Friday, June 8, 2007
Fandom
I'm going to blog this now just because the post-Cup coverage has discussed it to death, and I've done a lot of thinking about it. That is, hockey's place in California.
If it will never satisfy some writers until the sport is viewed with the same passion as in Canada in California, then they can forget it. There are just too many people here—more here alone than in the entire county of Canada. Compound that with the innumerable diversions available here. In the Spring, you can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon. You can visit wine country, or go ice climbing. And a big chunk of that 30m are Hispanic, who are mad for fútbol, not hockey. (La Opinión, the major Spanish language newspaper in LA did not have an article about the Ducks.) In such a multi-faceted society, almost nothing dominates. The Canadians seem to think all of Socal is enraptured with Paris Hilton, as if we're all 20m paparazzi.
That the Ducks and Sharks have a strong season ticket base at all is indicative of an amazing job by those teams. They are well covered by local media, including Fox Sports.
More importantly, people in California play hockey, ice hockey, and in other forms. Just down the 22 from the Ponda is a neighborhood skating facility in Garden Grove, a few miles from where I grew up in Huntington Beach. Not far from that, in LA County, is an old hockey rink where I learned to skate, in Paramount.
So, while no one would ever mistake this for Canada, numbers are on California's side. Even if a tiny fraction of the state is interested in hockey, that is literally more than a few Canadian provinces. And that's how it will have to be. But the presence here is better than people think. California is the eastern europe of hockey development, it is not hockey's Africa--that's the South outside Florida.
You can make a case to contract the NHL, a case I would agree with. But to put LA, San Jose, or Anaheim in the top 10 of that hit list would be a mistake.
But no matter what quality of fan you have, the Cup isn't won by the team with the best ratings. Give them an Emmy. The Cup goes to the Champion on the ice, not the silver screen. Isn't it ironic? The Canadians are the ones with the Hollywood mentality about the game, as if their fandom entitles a winner, whereas here, on the Left Coast, we're content to let those who ignore the sport ignore it, and let two quality teams and one emerging team do their thing on the ice.
If it will never satisfy some writers until the sport is viewed with the same passion as in Canada in California, then they can forget it. There are just too many people here—more here alone than in the entire county of Canada. Compound that with the innumerable diversions available here. In the Spring, you can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon. You can visit wine country, or go ice climbing. And a big chunk of that 30m are Hispanic, who are mad for fútbol, not hockey. (La Opinión, the major Spanish language newspaper in LA did not have an article about the Ducks.) In such a multi-faceted society, almost nothing dominates. The Canadians seem to think all of Socal is enraptured with Paris Hilton, as if we're all 20m paparazzi.
That the Ducks and Sharks have a strong season ticket base at all is indicative of an amazing job by those teams. They are well covered by local media, including Fox Sports.
More importantly, people in California play hockey, ice hockey, and in other forms. Just down the 22 from the Ponda is a neighborhood skating facility in Garden Grove, a few miles from where I grew up in Huntington Beach. Not far from that, in LA County, is an old hockey rink where I learned to skate, in Paramount.
So, while no one would ever mistake this for Canada, numbers are on California's side. Even if a tiny fraction of the state is interested in hockey, that is literally more than a few Canadian provinces. And that's how it will have to be. But the presence here is better than people think. California is the eastern europe of hockey development, it is not hockey's Africa--that's the South outside Florida.
You can make a case to contract the NHL, a case I would agree with. But to put LA, San Jose, or Anaheim in the top 10 of that hit list would be a mistake.
But no matter what quality of fan you have, the Cup isn't won by the team with the best ratings. Give them an Emmy. The Cup goes to the Champion on the ice, not the silver screen. Isn't it ironic? The Canadians are the ones with the Hollywood mentality about the game, as if their fandom entitles a winner, whereas here, on the Left Coast, we're content to let those who ignore the sport ignore it, and let two quality teams and one emerging team do their thing on the ice.
// posted by Rick @ 9:02 AM 
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