's, 20's, 10's etc.......

That is called history. Like it or not, hockey has a long history in Canada, and has been the most popular sport in our country for I'd say at least the last 100 years, so yea, I'd say it is part of Canadian culture.

I live in Japan, and when I ask people here "what do you think Canadian culture is?", ice hockey always pops up.

That doesn't mean everybody likes it, and I am certain you are not alone in not giving a shit about hockey, but taken on a whole I'd say one could make a pretty compelling argument that hockey can be viewed as a non-trivial component of Canadian culture. Beer ads or not.

As much as some would like to see things change Hockey, CFL and Curling ain't leaving shorly. They are Canadian icons like the RCMP red serge. stetson hats and riding pants. Whixh is why the touch the non sports fan in times of championships.

Soccer fans have to get over it and stop hoping other sports will die so that their (our) game will flourish. Soccer has to grow up in this country and stand on it's own as a mature sport not a growing sport.

The assumption that New Canadians will abandon traditional Canadian sports is puzzling. Won't some embrace traditional Canadian sports as being part of what Canada is?

After all wasn't hockey, Canadian football and curling brought here by former New Canadians. One could say that only Lacrosse is a true Canadian game.

Since South Asians are expected to be the highest number of New Canadians over the next few deacades. Won't Cricket be the fasting growing sport not soccer? Cricket is the most popular of sports in South Asia isn't it?

[canucklefan]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100310/sports/csports_us_aircanada_hockey

[DundasFC]

This is my first post. I've been reading the Voyageurs boards for a while. I hope to be contributing much more now that I've finally set up an account...

Thought you'd all enjoy this piece of nostalgia I pulled from an old Football Annual from my youth.

Face-off For Football

By Craig Forrest

Must be from around 1992ish...

Enjoy.

http://tiny.cc/IDnCX

[Guest Ed]

For images, just enclose the url of the jpeg or whatever inside these delimiters [iMAGE] and [/iMAGE] , replacing IMAGE with img.

[DundasFC]

Hmm. Still having trouble. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually... Maybe this will work.

[Guest Ed]

That should work if you take out the white space. From the FAQ for this site:

How do I add an image to a post?

If you have uploaded an image as an attachment, you can click the arrow next to the 'Attachment Icon' and select it from the list. This will be inserted into your post and can be located where you want it displayed.

To include an image that is not uploaded as an attachment and is located on another website, you can do so by copying the full URL to the image, (not the page on which the image is located), and either pressing the 'Insert Image' icon or by typing after it, ensuring that you do not have any spaces before or after the URL of the image. You can insert pictures from your albums (?) in this way too.

[Macksam]

The assumption that New Canadians will abandon traditional Canadian sports is puzzling. Won't some embrace traditional Canadian sports as being part of what Canada is?

After all wasn't hockey, Canadian football and curling brought here by former New Canadians. One could say that only Lacrosse is a true Canadian game.

Since South Asians are expected to be the highest number of New Canadians over the next few deacades. Won't Cricket be the fasting growing sport not soccer? Cricket is the most popular of sports in South Asia isn't it?

Nope. I can tell you first hand that cricket has not made the transition from the old country. Some older, first generation South Asian immigrants may take a little bit of a liking to it, but the second generation don't give a shit about it at all. They prefer soccer when it comes to participation sports.