I'm about to study abroad in Norway and from what I've gathered, hockey isn't very big there. This strikes me as odd considering it's a popular winter sport and is extremely popular in Sweden. Any ideas as to why it's never really caught on over there?
It is the second most popular spectator sport in pure attendance numbers, but the biggest issue is that it's pretty regional. In the cities with good teams, they regularly have an attendance above 2000 each game, and the average across the league is just shy of 1900 each game (that includes a team with an arena that seats 753 people).
So, if you're going to Oslo, Hamar, Sarpsborg or Stavanger, you'll find a thriving hockey community - You'll find it in Trondheim too, where Martinsen is from, despite their club playing 3. tier at the moment after the elite club went bankrupt (again), and them being geographically far away from the "hockey hub" in the south east. Their U15 club is currently the best in Norway, and can go toe-to-toe with the best clubs in Sweden and Finland too.
If you go further north, it's a hockey dead zone until you reach Tromsø and Narvik in the far north.