How Come Colorado Isn't More Popular For Hockey?

[Rhaego]

Fairweather town. I fully expect the Avs to be selling out again next year when they're the best team in denver again.

The media in town doesn't help either, most radio shows are still talking about the Broncos/Tebow

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Denver is the most overstretched sports market in the United States.

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjourn...11/08/denver-is-most-overextended-market.html

I hate articles like this.

The Wolves are at almost 90% capacity this year, Wild are over 98%, Twins 99% and Vikings 98%. Give them something to watch and they'll show up.

Same with St. Louis. The Cards and Blues are or are close to selling out. If the Rams were any good they'd be selling out too.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

I've often wondered this re: Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and to a much lesser extent Wisconsin.

illinois has produced the 5th most nhl players after minnesota, massachusetts, michigan, and new york. must be nice being close to canada....

wisconsin is a good hockey state as well, but saying it's better than illinois is stretching it

 

[Slowe]

I've often wondered this re: Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and to a much lesser extent Wisconsin.

Illinois does ok, we just haven't found a way to cement hockey into the culture. We are #4 or 5 in the nation for registered players. There are rinks all around Chicago. More youth programs have sprung up, so with a little maturity Chicago hockey will get better, and hopefully a little more legitimate. There are some programs/rinks in central Illinois, and virtually none in the southern part. There has always been a little bit of cultural divide between Chicago and the rest of the state. I think if we really wanted to grow it, there are a few larger cities we would need to really focus on. The many small towns around though would take a loooong time.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

In addition to what the previous two posters said, it also didn't hurt that a ****load of people swore off the Blackhawks for as long as Bill Wirtz was alive, so that pretty much set back hockey development and youth participation a generation in this state.

But we've still produced a decent number of NHLers, interest in the sport at just about all levels is at an all-time high, and youth hockey seems to be entering a bit of a renaissance in the state and will hopefully continue to grow.

As for Indiana.... dude, it's hoops and that's it. Nothing else matters over there, except for the Indy 500 and the Colts.

 

[Alex Jones]

Denver is the most overstretched sports market in the United States.

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjourn...11/08/denver-is-most-overextended-market.html

Not to mention there are five division one colleges in the area. In denver you have to win to get attendance, just the way it works.

It's also tough to draw in Denver because of the insane number of transplants in the area, people with little to no interest in the local teams. If you go to a game in Denver other than the Broncos, a pretty good portion of the crowd will showup to support the other team.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Illinois does ok, we just haven't found a way to cement hockey into the culture. We are #4 or 5 in the nation for registered players. There are rinks all around Chicago. More youth programs have sprung up, so with a little maturity Chicago hockey will get better, and hopefully a little more legitimate. There are some programs/rinks in central Illinois, and virtually none in the southern part. There has always been a little bit of cultural divide between Chicago and the rest of the state. I think if we really wanted to grow it, there are a few larger cities we would need to really focus on. The many small towns around though would take a loooong time.

yeah hockey is pretty popular in chicagoland, playing and watching. rockford, peoria, and springfield to a lesser extent have some potential. the blues should market themselves in southern illinois. my friends at u of i and isu say there's a good amount of blues fans from the south. minnesota, michigan, massachusetts, and new york are lucky cause hockey is popular all over the state. i would imagine colorado is more like illinois, where hockey is only popular around denver and colorado springs

 

[Undertakerqc]

Move the Avs back to Quebec City!!!

 

[Slowe]

yeah hockey is pretty popular in chicagoland, playing and watching. rockford, peoria, and springfield to a lesser extent have some potential. the blues should market themselves in southern illinois. my friends at u of i and isu say there's a good amount of blues fans from the south. minnesota, michigan, massachusetts, and new york are lucky cause hockey is popular all over the state. i would imagine colorado is more like illinois, where hockey is only popular around denver and colorado springs

Chicago area will be fine. There are four AAA teams pretty well established at developing talent. They just need to expand more AA teams to get more saturation or volume of talent.

In central Illinois, you have Bloomington / Normal, Springfield, Decatur, Champaign / Urbana, and Peoria as key central cities and all have youth programs. I get the impression they are all kinda small and still need a lot of help though. To gather interest and attention to the sport Springfield has a NAHL team, Bloomington has the CHL Blaze, Champaign will hopefully have U of I get a D1 team, and Peoria has an AHL team. There are a few youth teams playing around St. Louis, but I have no idea if that area is growing or not. Illinois has tons of potential, but needs time and attention.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

I've often wondered this re: Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and to a much lesser extent Wisconsin.

Basketball is spelled I-N-D-I-A-N-A

 

[kihekah19*]

Illinois does ok, we just haven't found a way to cement hockey into the culture. We are #4 or 5 in the nation for registered players. There are rinks all around Chicago. More youth programs have sprung up, so with a little maturity Chicago hockey will get better, and hopefully a little more legitimate. There are some programs/rinks in central Illinois, and virtually none in the southern part. There has always been a little bit of cultural divide between Chicago and the rest of the state. I think if we really wanted to grow it, there are a few larger cities we would need to really focus on. The many small towns around though would take a loooong time.

More legitimate? Brett Hull, Tony Granato, Mike Stapleton.... when I was growing up skating with the likes of these guys and others, things were pretty legit and they went on to prove it. What the hell have ya'll been doing?

 

[IU Hawks fan]

More legitimate? Brett Hull, Tony Granato, Mike Stapleton.... when I was growing up skating with the likes of these guys and others, things were pretty legit and they went on to prove it. What the hell have ya'll been doing?

Did you miss the part where No Fun said that the Wirtz sabotaged 10-15 years of potential talent?

That said, Chicagoland still has a few notables.

And Mike Stapleton is from Sarnia, Ontario

 

[kihekah19*]

Did you miss the part where No Fun said that the Wirtz sabotaged 10-15 years of potential talent?

That said, Chicagoland still has a few notables.

And Mike Stapleton is from Sarnia, Ontario

Wirtz sabotaged NHL talent, not local youth talent in Illinois.

Mike Stapleton, Pat "Whitey" Stapleton's son and his brother played for the Downers Grove Royals back in the day. Maybe you can "google" his Dad and figure it out son... doesn't matter where he was born.

 

[DownFromNJ]

Didn't Colorado have a ridiculously packed house for a good 10 years, with some crazy string of sellouts?

When you've got a core of Roy/Forsberg/Sakic/Foote/Bourque/Hejduk/ for so long, its easy to pack the house.

 

[Pay Carl]

Didn't Colorado have a ridiculously packed house for a good 10 years, with some crazy string of sellouts?

When you've got a core of Roy/Forsberg/Sakic/Foote/Bourque/Hejduk/ for so long, its easy to pack the house.

Yeah it was 11 years

 

[Brodie]

I know Illinois has been relatively successful in producing players and that the Wirtz thing was a factor but it still surprises me that it and Wisconsin aren't on the same level as other Great Lakes states. The total lack of interest in Ohio and Indiana (especially northern Indiana, think Fort Wayne and Gary instead of Indianapolis) also stuns me. Pennsylvania is another one where production has lagged behind what you might expect.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Wirtz sabotaged NHL talent, not local youth talent in Illinois.

Hawks sucking = less people interested in hockey = less youth hockey players = less NHL players from Chicagoland

You get it?

 

[Hindstriker]

The main Reason is Culture. In Michigan and Minnesota you have a majority of Scandinavians that moved there to farm or mine back in the early 1900's. Now, I am only assuming that since there were so many people that migrated to these "cold" areas they took up hockey because they needed stuff to do in the winter. I know in Calumet in the U.P. hockey goes back to 1897. There in particular they had hundreds of thousands of people, mostly men, that had nothing else to do in the winter. I don't claim to know the origins of hockey but, I have heard that it may have been started by the Canadian Army. So, it easily could have been passed down through the proximity of geography.

Colorado on the other hand really has no history of hockey and frankly I have never seen an outdoor rink in Denver. They have a bunch of transplants who have moved from out east or the Midwest and that will only help in the growth. However, this has happened only recently. It also is really not as cold as people think. The mountains are cold but, Denver is very nice actually in the winter. The cold factor is too inconsistent, you can Golf there in January.

I am always fascinated by places in the US where it's really darn cold and there is little or no hockey culture. That doesn't exactly describe Denver with its long college hockey tradition, but it sure describes some of the places around it. Montana and Wyoming have never produced an NHL player, which I find amazing. Idaho has produced two, but one is Guyle Fielder, who was raised in Manitoba. Utah has produced three, including Steve Konowalchuk. Colorado has produced eight, which is not bad, but six of them are from Denver.

They are not highly populated areas, except for central Colorado, but I've always been fascinated by the disconnect between areas where it's cold and hockey culture. The Northeast, Michigan and Minnesota all have a very strong hockey culture but it seems to disappear around western ND.

Why is that? I'd be fascinated to know why hockey didn't catch on in the mountain states.

 

[uhlaw97]

I lived in Colorado Springs when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, and they were definitely a big deal in the state back then. Not sure what has happened since.

In Colorado Springs, Colorado College hockey is probably the #2 sports draw in town next to Air Force Academy football.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

I know Illinois has been relatively successful in producing players and that the Wirtz thing was a factor but it still surprises me that it and Wisconsin aren't on the same level as other Great Lakes states. The total lack of interest in Ohio and Indiana (especially northern Indiana, think Fort Wayne and Gary instead of Indianapolis) also stuns me. Pennsylvania is another one where production has lagged behind what you might expect.

You ever been to Gary, dude?

I'll be really blunt, a town that's at least 80% poor minorities isn't gonna have much hockey talent.

The 2 nearest rinks are mine, 30 minutes west, and 1 30 minutes south.

Expecting hockey in Gary is the same as expecting in poor parts of inter-city Detroit.

 

[Bongo]

Hmmm...Cheap distracted owners, competition from other sports, lackluster performance by team. This all sounds eerily familiar.

 

[ElGuapo]

This is a total shot in the dark, but the population in Montana and Wyoming may not be large enough to sustain high-quality high school hockey divisions. They certainly don't have high-profile college hockey programs, which doesn't help either.

I think those states produce very, very few top level athletes in any sport. Just not many people live there.

 

[DaleCooper]

Kroenke is incredibly cheap for a guy worth billions

(coming from a frustrated Arsenal follower.)


He's not involved with them at all.

Haha I was about to post that; Arsenal fans are always asking "Where the hell is Kroenke?" He is like a ghost.

 

[Hank Chinaski]

I know Illinois has been relatively successful in producing players and that the Wirtz thing was a factor but it still surprises me that it and Wisconsin aren't on the same level as other Great Lakes states. The total lack of interest in Ohio and Indiana (especially northern Indiana, think Fort Wayne and Gary instead of Indianapolis) also stuns me. Pennsylvania is another one where production has lagged behind what you might expect.

So much of it comes down to having a culture of high school hockey, or if not high school, then another system that avoids the trap of "elite travelling hockey". It's probably similar to what you see with Canadian soccer. Outside of the GTA, Vancouver and Montreal, you just aren't seeing an abundance of competitive teams and leagues, which results in an arbitrary number of "elite" kids being culled and funneled into a centralized system (ie. the National Training Centre). You need to have a system that fosters competition and still gives those kids who are a cut below the arbitrary "elite" assignment an opportunity to play at a high level, only then will you see the numbers rise.

I have no idea if this is the case in places like Colorado and the states you've mentioned, but I'm extrapolating what I've seen here in Canada with soccer, and what I've heard from expat Canadians who have moved to states that aren't hockey factories.

 

[IceAce]

As for Indiana.... dude, it's hoops and that's it. Nothing else matters over there, except for the Indy 500 and the Colts.

Basketball is spelled I-N-D-I-A-N-A

Hey now, Notre Dame has a nice little hockey program.