Denmark doesn't like hockey?

[Albatros]

There were pirates at a time when there were still a civilized culture. When the Danes were Vikings, their whole country were like that. Crazy psychos. lol

Uh, most Danes were simple peasants at the time.

 

[Fatass]

Huh? These countries have no winter sports culture?

View attachment 1043080

Isn’t soccer a winter sport in Europe? It’s a summer sport here.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Every Dane I've ever met has only talked about football (soccer) Never met one that likes hockey.

(not intended as a slight against them)

 

[Summer Rose]

Isn’t soccer a winter sport in Europe? It’s a summer sport here.

Depends on how you define a "winter sport." To me there are two possible definitions:

1) A sport that requires snow or ice, typically as the playing surface (or in the case of things like bobsledding, an ice track), etc.
2) A sport traditionally played during the winter

Soccer fits definition 2 but not definition 1. Some sports fit both, and others fit neither.

 

[Fatass]

Every Dane I've ever met has only talked about football (soccer) Never met one that likes hockey.

(not intended as a slight against them)

Likely most Danes would talk Handball it seems from reading here. And then soccer. But as the thread title implies, this didn’t mean they “hate” hockey.

 

[Kimota]

Uh, most Danes were simple peasants at the time.

I know bro, I have seen Ragnar with my own eyes. He still miss his time as a simple farmer.

 

[Fatass]

I know bro, I have seen Ragnar with my own eyes. He still miss his time as a simple farmer.

One of my favourite movies.

 

[Kimota]

One of my favourite movies.
View attachment 1043790

Great now I'm gonna have nightmares!

 

[Fatass]

Great now I'm gonna have nightmares!

Be thankful you used the name Ragnar and not Inar “One Eye”!

 

[Kimota]

Be thankful you used the name Ragnar and not Inar “One Eye”!

I've been looking for a poster of this for ages but cannot find one.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Likely most Danes would talk Handball it seems from reading here. And then soccer. But as the thread title implies, this didn’t mean they “hate” hockey.

Absolutely. And yeah I've met a few that like handball too. Underrated sport for sure!

 

[Sanderson]

One of the main things one has to keep in mind, is that you need the right circumstances for a sport to succeed.

Hockey generall thrives when places have cold winters, either because of the latitude they are situated in, or because significant parts of the country happen to be at a high enough altitude. Basically, you need frozen lakes as a baseline. That's how you get a significant number of people into skating. It needs to be a natural element in one's life. If you don't have that, you have to rely on arenas, and that will only take you so far.

Denmark is about as flat as a pancake. Its main landmass is very narrow, and it consists of quite a few islands. In other words: there is a significant maritime influence on the local climate, keeping the country way too warm for frozen lakes.

That's how Germany, France and Italy are were they are even though they have a much larger population than comparable or better hockey nations. Most of these nations - especially most of their population centers - have significant maritime influence on the weather, which leads to relatively mild winters, which in turn drastically limits the available ice to skate on for most of the population. In this day and age you barely ever have frozen lakes at all. That's why, in Germany for example, most of the hockey hotbeds used to be small villages near the borders to Switzerland, Austria or Czechia, because that's where you have enough elevation to find frozen lakes in winter. These regions also happen to be the main source of talent for most of the winter sports, while not offering that big a population.

In contrast to that you have nations like Switzerland (high elevation throughout) or Czechia (plenty of mountenous regions along its border), with no contact to the sea, leading to colder winters. This allows for a larger share of the population to participate in winter sports.

Then there is the difference between "like to watch" and "interested in playing". Hockey has really good attendance figures in many nations, but that doesn't mean you will have lots of people who can skate well enough or want to play hockey themselves. And what good is it to have 10,000 people go and watch hockey games, if you have just two or three rinks city-wide for people to skate on, much less actually play hockey? This gets you fans, but not players.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

The derivation and evolution of the terms civil, civilised and civilisation is long and complex, from Latin roots up through the Enlightenment. When you realize the positions of many Enlightenment thinkers regarding slavery and colonialism, you come to see that those f***ers were often full of shit. Said a different way, to the people who started using “civilized” the way we think of it now, many did think those things you reference fit the bill.

They were children of there time, its easy to see in hindsight, we would propbably think the same, and vice versa, people would look as us as barbarians when it comes to drugs
alkohol sports sexhabits dresscode today, 90 years ago. i dont see our western civilasation
as especially civilised

 

[Greatzsky 99]

Every Dane I've ever met has only talked about football (soccer) Never met one that likes hockey.

(not intended as a slight against them)

have you met many? i live in sweden, at the opposite side of denmark, and when
you said meeting danes, i thought about it, and realized how few ive actually met, even more people from iceland

 

[ijuka]

Likely most Danes would talk Handball it seems from reading here. And then soccer. But as the thread title implies, this didn’t mean they “hate” hockey.

Football is easily more popular than handball.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

One of the main things one has to keep in mind, is that you need the right circumstances for a sport to succeed.

Hockey generall thrives when places have cold winters, either because of the latitude they are situated in, or because significant parts of the country happen to be at a high enough altitude. Basically, you need frozen lakes as a baseline. That's how you get a significant number of people into skating. It needs to be a natural element in one's life. If you don't have that, you have to rely on arenas, and that will only take you so far.

Denmark is about as flat as a pancake. Its main landmass is very narrow, and it consists of quite a few islands. In other words: there is a significant maritime influence on the local climate, keeping the country way too warm for frozen lakes.

That's how Germany, France and Italy are were they are even though they have a much larger population than comparable or better hockey nations. Most of these nations - especially most of their population centers - have significant maritime influence on the weather, which leads to relatively mild winters, which in turn drastically limits the available ice to skate on for most of the population. In this day and age you barely ever have frozen lakes at all. That's why, in Germany for example, most of the hockey hotbeds used to be small villages near the borders to Switzerland, Austria or Czechia, because that's where you have enough elevation to find frozen lakes in winter. These regions also happen to be the main source of talent for most of the winter sports, while not offering that big a population.

In contrast to that you have nations like Switzerland (high elevation throughout) or Czechia (plenty of mountenous regions along its border), with no contact to the sea, leading to colder winters. This allows for a larger share of the population to participate in winter sports.

Then there is the difference between "like to watch" and "interested in playing". Hockey has really good attendance figures in many nations, but that doesn't mean you will have lots of people who can skate well enough or want to play hockey themselves. And what good is it to have 10,000 people go and watch hockey games, if you have just two or three rinks city-wide for people to skate on, much less actually play hockey? This gets you fans, but not players.

Grade A

 

[WarriorofTime]

I think Europeans oversell Handball's popularity. From the way they talk, you'd think it's a more popular global sport than Basketball....

The highest paid handball player in the world makes 1.8 million Euros, and only 10 guys are above 1 million Euros. Their salaries are probably on par with KHL salaries, and not even close to even depth NHL players.

I think some Europeans like to downplay the global relevance of sports that are most popular in America. If you look at league revenues, the NFL, NBA and MLB are three most popular sporting leagues in the world and the NHL is fifth. Soccer (Association Football) is definitely most popular sport but so diffused in terms of people caring mostly about their domestic leagues rather than one centralized globally dominant league (although EPL is up there)

 

[Fatass]

Football is easily more popular than handball.

Soccer is tops in Europe I’m assuming. Doesn’t mean hockey is hated, as suggested in the thread title.

 

[Summer Rose]

Soccer is tops in Europe I’m assuming. Doesn’t mean hockey is hated, as suggested in the thread title.

I believe it's something like soccer is the most popular sport in every country in Europe, with a notable exception being Finland, where it's hockey instead.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Link it

Can't find agreement itself - ”Det största avtalet i svensk idrottshistoria”

 

[JianYang]

I believe it's something like soccer is the most popular sport in every country in Europe, with a notable exception being Finland, where it's hockey instead.

Latvia may be another place where hockey is number 1?

 

[WarriorofTime]

I believe it's something like soccer is the most popular sport in every country in Europe, with a notable exception being Finland, where it's hockey instead.

Ireland - Gaelic Football
Finland - Ice Hockey
Latvia - Ice Hockey
Lithuania - Basketball

Other than though, yes, it's all Soccer (Association Football).

 

[Summer Rose]

Ireland - Gaelic Football
Finland - Ice Hockey
Latvia - Ice Hockey
Lithuania - Basketball

Other than though, yes, it's all Soccer (Association Football).

I actually saw that exact same map a few days ago on another forum. Figures well enough that I completely forgot all the details about it.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Why would it be balanced if it was basically the NHL's goodwill? They could have gotten players for free. Yes, it's Hobson's choice, but still a choice.
The KHL didn't want to give away players for "peanuts" and now lets them go for nothing, happily covering those transfers in the media (Demidov). Although knowing the general context of your posts, I will assume that you will say that the KHL made an excellent decision and is in better conditions than the rest.

The upside is the KHL/VHL retains a lot more of its players and can build up a healthy domestic pipeline. The fringe guys will typically stay domestic, they may give it a short go in North America to see if they can get a spot in the NHL and big money contract, although many return home. And some guys that were lesser status as prospect may never go over unless they can get some assurances of an NHL opportunity after they have a break through in their early 20s. Yes, of course though, the very highest end of players will go over to North America regardless, only potentially returning at the very end of their career.

Obviously Sweden is more content for a more fluid arrangement which ultimately results in Sweden functioning more as mostly as an NHL Minor League in exchange for $ payment. I think longterm, as long as KHL/Russian system remains financially viable, it is probably good and healthy. At end of day, local fans in Russia and Sweden aren't staying up to 3 am to watch NHL Playoff games. The hockey that fans watch is going to be local based, so having a good local league is good fo system overall. Russia has more junior players than Sweden, but historically pro opportunities were more lacking. A healthy KHL/VHL system has potential to change that. Russian system will never "challenge" NHL directly (i.e., highest end Russians like Demidov are still almost assuredly going to play in NHL) but a strong domestic pipeline resulting in quality, entertaining local hockey and good opportunity for players benefits everyone at end of the day.

 

[Cas]

Every Dane I've ever met has only talked about football (soccer) Never met one that likes hockey.

(not intended as a slight against them)

I was just working with some Danes who were quite excited over their upcoming game against Canada (and this was totally unprompted by anyone else, including the win).