Can the NHL attract big names?

[MAROONSRoad]

To the OP: If you are talking about flavour-of-the-month-pop-culture-celebrities, I hope not. I want to watch hockey not Entertainment Tonight. For me the hockey players are the stars.

GHOST

 

[TrollololBoyle]

Carrie Underwood > Mike Fisher in terms of celebrity status and star power.

Nobody outside of hockey knew who Mike Fisher was until he married her.

I think it would help getting some big names to play at events, because honestly most of America couldn't care less about hockey, if more big names gave it recognition, it would be more popular. America will always be a football country.

 

[Moobles]

We actually have quite a few but I'm glad it's not Rihanna and Drake.

 

[Sens Rule]

The NHL should go with The Tragically Hip every time. They can sing their Hockey related songs.

The Hip rock live. Most bands at say the Superbowl or Metric at the Heritage Classic suck live.

Then Gord Downey can bring up Stompin Tom and sing a verse of The Hockey Song and then go on a crazy riff off that verse for a couple of quicker verses of that song.

 

[Wham City]

Rihanna and Drake = Too high profile and relevant for NHL

Now

Ashanti + Ja Rule = NHL ticket right there

Both washed up and irrelavant , perfect for NHL IMO

Nailed it.

 

[Sensation]

No Bieber is all I ask.

 

[Mathradio]

To the OP: If you are talking about flavour-of-the-month-pop-culture-celebrities, I hope not. I want to watch hockey not Entertainment Tonight. For me the hockey players are the stars.

GHOST

The NBA probably goes overkill by that logic, as the average basketball fan would want to watch basketball rather than the side-shows.

 

[KuralySnipes]

To change the topic a lil, anyone wanna speculate on the highest profile hockey fans for each team?

 

[Brodie]

A lot of teams don't have any high profile fans, but off the top of my head:

Leafs - Justin Bieber

Ducks - Snoop Dogg

Canucks - Nelly Furtado

Red Wings - Kristen Bell

Devils/Oilers - Kevin Smith

Thrashers - Lil Jon

for personal reasons:

Predators - Carrie Underwood

Penguins - Hillary Duff

special mention:

Taylor Swift likes hockey and has been photographed in Pens, Coyotes and Kings jerseys but probably isn't a fan of all of them

 

[KuralySnipes]

A lot of teams don't have any high profile fans, but off the top of my head:

Leafs - Justin Bieber

Ducks - Snoop Dogg

Canucks - Nelly Furtado

Red Wings - Kristen Bell

Devils/Oilers - Kevin Smith

Thrashers - Lil Jon

Bruins- Dennis Leary
Devils- Shaq
Rangers- Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith

 

[KuralySnipes]

Bruins- Dennis Leary
Devils- Shaq
Rangers- Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith

I meant Kevin James.

 

[Rick Nash homework]

Bruins- Dennis Leary
Devils- Shaq
Rangers- Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith

Susan Sarandon and her ex-husband Tim Robbins are huge Rangers fans. Boomer can be seen as well at their games and I'm sure he's pretty well known since he on NFL on CBS.

Michael J Fox, Dropkick Murphy's, and John Kerry are all Bruins fans from what I known. One of the Godsmack guys was a fan of them.


Of course you can't forget about the Hip who are all Leaf fans I believe.

Neil Young has season tickets at Sharks games and can be seen from time to time.


Kurt Russell, Rob Zombie, and a few others are Kings fans.


The late Tim Russet was a Sabers fan from his native hometown of Buffalo.

 

[LadyStanley]

Those who attend games:

Sharks - Neil Young, Kristi Yamaguchi, Carlos Santana, Greg Kihn
(do you want me to get into the technological folks who many wouldn't know outside of the stock holders' meeting?)
(Or some of the local TV/radio personalities?)

 

[bodybreak]

Billy Talent seems to tour Canada pretty much every year, and the lead singer makes comments about the NHL during shows. That said, I was surprised they had an intermission performance at the Heritage Classic. Like GHOST said, the players are the stars. We don't need a concert. Seemed really gimmicky. Yeah, we're in a football stadium, but that doesn't mean we need a halftime show (or 2/3 time show). Save it for before or after the game.


[I enjoyed the 7th inning stretch during the Winter Classic though.]

 

[tarheelhockey]

Carrie Underwood > Mike Fisher in terms of celebrity status and star power.

Nobody outside of hockey knew who Mike Fisher was until he married her.

thanks for clearing that up

 

[Adz]

Nashville--Besides Carrie Underwood, regulars at Preds games include Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Frank Wycheck, Scott Hamilton, Taylor Swift, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Dierks Bentley, and while they're not regulars I have seen The Hives, Kid Rock, and various Titans players. You never know who will sing with the band during the intermissions. Very recently it was Vince and Alice Cooper, who Vince introduced as "his golfing buddy". Imagine singing School's Out with Alice at a hockey game. ;-)

 

[Kebekoi]

Shania Twain and Viggo Mortensen are Habs fans

 

[optimus2861]

Rihanna, and Drake were performing at the NBA All-Star Game last night.

So?

Can the NHL attract these big names or others to there events?

Who cares? Nobody's going to watch a hockey game for the sake of a 5-minute pop concert in the middle of it. Besides, what would they do, sing while riding around on the zamboni?

 

[Fidel Astro]

Not everything has to be like the Super Bowl, with some completely unrelated performance in the middle of it. Getting "big names" as a between-periods act should not be the NHL's priority.

It just kind of seems like another desperate attempt to attract fans who are unfamiliar with the game by adding a bunch of unnecessary bells and whistles.

 

[LadyStanley]

Imagine singing School's Out with Alice at a hockey game. ;-)

Alice Cooper sang between periods at Coyotes game I attended pre-Jobing.com. IIRC, he's a local in Arizona.

 

[AllByDesign]

Alice Cooper sang between periods at Coyotes game I attended pre-Jobing.com. IIRC, he's a local in Arizona.

He is a resident, and also owns a sports bar in Phoenix.

He is also a scratch golfer and owns more mascara than any other man on earth.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I want to see Girl Talk do the national anthem at a Penguins game sometime...

 

[Wham City]

After reading this thread I think the answer is a definitive no.

The NHL is not consumed by a mass audience (save Canada) and it doesn't really have ties to entertainment culture. Probably best to accept it's lameness and not even try.

 

[saskganesh]

Probably best to accept it's lameness and not even try.

This. There's a lot of power and appeal of just being oneself and not trying to be like everyone else.

 

[Section337]

The NHL also doesn't have floor seating, where stars get as much camera time as the bottom 6 players on both teams.