Growth of hockey in Iceland
- Thread starter Theroalder
- Start date
Apart from soccer, I know not of one sport associated with Iceland. What would be the top 5 anyway? Would hockey not already be in top 5?
Bagge
Registered User
Handball is bigger than football on Iceland. They won olympic silver a few years back. In terms of a top 5 of sports, I must admit that my knowledge is very limited. I would assume that handball and football is 1 and 2 but what comes next, I couldnt answer
QuietContrarian
Registered User
- May 28, 2008
- 8,260
- 3,083
Thats Team Handball to North Americans.
To answer the question, I dont think they have the population to support 3 major sports on such a level.
They are already vastly overperforming in the sports in which they are competitive, at least in terms of population.
Let's put this in perspective shall we.
The whole of Iceland have a population of just 332,529 (2016-01-01), that's smaller than London, Ontario.
And according to IIHF they've only got 3 rinks and 511 registered players, probably a lot less than London..
Their soccer team just made a huge splash in the European Championship, which could drain attention from all the other sports.
I highly doubt that hockey can make any real progress in this tiny country for a foreseeable future.
Sure no one ever said they'd make a name for themselves at international level but still.
In order to grow the population sort of must do too or perhaps some other popular sport must fail miserably.
The whole of Iceland have a population of just 332,529 (2016-01-01), that's smaller than London, Ontario.
And according to IIHF they've only got 3 rinks and 511 registered players, probably a lot less than London..
Their soccer team just made a huge splash in the European Championship, which could drain attention from all the other sports.
I highly doubt that hockey can make any real progress in this tiny country for a foreseeable future.
Sure no one ever said they'd make a name for themselves at international level but still.
In order to grow the population sort of must do too or perhaps some other popular sport must fail miserably.
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They played on European Champioships in Football, handball and basketball. Which is amazing with just 300,000 people
QuietContrarian
Registered User
- May 28, 2008
- 8,260
- 3,083
It is, and no one is taking that from them, just saying we think they have reached their capacity.
Go Donbass
Registered User
Let's not forget that a team from Iceland was the big competition in one of those Mighty Ducks movies, so they got that going for them 
According to wiki something like one in five hundred people in Iceland plays hockey, and apparently they have a larger hockey density than Slovakia. (Although you can't really compare them when you consider the difference in population) Food for thought though.
Jevo
Registered User
- Oct 3, 2010
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1 in 500 is a bit too much. That would give Iceland 665 icehockey players. According to the IIHF statistics for 2015, Iceland has 511 active hockey players, which is something close 1 in 650. Just the raw numbers of having so few players makes it hard for Iceland to anywhere. Slovenia, probably the biggest overachiever in hockey right now, has 1000 active hockey players. A country like Hungary has 4600.
Btw. Slovakia actually has a higher density of hockey players than 1 in 500, coming in at 1 in 470.
Btw. Slovakia actually has a higher density of hockey players than 1 in 500, coming in at 1 in 470.
I dont think that 300k ppl lives in Iceland.
Many lives abroad as far as I know. Up to 40-50,000 ppl. So if i am right about this, your ratio seems more accurate
Many lives abroad as far as I know. Up to 40-50,000 ppl. So if i am right about this, your ratio seems more accurate
HandsomeKessel
Registered User
I thought hockey would a lot more popular in Iceland. I've visited Iceland and checked out the hockey. I thought that the American influence on the country would have made it fairly popular but I don't think it will become very high profile very soon.
