Just my own I admit very biased interpretation of who is getting more attention within the main stream media. This may be more of a function of the fact that both ESPN and Fox have interests in promoting European Soccer.
ALso some of the NHL teams have been around for 70-80 years with some of the best players to ever play hockey on them.
Some are even older than that. The Canadiens were founded in1909, for example. Hockey has very deep roots in the US and Canada.
there is no reasonable metric to determine popularity when incorporating disparate leagues... I'd argue that when you account for crossover between both different soccer leagues with each other and with the NHL you'd likely come to the conclusion that they're about even in terms of popularity. Anything else reeks of selection bias... a group of soccer fans who will always overstate the comparative popularity of soccer because they've surrounded themselves with soccer coverage.
Ditto for fans of other sports. I've been on HF Boards a couple of times, and the delusion is strong within that community.
Going by their boards, it sees to me that they use the NBA the same way people here on BS use the NHL. They want to catch the NBA as much as MLS fans want to catch the NHL. And they probably see MLS as MLS fans see the Lacross league.
Lol, that's a very accurate assessment. As Brodie pointed out, if you only spend your time in a bubble, it's easy to think that it's the entire universe. That's why I peruse other sports' boards, just to get a feel for things. With the NHL I would say the league is in good shape, but their fans don't seem to fully grasp the shortcomings of their sport. The only MLS club they pay any respect to I'd say is the Sounders, especially with the Seattle arena issue over the last year. Someone recently was very shocked by Sounders pricing structures, which they assumed were a fraction of the major leagues. What I do enjoy reading is their expansion targets. Four of the main ones always include Seattle, Portland, Houston and Kansas City for some reason. They are all markets doing well for MLS, so it's nice to see we're not the only ones who covet markets. There will be a lot of soul searching in hockey once it becomes obvious soccer is moving ahead of it. I don't think the worlds fastest sport is mentally prepared for being usurped by the worlds most boring sport. Before anyone brings it up, I realize I sound just as delusional as them.
Someone said Hockey and Soccer are not mortal enemies. This is apt. I also see them as similar. Hockey is not really played much outside of snow country. Soccer is still seen largely as a "gated community" sport so that hurts grassroots participation. It's also a bit difficult to compare NHL and Soccer (I'm not counting the Liga MX due to "parallel america" syndrome") as the EPL does not yet have consistent widespread coverage (Fox Soccer doesn't count). My wager is that the NHL still trumps it though. Both NHL and Soccer are like cult TV shows like Buffy or Battlestar Galactaca. People may know about it's existence but few regularly watch it. However in some places, like Detroit or Pittsburgh, NHL turns into something on the level of AT LEAST The Walking Dead or Lost in terms of just widespread following. Just look at TV ratings in Northern Cities like Philly, Pitt, Detroit, Minn., etc.
I agree with you. I like to use my sensory indicator for popularity: Bar attendance. In Michigan, many bars are completely full of red wings fans every time they play and this leaves out those who do not even go to the bar. People ask what the score of the Wings game was. Beyond television ratings, who goes out to be around fellow fans and enjoy the experience? If I go to the bar for a midweek EPL, Champions League, or evening MLS match. Crickets. Might get one small TV for a evening MLS match and certainly won't get the volume if a Wings or Tigers game is on.
Indeed and as we stated, attendance is not as important as TV eyeballs. Especailly since most SSS in America are about the same size as Basketball/Hockey stadia.
Oh yeah. Anywhere near Detroit, hockey could easily have been as popular as NFL football. Only thing holding it back is a general background sense that the rest of the country doesn't look at it that way. I think something similar is true for soccer in Seattle, only worse. Obviously it has a big fanbase there, but anybody who is hesitant about going all in for the Sounders knows that if he's on a business trip to some random city during a game and walks into a random sports bar in full gear expecting to watch that game, he's going to be looked at like he just got off the spaceship from Mars. Part of the equation of what holds both hockey and soccer back is a belief about what the rest of the 'sporting community' (often meaning US sports fandom) thinks about what you're doing.
Can't really compare to hockey since there is honestly very little interest in hockey here with the exception of transplants, but when it comes to going to bars if anything soccer has an edge there. What other sport drags people out at 4:30am to a bar when you can't even drink!
But San Diego doesn't have an NHL team. I think there are only a handful of markets in the US that have NHL teams where soccer generally (and MLS specifically) is more popular than hockey.
I am trying to think. San Jose? probably not Does Seattle have a hockey team? Columbus? Houston? Dallas? DC? LA/Anaheim I guess the Galaxy does average more, but are they really more popular?
Seattle and Houston don't have NHL teams, so they're not really part of the discussion. The question is a little complicated. There might be more soccer fans than hockey fans in NYC, as a whole. But, I doubt there are more fans of any individual soccer team than there are fans of the Rangers. LA might be the only place where the NHL teams are less popular than the MLS teams. DC is an unfortunate example for MLS. United used to be more popular, but the recent success of the Caps and Nats, and the upcoming resurgence of the Redskins have made things tougher for United.
Well the kings winning the cup made a bunch of bandwagon fans come out, Not sure if the MLS teams are more popular, but it is a possibility. NYC well the hockey teams are probably more popular than Red Bulls, but sure soccer I assume is over all more popular because of the large number of their immigrant population.
The Kings aren't Johnny-come-latelies in LA. They've been pretty popular since Gretzky played there. And I'd go further and say the Rangers are more popular in NYC than any single soccer team, including Barcelona and Man U. The Red Bulls go without saying.
I don't believe the Kings are less popular than the Gals. Maybe the Ducks. I'd say south Florida would be the only market where that's even close to possible, even if there's no MLS team.
The Kings are a surprisingly old team. They've been around since 1967. There are probably 3rd generation Kings fans in LA these days.
Overall football >> ice-hockey I guess I speculate big sponsors like Nike and Adidas etc spend more $$ in football in US. Throw in the World Cup and other US & internatioanal teams, and also Mexican futbol.
that's like saying track is more popular than baseball because more people watch the Olympics than the World Series Event viewing is a thing that exists and the World Cup benefits from it heavily
I said the World Cup is just a part of it. Original poster mentioned TV for EPL alone is $83 million per year for the tv rights compared to $200 million for NHL. Univision/Telemundo/ESPN pays good $$ for Mexican futbol. Did quick googling, couldn't find good sources, but this says Univision alone pays 15M per year just to Chivas. http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Global/Issues/2012/09/10/Media/Telemundo.aspx So all things considered. I think Football > Ice Hockey in US already.