jimf

I see the hockey world cup has just started. Canada has a team in it, not that it'll get much coverage in the media I expect.

http://specials.msn.co.in/sp10/hockey/index.aspx

Why does ice hockey in Canada not reflect the "diversity" much talked about as being a feature of Canada?

dbd33

The "why" of it is a bit complicated but it's a potential problem for the Leafs. Basketball and baseball games attract a diverse audience while watching iced hockey is very much the preserve of the white person. The white population is aging; eventually the iced hockey audience will drop dead.

jimf

Go on then......

I'm guessing football and soccer attracts a reasonably diverse audience in Canada?

Elizabeth I

Yeah exactly, good on ya dollface!

dbd33

Soccer, yes, absolutely. I'm not sure about "football", that comes in three flavours; college, NFL, CFL. To be interested in the former it seems to me that you either have to have gone to a US school or be keen on betting or have outgrown watching the NFL. None of those applies to immigrants (at least not spread betting on a game they don't know). The NFL has an audience of affluent white men in early middle age:

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/new...ws3friday.html

Again, these are not likely to be immigrants. One hears nothing of the CFL in Toronto, no idea if anyone watches it.

I'm trying to find an interesting piece I saw recently on the Leafs' failure to draw immigrants...

JonboyE

My guess is that it is a sport that comes from a European tradition - outside of Canada it is only played to any extent in northern Europe. New immigrants probably gravitate towards sports that they have some familiarity with.

There are some non-white faces in the NHL. For example Iginla who set up Crosby for THE goal yesterday. There are some other black players as well as some First Nation and Inuit. Richard Park is of Korean descent but most Asian's body size and shape means they won't be able to complete at the top level of the sport. That said, there are plenty of Asian faces at the Vancouver Canucks games so it obviously holds an attraction as a spectator.

There are a lot of East-Indian boys in the recreational minor leagues in Surrey ad North Delta. The Vancouver broadcast their games in Punjabi. I think that in time it will become a more diverse sport.

dbd33

Punjabi Hockey Night in Canada draws an audience of only 100,000. I wonder what audience Punjabi Cricket Highlights would draw.

iaink

Is it just me, or was the start of this thread all "They did this, they played them", and now that Canada are top of the medal table and gold medal winners in the hockey, its all "We did this, and we beat them" We did sod all in this Olympics, One medal wasnt it?


Interesting discussion re diversity. I think it will just take time for the players in the league to reflect the diversity of the country. Hockey is so bloody expensive to put kids in its in danger of being eclipesed at grass roots level by soccer and other cheaper kids sports. The expense alone is probably enough to discourage newcomers from throwing their kids into it, so I expect its 2nd or 3rd gen canadian immigrant kids that will have to start to even out the numbers. If your kids arent playing and skating well at 7 years old then its probably a discouraging up hill struggle to catch up with everyone else is my suspicion.

Elizabeth I

that thing was hilarious last night...

Elizabeth I

I quite liked this -- > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0XFp3rktdk

Lord Vader

I wonder what audience the english, french, native, mandarin and cantonese language cricket broadcasts will draw?

Elizabeth I

I think these Olympics in particular have lit a flame of interest for NZ. We didn't do very well competitively, but the showcase of the sports themselves was excellent and I think it had to do with Canada's enthusiasm.

Our commentators were talking about how we need to get our structures in place and start really identifying talent for the kids who have been watching and are saying to themselves "I want to do that!" They were even saying how cool they thought Ice Hockey was and contemplating whether that could catch on here (I think it could potentially but we need the structures for it).

So I think Canada has really been an inspiration to NZ to start diversifying itself. NZ has always been a Rugby nation, it's the holy grail of sport here....but I think it would be great if we could get into the winter stuff more because we have great alpine facilities already and kiwis love sport and are competitive by nature. So it would be great if more of us could get into it, the winter team stuff, but yeah, cost is always the limiting factor for anyone and any nation (especially one as small as ours).

willmore

[QUOTE=iaink;8384960]Is it just me, or was the start of this thread all "They did this, they played them", and now that Canada are top of the medal table and gold medal winners in the hockey, its all "We did this, and we beat them" We did sod all in this Olympics, One medal wasnt it?


Well you have to admit that the boys had a poor start.......

lmartin999

You play rugby and cricket pretty well. Why bother with minor sports??

dbd33

Those broadcasts, save "native", draw audiences in the millions. Not only that but they attract what used to be termed the "jet set". Note that Sachin Tendulkar recently made the cover of Icon magazine. Cricket is internationally big business, not as big as football of course, but not an obscure game like iced hockey or darts in which only a few people in a couple of countries can make a living. AFAIK there's not even much of a gaming scene around iced hockey.