Sports Popularity Among U.S. Sports Fans - Hockey 6th

[Acesolid]

AUTO RACING?!?

What the hell is in the water down there?

Auto racing is great!

Seriously, if you would go back to the late 90's and the great Canadian driver Jacques Villeneuve VS Micheal Schumacher F1 rivalry (before Ferrari started dominating everyone), I'm sure you could find a lot of Canadians who would put Auto Racing as their favorite sport. The races were tense and amazingly competitive.

I've also been for a week-end in Montreal to the NAPA 200 (the only major Nascar race outside the US) and it was a great show. Nascar is not just one race of people doing laps, it's 5 different races during the week-end of many different types of driving series, risky passing, awesomely destructive accidents, the cool high-tech cars..... it's really an experience. It's much more then what you might see on TV.


And anyways, kinda like everyone who has played street hockey with friends dreamed to be Patrick Roy, Bobby Or or Wayne Gretzky, who has never daydreamed when driving on the highway to put the pedal to the metal and do crazy stunts at mad speeds?

 

[DaveG]

Hockey may be 6th in the USA as a whole at 5%, but where does that place it in the sunbelt -- 10th at less than 2%? I'd like to see a regional breakdown.

GHOST

That may or may not be the case, but the big thing about this poll is that it doesn't bother with the question what peoples second favorite sport is. As MayDay pointed out, there are a lot of football fans that are also huge hockey fans. But what's going to be taken into account with the poll is only that football is their favorite sport. Mayor Bee's theory that football fans are easier to get into hockey holds true from my observations as well since so much is applicable from football to hockey in terms of the physical intensity of the sport. The trick for the new markets is going to be getting these football fans interested in coming to games.

 

[Brodie]

Hockey isn't my favorite sport, football is. This poll wouldn't count me as a hockey fan.

 

[MayDay]

Hockey isn't my favorite sport, football is.

I suspect this is true of most American hockey fans.

Football is an 800 lb gorilla in the US. It's hard to find people who aren't football fans to some degree or other.

But just because they like football doesn't mean they can't be great hockey fans as well.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Hockey isn't my favorite sport, football is.

Which one?

Gotta ask due to the avatar.

 

[Brodie]

American football. It basically consumes most of my life between August and January. I find time for hockey and soccer in that period, too, but they really can't compete with the attention I lavish on football. After January, hockey gets most of my attention with soccer coming in at #2. Summer is obviously baseball.

I suspect I'm typical (replace soccer and or hockey with basketball as needed) of the American sports fan.

 

[TaketheCannoli]

American football. It basically consumes most of my life between August and January. I find time for hockey and soccer in that period, too, but they really can't compete with the attention I lavish on football. After January, hockey gets most of my attention with soccer coming in at #2. Summer is obviously baseball.

I suspect I'm typical (replace soccer and or hockey with basketball as needed) of the American sports fan.

Interesting point. Honestly, most people I meet away from the rink are not sports fans at all, but the ones who are usually like football best. What I've also found is that in the sports fans I meet, they tend to like most sports.

 

[Fidel Astro]

I'm sure you could find a lot of Canadians who would put Auto Racing as their favorite sport.

I don't think anyone is denying we have rednecks up here too.

Nascar is not just one race of people doing laps, it's 5 different races during the week-end of many different types of driving series, risky passing, awesomely destructive accidents, the cool high-tech cars..... it's really an experience. It's much more then what you might see on TV.

Sorry, I can't get into it. In fact, I can't think of anything less interesting than "cool high-tech cars." As far as I'm concerned, a car is something that gets you from point A to point B. If it drives and has working brakes, it's OK by me. Other than that, I have absolutely zero interest in any technical specs or modifications or whatever else those car *******s salivate over. Pretty much the most boring thing on the planet.

And anyways, kinda like everyone who has played street hockey with friends dreamed to be Patrick Roy, Bobby Or or Wayne Gretzky, who has never daydreamed when driving on the highway to put the pedal to the metal and do crazy stunts at mad speeds?

Nope. Never.

 

[OthmarAmmann]

Sample size and confidence intervals were not provided. This poll doesn't really say anything with a reasonable amount of confidence other than perhaps that football has become more popular and baseball has become less popular.

 

[MayDay]

I don't think anyone is denying we have rednecks up here too.

Well, auto racing is more than just southern US rednecks watching NASCAR.

For instance, Formula One racing is a pretty big deal worldwide.

 

[Fidel Astro]

Well, auto racing is more than just southern US rednecks watching NASCAR.

For instance, Formula One racing is a pretty big deal worldwide.

Yes, I know. Each country has its own version of rednecks.

 

[Brodie]

F1 racing is most assuredly not a sport for rednecks... it's typically the wealthiest people who attend Grand Prix's

 

[WWAD]

Yes, I know. Each country has its own version of rednecks.