Is hockey in Canada dying?

[TheBeastCoast]

It's surpassed by basketball but it doesn't mean it's dying, but who cares anyway. Hockey isn't the biggest sport in any country.

Basketball has absolutely not surpassed hockey in Canada. Soccer has had more registered players in Canada then Hockey for decades. Soccer isn't taking over from hockey in Canada....because the elite athletes in Canada still on average play hockey. Now that is going to change to varying degrees as the country changes but still.

 

[tyhee]

Here in Smalltown, Rural Canada, the sports that get the most attention and emotion are:

1. Hockey
2. Hockey
3. Hockey
4. Anything else.

Minor hockey numbers are down and with warmer temperatures outdoor skating will further decrease, but being down is not synonymous with dying.

Canada's days of dominating on the world stage are dying, but there is a long way to go before hockey will be close to dying in Canada.

 

[JianYang]

I wonder if the popularity of basketball is growing in the world or USA ?

I'm not sure about the usa, but it has unquestionably exploded from a global standpoint.

NBA players are coming from all over the world both in quality and quantity. Growing up, it used to be a novelty to find a European player on an NBA roster roster.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Southern Ontario.....I couldn't find any place to play street hockey casually and now in my current location I only found one place with games once a week on nights I'm often working.

I don't think if it was as popular as it once was, that this would be this hard. And obviously in cities and stuff now, never see kids playing hockey on the street, do see them playing some basketball/soccer still.

Think it'll just become an increasingly upper/upper-middle class niche sport like golf.

Shame cos all you really need to play it is a $10-30 stick and a ball.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

It’s pretty simple math. As the game grows in the US there will be more American players. Canada is a small population

Canada has the third largest population of any hockey nation after the US and Russia.

The cultural importance of the sport is unmatched in any other nation, including the US.

It will continue to produce high end hockey players for decades.

The current lack of elite Canadian goalies is disappointing.

 

[JungleBeat]

Here in Smalltown, Rural Canada, the sports that get the most attention and emotion are:

1. Hockey
2. Hockey
3. Hockey
4. Anything else.

Minor hockey numbers are down and with warmer temperatures outdoor skating will further decrease, but being down is not synonymous with dying.

Canada's days of dominating on the world stage are dying, but there is a long way to go before hockey will be close to dying in Canada.

Depends what small towns

 

[613Leafer]

There are a lot of other options and hockey has gotten a lot more expensive (especially at the competitive level).

Pretty much all my close friends played hockey growing up (we still play beer league), but only a handful seem really keen on getting their kids into hockey. Among kids these days themselves, basketball, soccer, etc have grown in popularity, so there's less peer pressure to jump into hockey with everyone else (ie fewer kids are likely to ask their parents to put them into hockey, in addition to parents being pretty luke-warm about it themselves).

It's a really common topic of conversation - "are you going to put your kids into hockey", so it's definitely on people's minds, but like I said, it seems rare to run into keeners intent on really pushing their kids towards the sport.

 

[Lawzy]

Canadas demographics are rapidly changing, especially since 2020. If you think pointing that out is offensive feel free to leave the discussion to adults.

You've clearly never attended a Canucks game, lol.

 

[JianYang]

Basketball has absolutely not surpassed hockey in Canada. Soccer has had more registered players in Canada then Hockey for decades. Soccer isn't taking over from hockey in Canada....because the elite athletes in Canada still on average play hockey. Now that is going to change to varying degrees as the country changes but still.

Canada should absolutely have more footballing talent. When I was growing up, it was hard to get eyeballs on Canadian talent in order for them to raise their profile. You certainly didn't have professional options if playing within Canada, so for the vast majority of kids, whatever flame they may have had for being a professional died quickly. Often, those rare cases that made it through wouldn't even represent Canada on the national stage and I can't say I blame them..... they would make it despite of the hurdles that football presents in this nation.

The CSA is still a rinky dink operation today, but the world has gotten alot smaller. So we have seen many more Canadian players recruited and playing in top flight leagues. It's a work in progress but there is more hope for Canadian footballers to dream big now, and think about being professional one day.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Canadas demographics are rapidly changing, especially since 2020. If you think pointing that out is offensive feel free to leave the discussion to adults.

Perhaps that person takes issue with your insinuation that 1st (and 2nd and 3rd) generation Indian-Canadians will not or cannot become hockey fans?

 

[Drytoast]

Our population has grown by what? 3.5M people in the past few years. All or most are migrants from India. We are a fast changing demographic.

Hockey is NOT a popular sport in India.

Canada's future national sport is soon to be cricket.

Future anthem will be

 

[Three On Zero]

You've clearly never attended a Canucks game, lol.

Also low key a racist remark

 

[Lou Sassole]

How about the last 6 years no one from the USA has won an MVP.

This will also probably continue as the 1st to 4th were all non USA and then to top off the best player this year is from Camroon who probably should have watched got injured and didn't hit 65 games meaning nobody from the USA is currently a top 5 player in the NBA.

This has more to do with how terrible the AAU system is for developing actual basketball players. The development team for USA Hockey is far superior.

 

[lettuceAA]

Is hockey really more expensive? Living in Calgary my kids rep atom hockey is 1300, that's 3-4 ice times a week from end of Sept to the end of March. Maybe a couple of away tournaments a year, you can buy 2nd hand skates on FB marketplace for 40$. If you get sucked into spring/summer elite hockey it can be expensive. Hockey players might be down but I really don't think it's because kids are priced out, if they are they are most likely priced out of most competitive sport programs.

Competitive baseball is 4-5 times a week and not cheap, lacrosse is the same. Competitive soccer is an all year sport now playing indoors.

 

[Turin]

Perhaps that person takes issue with your insinuation that 1st (and 2nd and 3rd) generation Indian-Canadians will not or cannot become hockey fans?

That's a dumb thing to take issue with.

 

[WarriorofTime]

This has more to do with how terrible the AAU system is for developing actual basketball players. The development team for USA Hockey is far superior.

AAU is more of a showcase than a main developmental system.

 

[I am not exposed]

I've been living in Canada for 15 years and it does seem to be decreasing in popularity.
I did see some kids playing some ball hockey when I was walking back from the gym today, which I haven't seen in a while. So that was nice to see.

As others have said, most new immigrants to Canada have very little interest in hockey. They are more into soccer, basketball, UFC etc.

 

[thewookie1]

I don't think immigration is necessarily an issue; its more so mass immigration with little integration that is causing hokey and historically cultural norms to shift in both the US and Canada.

Perhaps that person takes issue with your insinuation that 1st (and 2nd and 3rd) generation Indian-Canadians will not or cannot become hockey fans?

It's not that they can't as much as a number of them don't see any need to.

Put 10 hockey fans in a room and have 1 non-hockey fan join the group. Likely the 1 non-fan will become a fan, at very least passively, just due to the peerage around them. The more non-hockey fans you shove into the room before any can be converted only decreases the rates and likelihood of assimilation. Any other sport that has a majority among the non-hockey fans will further become a further hinderance as it allows the communities to stay entirely separate with little overlap. Its hard to reach out to people who have zero reason to even look for it to begin with.

 

[Bond]

Canada has the third largest population of any hockey nation after the US and Russia.

The cultural importance of the sport is unmatched in any other nation, including the US.

It will continue to produce high end hockey players for decades.

The current lack of elite Canadian goalies is disappointing.

Sure. There will always be a tonne of Canadian’s in the NHL but the US will eventually produce more.

 

[SSCBLUEJET]

Of the top 32 prospects (from ESPN), 17 are Canadian, 4 are American.

 

[RebuildinVan]

I honestly dont remember the last time I saw a road hockey game. Do kids know when to shout "car" anymore?

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

Sure. There will always be a tonne of Canadian’s in the NHL but the US will eventually produce more.

I should think they would - they have 10 times the population and four times as many teams in the NHL.

I don’t know how that could possibly equate to hockey dying in Canada though.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Canadas demographics are rapidly changing, especially since 2020. If you think pointing that out is offensive feel free to leave the discussion to adults.

Perhaps that person takes issue with your insinuation that 1st (and 2nd and 3rd) generation Indian-Canadians will not or cannot become hockey fans?

That's a dumb thing to take issue with.

Would you mind explaining the basis for your position? Or is this what passes for an “adult conversation” in your mind?

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Of the top 32 prospects (from ESPN), 17 are Canadian, 4 are American.

sure, and they were born in 2005 ish.

This is a long-term issue, that we will see in the coming generation

 

[Digital Kid]

He didn't say hockey is dead in Canada. Just that hockey is dying and I absolutely believe the reasons pointed out are real.

For instance, I drove to my friend's place in a brand new community in the far north of Calgary. Overwhelmingly black, Indian and Asian. In a one block stretch I counted nine basketball hoops on the driveways. No hockey nets anywhere on driveways like when I was a kid in the 1980s.

This is not to say you can't like more than one sport (I played hockey, baseball and flag football when young) but the markers I pointed out do not point in a hockey direction.

This will affect not only playing the game, but watching it on TV or phone (unlikely) or paying for a game (extremely unlikely).

I have another 30 years to go before I am dead and gone (based on stats) so I will enjoy hockey games until the end, but who knows how many franchises will remain in Canada if there are only 4 or 5,000 paying customers and the teams might have maybe 25% Canadian players in the 2054-55 season.