Comments on: The Plight of the Californian Hockey Fan

By: James

James — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:34:05 +0000

This is a great article. As a Caps fan all my life as well as every other Washington team, The Western conference is extremely neglected even though Western conference teams have a much higher winning percentage when it comes to an East vs West game.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:39:26 +0000

I’d just like to say I’m from boston, but completely support hockey out on the west coast. In fact, after the Bruins, the Sharks are my favorite team in the NHL. Its a misconception to believe that all of us in the east hate expansion teams in non traditional hockey areas, and although I want to see the Hartford Whalers come back, I like seeing the spread of hockey evrywhere in the United States.

By: Brian O'Shea

Brian O'Shea — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:39:20 +0000

By: Curt

Curt — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:36:20 +0000

Just thought id share my 2 cents as a canadian hockey fan living on the east coast. While it may be true for the states and, probably particularly in the traditionally “out of market” areas of the states such as california, there is a lot of respect and support for these teams. I know when it comes time for a cup run im on the lookout for who is coming out of the west, for the last few years the west has outplayed the east in my opinion. I love seeing the sharks play and i would routinely stay up past midnight to see the west coast games during the playoffs. ill admit I rarely watch games from the west during the season unless my team (edmonton) is playing. I can understand your frustration with the game and the way its run and you make a lot of good points but I think there is a much greater respect for the west and san jose than you think.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:08:11 +0000

This is a fantastic article. I live in Southern California (Ducks fan) and it sums up exactly how I feel about being a fan here. I was born in ’92 and following hockey my whole life, I have only had a few friends who like it as well. I have been frustrated with the East Coast bias for a while now and it feels good to know it’s not just some conspiracy of mine.

Thanks for the great article, looking forward to the next Ducks/Sharks game.

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:34:52 +0000

There are hockey fans in South Florida too believe it or not

By: Landon

Landon — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:10:53 +0000

You’re a great writer, come by my site: http://www.hockeyfanland.com
Could use some tips & help to grow it. Become a member.

By: ryan

ryan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:43:52 +0000

i live in the once again hockey prosperous city of chicago. we are lucky to have hockey back in swing in chicago! when our old owner bill wirtz (who apparently hated the blackhawks), died and his son took over (who seems to be a polar opposite of his dad), it was a rebirth of hockey in this area. it is more popular now than it has been in the last 15 years. i wouldnt dream that any area should be without hockey. hockey is the greatest of sports and if a fanbase exists as i know it does in california, then why keep it from them? it only serves to better the game. my aunt who is 60 some years old, LOVES the ducks. she lives in san diego area. my cousins daughters are obsessed with hockey, and know it well! i have been playing for a while now, and they can talk hockey with me without missing a beat. they are also big ducks fans as well.

besides all that, as im writing this, there is a foot of fresh snow on the ground and now i have to go shovel. so, when i move to california, itll be nice to have some good hockey around!

By: Swayze

Swayze — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:43:17 +0000

A few things:

- San Jose has NOT been talked about in serious terms of re-location, where did you even get that from? Hell, no team from Cali has been. Anaheim was mentioned on a few forums, but that’s mainly from people who hate the team.

- I sympathize with you on the national coverage issue. Whenever I have a free preview of Center Ice (college student, too poor to pay for it), I ALWAYS watch the kings/sharks/ducks play each other, as they’re always very entertaining. They really need to show more Cali teams on Versus. As for NBC, I personally hate when the Red Wings are on it (and i’m a huge Wings fan). I think their coverage is horrible, and fairly biased as well. They’re also early games, which is inconvenient and a bit of a day-ruiner on a busy saturday. So if a Cali team were to play a 12:30 game like the east coast teams, it would be shown on the east coast at 9:30am…which is probably why they don’t show any.

- Phoenix should be re-located to a different market. Other teams that were expansion/relocation cases have the same attendance problems as them somewhat, but the difference is that Phoenix is hemorrhaging money as a much faster rate. So purely from a business sense, they should be moved.

- As for the rest of the sunbelt teams, until it gets as drastic as it does in Phoenix, i’m a believer that they should get more time to build a fan base.

- Plain and simple: Yes, there is a bit of an “East Coast Bias”. But that’s because they have more teams, they’ve had teams for much longer, there’s bigger fan bases (i.e. New York Metro fan base vs LA metro fan base), and then the big time zone difference for games.

By: Canadian Fan

Canadian Fan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:14:46 +0000

Liked the article. it is a misconception in Canada that Americans don’t care for the game like we Canadians do. I stand corrected. Sharks are a powerhouse of a team this year and I promise your guys cup isn’t far off. Hopefully my Leafs can fend off the shark attacks and the rest of the league for that matter. Anyway great post and see in Vancouver America!!