Growth of hockey By US state 1990-2010

[LadyStanley]

http://unitedstatesofhockey.com/201...ockeys-growth-in-the-united-states-1990-2009/

US states that HAVE a NHL Hockey team

http://unitedstatesofhockey.com/2011/06/03/raw-numbers-hockeys-growth-in-non-nhl-states-1990-2010/

Growth of hockey from 1990-2010 in US states that do NOT have a NHL hockey team.

The only state with negative growth: Hawaii

Click to read more...

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Good to see Wisconsin at #1 of states without an NHL team.

 

[tarheelhockey]

What's really interesting to me, beyond the obviously eye-popping percentages, are the raw numbers in certain places:

Alaska
1990-91: 3,295
2009-10: 8,477

(Really? That's all? But still, it's impressive that their numbers doubled with no apparent NHL influence... how did that happen?)

California
1990-91: 4,483
2009-10: 20,404

(it's not the new number that impresses me... but the old one. Compare it to Colorado, Connecticut, North Dakota and Vermont below. Who knew!?)

Colorado
1990-91: 3,854
2009-10: 13,437

(somehow I thought these numbers would be much higher)

Connecticut
1990-91: 5,363
2009-10: 12,088

(that's all? Comparable to Florida?)

Florida
1990-91: 1,200
2009-10: 10,856

(See above. I get the population difference, but that is still a LOT more than quite a few of the "traditional" hockey states)

Illinois
1990-91: 9,412
2009-10: 24,018

(another place I would expect higher numbers considering they've had hockey for nearly a century)

Maine
1990-91: 2,276
2009-10: 6,180

(this is just crazy when compared to Missouri below.)

Missouri
1990-91: 3,382
2009-10: 6,295

North Dakota
1990-91: 2,420
2009-10: 4,547

(really low compared to what I'd have guessed)

Ohio
1990-91: 4,308
2009-10: 13,579

(ahead of Connecticut?)

Texas
1990-91: 868
2009-10: 10,909

amazed

Vermont
1990-91: 2,375
2009-10: 4,443

(Half as many as Texas, who knew?)

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

North Dakota is low for you? They have less than 700,000 people in the state. 4,500 is a solid number considering the population.

Not sure why you're surprised Ohio is ahead of Connecticut either. They have an NHL team, it's a fairly cold climate when you go north towards Cleveland and they have 11.5 million people compared to less than 4 for Connecticut.

 

[tarheelhockey]

North Dakota is low for you? They have less than 700,000 people in the state. 4,500 is a solid number considering the population.

Not sure why you're surprised Ohio is ahead of Connecticut either. They have an NHL team, it's a fairly cold climate when you go north towards Cleveland and they have 11.5 million people compared to less than 4 for Connecticut.

I'm just going based on the impression that hockey is a common participant sport for people in those states. Maybe that impression is exaggerated, or maybe the impression that it isn't common in other places is exaggerated.

Take Ohio... yeah they have an NHL team in Columbus, which is not considered to be wildly popular. They also have a severely depressed economy in certain parts, and a generally football-centric culture. Meanwhile Connecticut is very wealthy, much more northeastern in culture, and much more traditionally connected to the NHL in New York and Boston. I would expect there to be a larger number of hockey players there, period, not just as a function of population percentage.

Basically what this is telling me is that Easton would reach about as many hockey players by running ads all over Florida as by running them all over Connecticut. Yeah, that's pretty surprising to me.

 

[MayDay]

State: Mississippi
1990-91: 10 (!)
2009-10: 259
Growth: 2,490%

Mississippi had 10 hockey players in the whole state in 1990.

How is that even possible? That's not even enough for a team, really.

 

[tarheelhockey]

State: Mississippi
1990-91: 10 (!)
2009-10: 259
Growth: 2,490%

Mississippi had 10 hockey players in the whole state in 1990.

How is that even possible? That's not even enough for a team, really.

I doubt they had more than a handful of rinks, if that, so there probably was not a league to play in.

Just a guess, but there was probably one program in the state that bothered to register with USA Hockey and it had 10 players.

 

[MayDay]

Here's another weird one:

State: Oklahoma
1990-91: 109
2009-10: 1,051
Growth: 864.2%

vs.

State: Oregon
1990-91: 738
2009-10: 804
Growth: 8.9%

Oklahoma has more hockey players than Oregon. And the two states are very similar in population, so that isn't a factor.

I thought the Pacific Northwest was a good place for hockey, and that Portland in particular was a strong hockey market.

 

[Steve Passless*]

24,000 is pretty good for Illinois. I'd love for it to be up there with the 3 M's, but that'll take a while.

 

[GuelphMadHatter]

These numbers suggest there is a growing interest for hockey across the board in the states that far outpaces population growth. That's encouraging. The main problem with these struggling NHL franchises down there (and any sports franchise) is the lack of a competitive, winning product.

 

[VanIslander]

What's really interesting to me, beyond the obviously eye-popping percentages, are the raw numbers in certain places:

Alaska
1990-91: 3,295
2009-10: 8,477

(Really? That's all? But still, it's impressive that their numbers doubled with no apparent NHL influence... how did that happen?)

1. ECHL Alaska Aces (1995- )
2. The movie Mystery Alaska (1999)
3. Stanley Cup champion Scott Gomez is from Alaska

Anchorage's Scott Gomez, who twice brought the Stanley Cup to town, is now bringing his game to town.

Gomez, whose successful National Hockey League career with the New Jersey Devils is on hold because of the NHL lockout, signed a contract Monday with the Alaska Aces. He'll be in uniform for the team Friday when the Aces play the San Diego Gulls at Sullivan Arena.

Gomez, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, NHL All-Star and 2000 rookie of the year, was due to make $2.9 million with the Devils this season. He'll make $500 a week with the Aces, who play in the AA-level ECHL.

"I figured one day if I ever run for mayor, this is always going to look good for me," a smiling Gomez said at an afternoon press conference. "I'm excited for my whole family and all my friends who will get to see me play.

"And it's just great to have the chance to give back to Alaska."

 

[Jaxs]

North Dakota is low for you? They have less than 700,000 people in the state. 4,500 is a solid number considering the population.

Not sure why you're surprised Ohio is ahead of Connecticut either. They have an NHL team, it's a fairly cold climate when you go north towards Cleveland and they have 11.5 million people compared to less than 4 for Connecticut.

Columbus is plenty cold, thank you very much.

 

[Kevbeau]

Just throwing out there...these numbers are USA Hockey only. I'm not sure of AAU's participation in ice hockey (they do have a presence in roller), but those people aren't included. Also probably doesn't take into account adult leagues that have no affiliation to USA Hockey.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Columbus is plenty cold, thank you very much.

Oh yeah I know. I should've put especially as you go towards Cleveland.

 

[Brodie]

Southern Ohio is still cold enough to get annual snowfall.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Nice to see Illinois' numbers growing, and even nicer to see that we have the fifth highest total in the U.S. With the Blackhawks continuing to be on TV, I have no doubt that those numbers will keep growing.

And speaking as an Illinois hockey fan that's never played organized hockey in his life, if I ever have kids, I'll definitely be introducing them to the game as early as possible.

And Texas' growth is just stunning. Hope that continues.

 

[IceAce]

http://unitedstatesofhockey.com/201...ockeys-growth-in-the-united-states-1990-2009/

US states that HAVE a NHL Hockey team

http://unitedstatesofhockey.com/2011/06/03/raw-numbers-hockeys-growth-in-non-nhl-states-1990-2010/

Growth of hockey from 1990-2010 in US states that do NOT have a NHL hockey team.

The only state with negative growth: Hawaii

Some of the states they list as "not having teams" are weird.. For instance, Delaware. Technically they dont have a team but the Northern part of Delaware from probably Dover and north is huge Flyer territory and a big chunk of the Flyers season ticket base is from DE since most in the Northern part of the state can get to Philly in an hour. Most of DE is closer to Philly than a good chunk of Northeastern PA.

You could probably make a similar case for most of the New England states and their relative proximity to Boston.

 

[hatterson]

What this shows to me is that the impact of an NHL team on the growth of hockey in a certain area is dramatically overstated.

States with NHL teams increased a combined 135% over the last 20 years.

States without NHL teams increased a combined 182% over the last 20 years.

 

[Jaxs]

The growth of hockey in Columbus has been amazing since when I played as a kid and I started playing in 1973 as a mite. There was only one travel team, no high school teams in central Ohio. There was house league.

Now there are 12 high school teams, 3 travel teams (the AAA Blue Jackets being the best IMO). There are 12 ice surfaces now, only three when I graduated High School and two of those are no more.

The Columbus Owls (IHL), and the OSU Buckeyes were the teams us kids begged our parents to take us to go to their games. The birth of having an NHL team in town really catupulted youth hockey and adult leagues for that matter. It is great to see.

My bosses son plays on AAA Blue Jackets and along with others on that team, will be moving on to USHL. W/O naming names, one just got drafted by the Oshawa Generals. It is exciting to see the impact of having such growth of the sport I have loved since first lacing up skates.

 

[jiggsawpuzzle35]

Great to see the growth of hockey in California. Would be nice if CIF would give hockey a shot. Also would be nice if California colleges could field some division 1 mens ice hockey.

 

[hatterson]

Here's a google doc that combines state population with hockey numbers.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr...2YBMTdFZ6NVpIMk5CTUtTeE9IQnZsREdOS0E&hl=en_US

States with NHL teams saw hockey registrations rise 88% compared to population over the last 2 decades

States with no NHL team saw hockey registrations rise 140% compared to population over the last 2 decades.

Note: I assumed that 1991 was close enough to the 1990 census to not make a significant difference. Population data is stolen from wikipedia, accuracy issues are blamed on them

 

[Jaxs]

Here's a google docs that combines state population with hockey numbers.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr...2YBMTdFZ6NVpIMk5CTUtTeE9IQnZsREdOS0E&hl=en_US

States with NHL teams saw hockey registrations rise 88% compared to population over the last 2 decades

States with no NHL team saw hockey registrations rise 140% compared to population over the last 2 decades.

Note: I assumed that 1991 was close enough to the 1990 census to not make a significant difference. Population data is stolen from wikipedia, accuracy issues are blamed on them

Interesting. Maybe kids are able to watch games on their cable channels, or by streaming. With the advent of Fox sports Net or other regional local channels, that may be getting some kids attention enough to try on some skates. I wonder how they got turned on to the game though?

 

[MoreOrr]

Here's another weird one:

State: Oklahoma
1990-91: 109
2009-10: 1,051
Growth: 864.2%

vs.

State: Oregon
1990-91: 738
2009-10: 804
Growth: 8.9%

Oklahoma has more hockey players than Oregon. And the two states are very similar in population, so that isn't a factor.

I thought the Pacific Northwest was a good place for hockey, and that Portland in particular was a strong hockey market.

I've been saying for some time that the NHL missed out on Oklahoma City, allowing the NBA to get there first, but that now Tulsa might be a good small city bet for the NHL.

The upside for the NBA going to Oklahoma is that it abandoned Seattle, so now when the circumstances are right let's hope that the NHL get to Seattle before the NBA returns. Not that Seattle couldn't support both, but it would be good to be the first to get established there again.

And as for Oregon, even though Oklahoma may somehow be ahead of Oregon, Oregon is still a prime location for the NHL.

 

[hatterson]

Interesting. Maybe kids are able to watch games on their cable channels, or by streaming. With the advent of Fox sports Net or other regional local channels, that may be getting some kids attention enough to try on some skates. I wonder how they got turned on to the game though?

In todays day and age there's plenty of ways to get hooked on the game.

My main point was that I keep hearing that losing the Thrashers will be devastating to Atlanta minor hockey or losing the Yotes would be devastating to Phoenix minor hockey but it seems like states without NHL teams are doing just as good (better actually) than states with NHL teams which leads one to be skeptical of the claimed size of an NHL team on minor hockey in the area.

 

[arterydonor]

Based on that data, here's a list of youth hockey membership per 1000 inhabitants.

Alaska 11.94
Minnesota 10.08
Vermont 7.10
North Dakota 6.76
Massachusetts 6.64
Michigan 5.20
New Hampshire 4.65
Maine 4.65
Rhode Island 4.41
Montana 3.61
Connecticut 3.44
Wyoming 3.21
Wisconsin 3.11
Colorado 2.67
South Dakota 2.64
New York 2.39
Pennsylvania 2.17
Idaho 1.89
Illinois 1.87
New Jersey 1.82
Utah 1.44
Maryland 1.27
D.C. 1.23
Ohio 1.18
Delaware 1.17
Washington 1.13
Missouri 1.05
Virginia 0.91
Iowa 0.87
Nebraska 0.80
Indiana 0.76
North Carolina 0.59
New Mexico 0.59
Florida 0.58
West Virginia 0.57
California 0.55
Kansas 0.55
Arizona 0.52
Texas 0.43
Tennessee 0.38
Kentucky 0.37
Nevada 0.35
South Carolina 0.30
Oklahoma 0.28
Georgia 0.22
Oregon 0.21
Louisiana 0.10
Mississippi 0.09
Arkansas 0.07
Hawaii 0.01

The most surprising state to me is Oregon. It has less membership per capita than Georgia. Atlanta has 2.5 times the population of Portland and appears to have just as much interest in hockey. Seeing as the NHL failed twice in Georgia, maybe putting a team in Oregon isn't such a great idea after all.