Hockey in Europe and growth
- Thread starter S E P H
- Start date
I need more people to confirm it because I honestly don't see it besides in Germany and France.
Sixth? Ha!
1. Football.
(Giant gap)
2. International cricket.
3. Formula One.
4. International rugby union.
5. Boxing.
6. Tennis.
7. Golf.
8. Horse racing.
9. Domestic rugby union.
10. Domestic cricket.
11. Snooker.
12. Rugby league.
13. American football.
14. Darts.
15. Cycling.
16. Athletics.
17. Bowls.
18. Basketball.
19. Swimming.
20. MotoGP.
21. Rowing.
22. Netball.
23. Ice hockey.
That's just my rough guess of general interest in those sports countrywide. It's hugely debatable, I might have missed a few things out and maybe hockey being below rowing and netball is a bit unfair (though the Uni Boat Race attracts something like 7,000,000 viewers and participation from girls in netball will absolutely dwarf how many have played hockey), but it's certainly nowhere at all near sixth!
The fact we can pull together a professional league shows how sport-obsessed this country is.
It's more popular in the countries he mentioned. Maybe not Sweden (dunno), but the other ones.
worstfaceoffmanever
These Snacks Are Odd
What's up with every nation loving handball? It's not even entertaining
Cheap and easy to set up and play.
What's up with every nation loving handball? It's not even entertaining
agree, not fun to play or watch,, just my opinion
What's up with every nation loving handball? It's not even entertaining
As a guy that was a pro handball player I have to disagree with you, handball is to me alongside hockey the most entertaining sport in the world, I know it's not popular in Finland but saying it's not entertaining just isn't true if you ask me. Just look at this:
Denmark is one of the best handball nations in both mens and womens competition, Norway is the most dominant womens nation (I would say that womens handball is probably the most popular sport in Norway period including mens sports, I've never seen a game of Norwegian womens national team without at least 2000+ fans no matter where they play), their mens team isn't one of the best in the world (they are around 7-8) but they are popular regardless, and Sweden is one of the most dominant countries in history of handball.
slovakiasnextone
Registered User
I absolutely agree. Some games might get boring, but hey even hockey games can get boring. At least in one aspect handball is even more exciting than hockey IMO- there´s scoring pretty much all the time and there is something happening all the time, which isn´t in the majority of hockey games. But hockey is still my No.1. As for the popularity in Slovakia I guess it depends on the way you look at it, obviously football is played everywhere, but when it commes to the NTs I´d say it is at least a tie between football and hockey and hockey might even get an edge in this aspect also thanks due to past successes. Also the popularity of a sport in such a small country like Slovakia often depends from succes- for example I´m sure that the number of Slovaks glued to the TV for three weeks during the Tour de France and other cycling events has quantified with such guys like Peter Velits or young prodigy Peter Sagan being there. The same goes for the handball NT.
Hockey is a very minor sport everywhere in europe, except for Finland and maybe sweden.
So yes, and "it is not even close".
slovakiasnextone
Registered User
??? What are you smoking, buddy?
There´s no way hockey is anywhere near a minor sport in Sweden. And how exactly is it a minor sport in Slovakia, Czech republic, Latvia, Belarus, Russia or Switzerland? And I wouldn´t say it´s a minor sport in Germany either....
It draws rather large attendances, but is not popular amongst the mainstream public. It rather has a very fanatic core audience that makes it appear more popular than it really is.
slovakiasnextone
Registered User
I pressuma you´re speaking only about Sweden, right?
Well, I´m not going to speak about other countries into detail but I can speak for Slovakia and I think I can also speak about the Czech republic. In both countries between the mainstream public hockey is as popular even if not more popular than football. It hasn´t been uncommon for example for one fifth of the population to watch the WC or Olympics games. Sure, the hockey league in Slovakia isn´t that popular, but I´d say it is actually more popular than the home football league and I doubt anyone would call football a minor sport here. Also if you were to ask a random person on the street who for example Marián Hossa or Zdeno Chára is the majority would recognize the names (and they´d recognize them ahead of almost any football player) and I´m not speaking just about your "average Joe", but even for example a lady in her 40s or 50s as hockey and the hockey players are all over every media. And I don´t think there was anyone in this country that didn´t know that the IHWC was played here this year. The aspect where you could say that hockey is not popular in Slovakia could be too few people actually playing it, but in that case every team sport in Slovakia is a very minor sport, because all have numbers only as high and in most cases smaller than hockey. Football is the only exception, but yeah it´s cheap and easy to set up and when you look at the football league even that is a minor sport here. In the Czech republic I think it´s very similar except that especially their hockey league has a much better following....not sure about the attendances of their football league
As for the other countries, asides from football I doubt you´d find any other team sport that would be more popular than hockey in Russia, Belarus or Latvia. So xan you really call it a minor sport then?
I can tell you about Hungary, Poland and Romania to a certain degree. In Hungary fotball is probably #1, but waterpolo is probably on the same level, they are followed by handball, and then comes hockey, they have a team called Alba Volan that competes in Austrian EBEL alongside teams from Austria, Slovenia, Czech Rep., and Croatia, and from I can say watching games they play against my hometown team they are followed fairly well, but their player pool doesn't seem deep.
Considerning Romania, from everything I've heard they have a good hockey tradition, but right now hockey is behind football, handball, and waterpolo for sure.
In Poland football is #1 like in most countries, volleyball is the probable #2, handball recieved a huge boost because of good results of their national team so it sits at 3rd place, basketball is probably 4th, and it's followed by hockey.
Yeah, here in Latvia it's #1, no doubt (hockey ads on local TV, Dinamo's logos on cheese, ice cream & beer, KHL hockey cards or jerseys very easy to find in Riga, etc.). Domestic leagues are in a horrible condition, kids hockey as well, but there's little we can do about it; the sport needs lots of money investments from sponsors. Our two top teams - Dinamo Riga & Metalurgs Liepaja - play in Russian & Belorussian leagues, respectively; and the later club was even declared bankrupt this spring, but thankfully managed to find new investors for one more year.
Belarus is also up there, especially with the upcoming WC in 2014. Their local Extra League is many times better than ours (i.e. Latvian).
And in Russia it mostly depends on the region. If you take the European part of the country, then football is much more popular there, but in the Asian part hockey is a bigger sport. Since the European part is more populated one, you can say football is a bit more popular. Though when comparing the popularity of NTs, I'd say hockey wins by a slight margin (due to international success). Both sports are on the rise.
Belarus is also up there, especially with the upcoming WC in 2014. Their local Extra League is many times better than ours (i.e. Latvian).
And in Russia it mostly depends on the region. If you take the European part of the country, then football is much more popular there, but in the Asian part hockey is a bigger sport. Since the European part is more populated one, you can say football is a bit more popular. Though when comparing the popularity of NTs, I'd say hockey wins by a slight margin (due to international success). Both sports are on the rise.
slovakiasnextone
Registered User
I can add for Hungary that hockey is on the rise, which also means a rise in popularity. Absolutely the opposite could be said about Poland.
As for Romania, from the little I know hockey there is mostly played by the Hungarian minority with the exception of Steaua Bucuresti.
Uncle Rotter
Registered User
Waterpolo is the most popular sport in Hungary (it has the status of national sports over there) and only football is close, they are followed by handball, and waterpolo is fairly popular in Romania also, they are some pretty good waterpolo players from there, I forgot to add rugby (thanks to Uncle Rotter) to list of sports that are popular in Romania, hockey is behind football, rugby, handball, waterpolo in Romania easily.
To make this easier for you I'll do a list of countries where handball and waterpolo are more popular than hockey.
Handball: France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Sweden (it's more popular in some parts of Sweden and less popular in others), Poland, Iceland (national sport), Portugal, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Waterpolo: Spain, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Greece.
Franck
eltiT resU motsuC
Other than football, which is pretty much universally loved across the entire continent, sports in Europe is best looked at on a regional rather than national level.
For instance, if you look at a country like Italy, hockey is not popular at all on a national scale, but regionally in some parts of the country like in Bolzano, it is arguably the second most popular team sport after football. It is the same way with basketball, rugby and volleyball, on a national scale the interest is so-so, but there are many regional areas of very strong support. It works the same way in most other European countries, football is almost always the top sport, but there are regional hot-spots where other sports can at least challenge for the top spot.
As for this discussion about handball, it isn't anywhere close to being as popular as hockey in Sweden, in fact it is a sport experiencing a strong decline in popularity and has arguably been overtaken by floorball at this point.
The national team used to be quite popular when they were winning things, but on a club level there has never been much interest, not even here in Gothenburg where the historically most successful handball team in the country plays.
For instance, if you look at a country like Italy, hockey is not popular at all on a national scale, but regionally in some parts of the country like in Bolzano, it is arguably the second most popular team sport after football. It is the same way with basketball, rugby and volleyball, on a national scale the interest is so-so, but there are many regional areas of very strong support. It works the same way in most other European countries, football is almost always the top sport, but there are regional hot-spots where other sports can at least challenge for the top spot.
As for this discussion about handball, it isn't anywhere close to being as popular as hockey in Sweden, in fact it is a sport experiencing a strong decline in popularity and has arguably been overtaken by floorball at this point.
The national team used to be quite popular when they were winning things, but on a club level there has never been much interest, not even here in Gothenburg where the historically most successful handball team in the country plays.
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Hmm, not sure what you are smoking? I agree with franck, soon domestic floorball is getting more attendance than domestic handball. The national handball team could quickly regain popularity though with some success. Sweden is still a pretty good Handball nation.
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I heard that hockey is growing fast in United arab emirates, theyre super rich and they have alot of resources and a FIN who developes hockey in that country, not an european country but worth of mentioning 
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