Comments on: The Plight of the Californian Hockey Fan

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!!

By: Wings Fan

Wings Fan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:46:04 +0000

Go Wings Go! Great post….i agree 100%

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:17:05 +0000

Firstly, I’d like to say this was a great article and a very enjoyable read, and you’re spot on for just about all of it.

I grew up in Detroit and I’ve been a die hard Red Wings fan all my life, but now I live in Southern California, and as frustrating as it is to be a hockey fan here sometimes, there is a growing and dedicated fanbase out there, especially for Anaheim.

One thing that amazed me, I walked through the Del Amo Mall in Torrance (one of the 20 largest malls in the world) and went to every store that looked like they might have anything sports related and there literally was not one hockey related item of any kind in that entire mall…

I can’t imagine hockey will ever be as big here as it is in the east, due largely to there being a lack of places for kids to get into the sport and the cost of getting into the game isn’t getting any cheaper, but I definitely think the fanbase will grow and the California teams will continue to prosper.

I remember being at a Wings/Kings game in LA last year and seeing the place literally half-full of Red Wings fans. This year, Kings fans dominated Red Wings fans in the stands numberwise. I definitely think the Kings continual improvement and a big increas in promotion are helping the team head in the right way. The number of Kings billboards I’ve been seeing around town and on buses is verging on crazy, but its putting butts in the seats, so job well done.

Now if only the Kings could do something about that amazingly cheesy “castle” they walk through coming out of their dressing room. It looks like something made for a high school play…

By: Clarkson

Clarkson — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:19:06 +0000

Maybe you’ll even make it past the 1st round of the playoffs !! Wouldn’t that be fun ? LOL sea of teal…. sea of chokers more like it.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:37:41 +0000

Hey, as a hockey fan in Alabama, I can completely feel your pain. We don’t even get Vs. on our cable network, so I’m stuck with NHL gamecenter text “watching” most games. We even have a great collegiate program here in Huntsville (UAH) that can’t join a conference because of the travel problems. Thanks for the article. And thanks to the hockey gods for Philly’s craptastic season so far.

By: sharksfan8

sharksfan8 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:38:59 +0000

Great blog on West Coast hockey. I am from Detroit but I adopted the Sharks when I moved to the Bay area in the 90's. Just look at which team, today, has the most points in the NHL (hint, it is not an Eastern conference team). Keep up the good work on your blog.

By: Evan M

Evan M — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:17:33 +0000

Great article! I've been a Sharks fan for about 10 years (since I was 11 and the team wasn't that great). I've always noticed the east coast bias in hockey coverage, like when NHL 2nite was on and Barry Melrose basically spent the whole show talking about the eastern conference.