The question, why is hockey less popular than other sports, has plagued many hardcore hockey fans for some time. While the sport has the speed and vicious hits of professional football, along with the grace and fluid movement of the NBA, it remains one of the least popular professional sports in existence. There are several key reasons behind this.
First of all, one can not dismiss the role the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman plays in this fiasco. As commissioner, Bettman is directly responsible for the promotion of the league. And while the NFL, NBA and MLB enjoy broadcasting contracts with major networks, the NHL suffers on obscure cable channels such as Versus. A lot of viewers do not get Versus and DirecTV will not carry the channel, eliminating another host of potential viewers. The only right move Bettman has made in showcasing the league is in the annual NHL Winter Classic, a game held at an outdoor venue. Even here, he had an opportunity to create something great, by offering a few more of these gem games, but instead limits it to one a year, usually going up against college football bowl games. Instead of making it an annual tradition, Bettman could have opted to hold several outdoor games, which fans and viewers alike seem to enjoy.
Hockey is a wonderful sport to watch, if you know what's going on. To the casual viewer, it can, at times, be as languid as baseball. With many teams focused on defense and goalies becoming better and better, a lot of games have low scores. And if there is one thing the American public seems to enjoy, it's a high scoring sporting event. The NHL has tried to tweak the rules to provide more scoring, but in doing so, have alienated some of their hardcore fans, the hockey purists. Hockey rules are not easy to follow, either, for a casual fan. Most people can click on a football game or basketball, and be able to watch the action with a rudimentary understanding of what's going on. In hockey, there are offsides penalties, icing, delay of game and a myriad of other fouls most fans don't fully grasp. It makes it difficult for a person to flip the channel to a game and remain interested when the action stops and they don't understand why.
Like NASCAR, hockey has its own form of crashes: the fights. Many debate whether or not fighting belongs in the sport, but no one can deny the attention fighting garners. One minute, the action is smoothly flowing down the ice, the next, a pair of brawlers drops their gloves and duke it out. This alone would grab the attention of a casual viewer, but to be honest, fights in hockey are on the decline. While there always remains the possibility of a scuffle, it is not enough to warrant some people watching an entire game. And if they're simply watching for the fights, then they're not that interested in hockey to begin with.
Another reason hockey is not as popular as other sports is the number of games played. The season seems to endure throughout the year, with the regular season beginning in October and the playoffs going into June. Early season games seem almost pointless, as most teams make their playoff runs after the All-Star break in February. To be a fan and want to watch every game takes a lot of passion, and let's face it, the American public is frugal with its time and has a short attention span. Baseball is a lot like hockey in this respect, but baseball was once considered America's pastime. Hockey was always looked at as a lesser sport, played in smaller venues and never grabbing the national attention other sports had. Possibly due to the fact that many of the players, even early on, were not American. They were Canadian, European, and Russian. There were no good ole American heroes scoring the game winning goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Even the most recognized name in the sport, Wayne Gretzky, is Canadian. How can Americans take a genuine interest in what appears to be another nation's pastime?
So, with a lack of publicity, a lack of big time American players, mystifying rules and a relentlessly long season and post season, hockey remains one of the least popular sports in America today. Attempts have been made to make the games more high scoring, but the fact remains that the players adapt to rules and while the public may not appreciate it, those that already love the game must suffer through the changes. It remains to be seen if the NHL commissioner can do anything to get his sport into the national limelight, but it does fall squarely on his shoulders to find a way. Until then, hockey will remain on hard to find cable channels and on America's back burner.