View Full Version : Ice Hockey Supporters Club?
Mike Silver
05 Jun 2004, 12:29 AM
Hi all.
Just wondering if any of you know of any similar supporters clubs that exist in cheering USA in ice hockey?
The reason I'm asking is that USA is playing Canada in Montreal in August in the WORLD CUP (of hockey), and tickets are going for $500CDN. I'm hoping (pipe dream probably) that there is some club in the USA that was alloted tickets and that I could buy from them and sit with them. Anyone know?
KLECKO73
05 Jun 2004, 10:03 AM
I'm a hockey fan as well. But I've never heard of a supporter group for our nat'l team. It's probably more of a soccer thing.
nyrmetros
05 Jun 2004, 12:36 PM
I have been actively trying to form a New York Rangers/NYC/USA hockey supporters club for some time..... However it appears that not enough soccer fans are hockey fans.
efforts can be found here ......
http://www.outsidethegarden.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9476
nyrmetros
05 Jun 2004, 01:11 PM
You can check out this post as well. Updates on Team USA at the WC. New pics of the new Nike Total 90 "retro" USA Hockey jerseys are posted....
KLECKO73
05 Jun 2004, 01:21 PM
I think the USA supporter group should include all fans in the metro area and not just Ranger fans. As an Islander/USA fan why would I want to be part of a group that's Rangers/USA? The USA supporters should be a seperate group from the club fans.
nyrmetros
05 Jun 2004, 01:36 PM
I think the USA supporter group should include all fans in the metro area and not just Ranger fans. As an Islander/USA fan why would I want to be part of a group that's Rangers/USA? The USA supporters should be a seperate group from the club fans.
Oh I agree. I may have worded it wrong, my bad. Metro fans and DC fans stand together in support of Team USA Soccer the SAME way Rangers and Islanders fans should stand together in support of Team USA Hockey.
Mike Silver
06 Jun 2004, 12:10 AM
Seriously dude, being from Hartford (Go Whale), you aren't helping your cause mentioning the Rangers!
But starting a USA Hockey supporters club is a valient effort. Hey it may be the most important hockey in the country, seeing that the NHL is ready to implode (not that its been worth following for years).
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 12:53 AM
For whatever reason, and I think it starts from the top up, USA Hockey ain't the greatest run organization, and spirals right down to many American players who are unwilling to don the jersey of their country for international competition. The US National Hockey Team needs to compete on a regular basis, not just in the Olympics, and World Championships/Cup.
I am all in favor of shortening the NHL season, placing more games on weekends, and using the midweek for international games and newly created Open Cup competitions....
Won;t happen.... :(
MetroAndAGuinessPlz
06 Jun 2004, 01:11 AM
For whatever reason, and I think it starts from the top up, USA Hockey ain't the greatest run organization, and spirals right down to many American players who are unwilling to don the jersey of their country for international competition. The US National Hockey Team needs to compete on a regular basis, not just in the Olympics, and World Championships/Cup.
I am all in favor of shortening the NHL season, placing more games on weekends, and using the midweek for international games and newly created Open Cup competitions....
Won;t happen.... :(
Theres a few problems with starting a USA hockey supporters club. For one thing North American ice hockey doesn't really have a tradition of organized support like soccer does around the world. Another thing is you'll never be able to get your own section at whatever arena or segregated seating.
Jimjamesak
06 Jun 2004, 01:23 AM
Being from Alaska this isn't that bad of an idea BUT remember this:
World Championships are always in Europe. (Though I think 2008 it is in Canada).
The World Cup might not be happening again. (It's a deal between the NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF)
Also remember the next World Juniors is in the US in North Dakota.
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 01:24 AM
Theres a few problems with starting a USA hockey supporters club. For one thing North American ice hockey doesn't really have a tradition of organized support like soccer does around the world. Another thing is you'll never be able to get your own section at whatever arena or segregated seating.
And that is why this is a noble idea to work on... :)
MetroAndAGuinessPlz
06 Jun 2004, 01:33 AM
And that is why this is a noble idea to work on... :)
I read your posts on the OTG forum and while I think its a good idea (supporters club for the Rangers) it just isn't going to happen...I mean you saw how few people responded to it in a positive way and most of them were European guys...Theres just a different mindset over here...The fact that people in the blue seats were telling you to put your flags down is just an illustration of that...So, yea I think its a great idea and I wish it would happen but I don't know if I would even bother trying...I know that sounds defeatist but most of these people (even the people in the 400's) have no concept of living for your team not just rooting for them...
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 01:42 AM
I read your posts on the OTG forum and while I think its a good idea (supporters club for the Rangers) it just isn't going to happen...I mean you saw how few people responded to it in a positive way and most of them were European guys...Theres just a different mindset over here...The fact that people in the blue seats were telling you to put your flags down is just an illustration of that...So, yea I think its a great idea and I wish it would happen but I don't know if I would even bother trying...I know that sounds defeatist but most of these people (even the people in the 400's) have no concept of living for your team not just rooting for them...
You are quite right. I have pointed this out as well. However my goal in life will be to change this :)
Hopefully I can convert a few people along the way. It won;t be easy, but the American sports scene will be better off for it. IMO....
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 01:44 AM
You can check out this post as well. Updates on Team USA at the WC. New pics of the new Nike Total 90 "retro" USA Hockey jerseys are posted....
oh yea.... the link....
http://www.outsidethegarden.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9721
MetroAndAGuinessPlz
06 Jun 2004, 01:51 AM
oh yea.... the link....
http://www.outsidethegarden.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9721
Those World Cup jerseys are absolutely godawful. I was also reading that thread about how the blue seats used to be back in the 70's and 80's. I am too young to have experienced any of that first hand but my cousin has shared a lot of stories about those days with me. People who say American sports lack passion really have no idea how the Garden was back then. Even today there are still flashes of it. Closest we came to the days of old this season had to be on the night Richters' jersey was retired. When Adam Graves was introduced to the crowd during the ceremony it sounded like a bomb went off. Ah, if only it were 1994 all over again.
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 01:54 AM
Those World Cup jerseys are absolutely godawful. I was also reading that thread about how the blue seats used to be back in the 70's and 80's. I am too young to have experienced any of that first hand but my cousin has shared a lot of stories about those days with me. People who say American sports lack passion really have no idea how the Garden was back then. Even today there are still flashes of it. Closest we came to the days of old this season had to be on the night Richters' jersey was retired. When Adam Graves was introduced to the crowd during the ceremony it sounded like a bomb went off. Ah, if only it were 1994 all over again.
Sounds like we need to catch a NYR game sometime.....
The best story is from the NY Times....
"The Mets were losing, 10-0, to Pete Rose and the Expos in the seventh inning. Most fans had already bolted. This must have included some members of the New York Police Department because during the seventh-inning stretch, a riot broke out in the left-field bleachers. Tire irons, broken beer bottles, fists flying, bodies tumbling. The culprits? Passive Met and Expo fans? No. Ranger and Islander fanatics, still fighting a week after a brutal playoff series ended with an Islander overtime goal in the fifth and deciding game of the Patrick Division semifinals."
Why have we lost this..... :(
(Rhetorical question. I know why.)
MetroAndAGuinessPlz
06 Jun 2004, 01:58 AM
Sounds like we need to catch a NYR game sometime.....
The best story is from the NY Times....
"The Mets were losing, 10-0, to Pete Rose and the Expos in the seventh inning. Most fans had already bolted. This must have included some members of the New York Police Department because during the seventh-inning stretch, a riot broke out in the left-field bleachers. Tire irons, broken beer bottles, fists flying, bodies tumbling. The culprits? Passive Met and Expo fans? No. Ranger and Islander fanatics, still fighting a week after a brutal playoff series ended with an Islander overtime goal in the fifth and deciding game of the Patrick Division semifinals."
Why have we lost this..... :(
(Rhetorical question. I know why.)
Yea that story is absolutely classic. I really don't know where all that passion went. Islander fans are suffering from the same disease we are. They can't even fill their building most nights (though with the management they've had the past decade I can hardly blame them).
nyrmetros
06 Jun 2004, 02:06 AM
The passion went out with the ticket prices. The hardcore hockey crazies go to maybe 5 games a year, watch the rest on tv, and can't really find a connection with their team anymore. This reflects the overally shape of the NHL, not just the NY market.
But yea, I would LOVE to have a NYR supporters club, and a Team USA Hockey supporters club. I know there are NHL Booster clubs out there....... But I'll be damned if I've ever seen them do anything.....
babytiger2001
06 Jun 2004, 06:46 AM
Going to move this over to the Hockey sub-forum over in the Other Sports board, because (a) this really has little if anything to do with USA Men in soccer, and (b) it just seems more appropriate there.
Other Sports mods, if you see fit to move it back, feel free to do so.
kwik1980
06 Jun 2004, 07:30 PM
It would have been so, SO simple to just put out '80 retro jerseys, especially with the movie Miracle to build on. Why 1932? Makes no sense at all.