Given the NHL lockout and cancellation of preseason and some regular season games, have any of you Vancouver / BC residents noticed an increased interest in the Whitecaps in the last few weeks?
I'd imagine it is hard to compare considering the overlap with the NHL season coincides with the end of the MLS season when interest in playoff teams is heightened just as a matter of course. From an attendance standpoint, I'm not sure you can tell because 2 of Vancouver's last three home games have been against Cascadia rivals and the third was a midweek against Chivas..
Any reason you're singling out Vancouver? Every MLS team except for Houston, Portland, Seattle, RSL, and KC share a market with the NHL. For DC, it meant that this most recent game against Columbus had a better TV location on the main Comcast Sports Net channel rather than Comcast Plus (CSN being the primary TV partner for the Washington Capitals).
Vancouver only has CFL to compete with and hockey being the most popular sport in Canada, I figured it would have the highest chance of getting crossover attention. I've heard that every team in DC plays second fiddle to the Redskins, so I figured the NHL lockout didn't have that much of an effect there.
That is a good question. I had my speculative answer all written up and then realized that Montreal also fit the same bill that I had composed. So......... And yet his answer is exactly where I was headed. So why not ask about Montreal?
Their season is pretty much over, otherwise they would match the same reasons I asked about Vancouver, big hockey town with only one other major pro sports team to compete with (CFL).
I would imagine it would take several consecutive seasons of lockouts before the Whitecaps would benefit from Canuck fans walking away from the sport, yeah?
I'm not at all suggesting Canuck fans are going to abandon the team in favor of the Whitecaps. I'm just wondering that since the Canucks aren't playing, will the fans watch the Whitecaps instead until the lockout is over? Maybe the Whitecaps can gain some new fans that way.
I'm not sure why it would have an impact. It's not like the Canucks were playing during the rest of the Whitecaps' season (except some overlap at the start of the season). Any Canucks fan that was starved for a sport to follow during the NHL's off-season would already be following the Whitecaps or the Lions. The lockout just extends the NHL off-season. It would take fans completely giving up on NHL before you start seeing the Canucks popularity dropping off and an increase in Whitecaps popularity because of that, IMHO.
definitly not saying your wrong, but we dont really know right? I know the seasons dont overlap to much, but, fringe supporters of MLS could perhaps pay a little closer attention. I became a big MLS fan in a similar situation when the Sonics left, I still like the NBA but my team leaving diverted some of my focus to the sounders, then I accidentally became an MLS freak.
There's a big difference between having your team leave and having them take a single season off due to a lock-out. When the Sonics left, all discussion of the NBA pretty much died in Seattle, but in Vancouver, they are still talking about the Canucks because the team is coming back in the relatively near future. Another thing to consider is that even though the Canucks may be taking the season off, there are still five Western Hockey League teams in the Vancouver area. So any Canucks fan that is jonesing for a hockey fix can hit one of those teams' games.
Now? No. Perhaps if the NHL season's completely cancelled come March and the start of the next MLS season though...
Heh. Pretty much. And it isn't even walking away from the sport, it would take that long for the media stop talking about why there isn't any hockey.
Based on my experience there in April it seems like they could see a small bump. But, the Canucks were also playing in the playoffs at home. I talked to several people who said they would be at the Whitecaps game if the Canucks were not playing. Their crowd was very thin but the Canucks were also playing across the street and the bars were packed with people watching the game. People were at the bars at 2PM that day waiting for the 7:30PM Canucks game to start.
Hockey fans are pretty loyal to the sport. For example, with the NHL locked out, I'm paying even more attention to the Houston Aeros (AHL) than usual. I might even get the AHL live (online game streaming) package this season.
The WHL has only one team in the Vancouver metro area: the Vancouver Giants. One tier down is the BCHL, which has five teams in the Vancouver metro area.
I didn't say metro area, I said area. If you'd prefer, I could say the Canucks sphere of influence. You've got that Vancouver Giants, Victoria Royals, Prince George Cougars, Kelowna Rockets, and Kamloops Blazers. Now, granted, Kamloops (4hrs away), Kelowna (5hrs away), and Prince George(10hrs away) are a bit of a stretch, but it's not like Canucks fans are hurting for hockey despite the NHL lockout.
EDIT: D'oh, there was a link in your post. Man I muffed that haha. Read about that on Puck Daddy a few days ago. It's really friggin' cool (once you get past the fact that a lockout factored into it).
Well, you say "Vancouver area" most people are going to assume you mean just the Vancouver metro area, not the entire province. I mean, I get what you're saying now, but the way you worded it sounded like you were suggesting that lower level teams in satellite markets would suddenly start drawing from the larger population center, instead of the more likely scenario of fans in those outlying markets gravitating more toward their local lower-tier teams in the absence of a top-tier team in the population center.