thegazelle
Registered User
- Nov 11, 2019
- 242
- 434
I think there are a myriad of reasons and the foundational influences are mutl-faceted. But I will just say this.
My parents immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Culturally, hockey was not in our blood until we got here. Back then when I was growing up in Edmonton, there were public outdoor rinks that were more or less maintained by the community at large. After school, kids would get their skates (oftentimes bought at decent prices from various stores, if not used or hand me downs) and play shinny. There was not internet, no devices, no video games (Atari and Commodore and Colecovision excepted) - kids were outside much more. Of course it didn't hurt that the Oilers were becoming a team on the rise which would culminate in championships less than a decade later.
My parents never put me in ice hockey because they could not afford it. I did, however, play a lot of street hockey with neighbourhood kids and friends, and when there was a hockey game (Oilers) on TV, I'd either go to their house or on a rare occasion, they would come to mine. We all collected hockey cards - they were affordable and fun and were not the high end collector's business it is today. In other words, hockey was in our blood - we breathed hockey and when I was at school, the kids and I would talk about the games the previous night before, follow statistics, etc. A number of my friends played organized hockey. It was just our life, our culture.
When I became a parent, I wanted to give my son an experience I never had. I enrolled him in a local house league, and that was the first time I realized how inordinately expensive it was - and this was in the mid to late 2000s. In fact a friend from church was able to swing it that my son would be outfitted with his first year gear. By the second year it was up to me and I was floored by the cost - and this was house league. Now, we were a single income then and I am a single parent now but all the same, the constant upgrade of various gear from pads to skates to helmets to sticks...it was crazy...and my kid wasn't even in rep.
Fast forward all these years later. Unless you are in a really small town, chances are, community run and maintained outdoor hockey rinks are not a thing. Organized hockey has gotten out of the reach of many families - especially in this economy. If you can afford to send your kid to organized hockey, more power to you. Unfortunately not everyone is in this boat.
But other social dynamics have changed. Many kids don't play hockey now at an early age, so they are less apt to watch it. They also are less apt to watch it because now, families have a lot more choice for their entertainment. Stream this. Video chat that. Video games. etc. Much else competes in young people's lives. Add to that the decreased exposure to hockey at a young age leads few kids to play street hockey. And even fewer kids, if any, collect hockey cards.
The whole societal moving away from self-sacrifice affects some of today's parents. They don't want to get their butt out of bed on a winter morning to drive their kids to practice. They would rather sit on Facebook all day rather than take their kids to a practice or game. Last time I was at one of my kids games (pre covid), I was watching out into the crowd / stands. The vast majority of the parents were not even watching their kids play, but were on their phones. This dynamic was not present a few generations ago and parents would be excited to drive their kids so they can watch them enjoy a game that was so richly ingrained in our social fabric.
And of course, there is now the multifaceted sports exposure. Basketball costs little to play for fun and most schools have a court or at least baskets. Soccer costs nothing to play from a leisure perspective. Even organized soccer and basketball - there may be high fees, but at least that's where it ends. It's not the ever incessant upgrading of equipment, all of which has become super pricy.
Then there are the cultural mental attitudes - people viewing hockey as violent due to the contact, and there is then all the CTE stuff in contact sports, all of which have taken a hit (no pun intended). All of this millieu adds to the bottom line that hockey is not ingrained in our cultural fabric as it was once was. Which I think is why the NHL is trying to promote the game across the borders, and across the oceans since if they can show others in typical non-hockey markets what a great game this is, perhaps if they decide to come to North America, they can bring that interest with them since it's harder to develop it here than it once was. I am sure some of the scandals around sexual abuse, bullying and such don't help in terms of the optics of hockey culture in general. But none of these individually are the cause, but collectively they all contribute.
Personally if I could afford it and my kids were younger, they all would have gone through the experience. My oldest son (21) did and relishes the memories of playing organized hockey. He still plays with his buddies, renting ice at an arena at midnight when it is cheaper. I am not a fan of basketball and absolute detest soccer so I have exposed my kids to as much hockey culture as possible. But when they go to school and my son tells me no one in his class watched game 7, I realize this may be an uphill battle.
My parents immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Culturally, hockey was not in our blood until we got here. Back then when I was growing up in Edmonton, there were public outdoor rinks that were more or less maintained by the community at large. After school, kids would get their skates (oftentimes bought at decent prices from various stores, if not used or hand me downs) and play shinny. There was not internet, no devices, no video games (Atari and Commodore and Colecovision excepted) - kids were outside much more. Of course it didn't hurt that the Oilers were becoming a team on the rise which would culminate in championships less than a decade later.
My parents never put me in ice hockey because they could not afford it. I did, however, play a lot of street hockey with neighbourhood kids and friends, and when there was a hockey game (Oilers) on TV, I'd either go to their house or on a rare occasion, they would come to mine. We all collected hockey cards - they were affordable and fun and were not the high end collector's business it is today. In other words, hockey was in our blood - we breathed hockey and when I was at school, the kids and I would talk about the games the previous night before, follow statistics, etc. A number of my friends played organized hockey. It was just our life, our culture.
When I became a parent, I wanted to give my son an experience I never had. I enrolled him in a local house league, and that was the first time I realized how inordinately expensive it was - and this was in the mid to late 2000s. In fact a friend from church was able to swing it that my son would be outfitted with his first year gear. By the second year it was up to me and I was floored by the cost - and this was house league. Now, we were a single income then and I am a single parent now but all the same, the constant upgrade of various gear from pads to skates to helmets to sticks...it was crazy...and my kid wasn't even in rep.
Fast forward all these years later. Unless you are in a really small town, chances are, community run and maintained outdoor hockey rinks are not a thing. Organized hockey has gotten out of the reach of many families - especially in this economy. If you can afford to send your kid to organized hockey, more power to you. Unfortunately not everyone is in this boat.
But other social dynamics have changed. Many kids don't play hockey now at an early age, so they are less apt to watch it. They also are less apt to watch it because now, families have a lot more choice for their entertainment. Stream this. Video chat that. Video games. etc. Much else competes in young people's lives. Add to that the decreased exposure to hockey at a young age leads few kids to play street hockey. And even fewer kids, if any, collect hockey cards.
The whole societal moving away from self-sacrifice affects some of today's parents. They don't want to get their butt out of bed on a winter morning to drive their kids to practice. They would rather sit on Facebook all day rather than take their kids to a practice or game. Last time I was at one of my kids games (pre covid), I was watching out into the crowd / stands. The vast majority of the parents were not even watching their kids play, but were on their phones. This dynamic was not present a few generations ago and parents would be excited to drive their kids so they can watch them enjoy a game that was so richly ingrained in our social fabric.
And of course, there is now the multifaceted sports exposure. Basketball costs little to play for fun and most schools have a court or at least baskets. Soccer costs nothing to play from a leisure perspective. Even organized soccer and basketball - there may be high fees, but at least that's where it ends. It's not the ever incessant upgrading of equipment, all of which has become super pricy.
Then there are the cultural mental attitudes - people viewing hockey as violent due to the contact, and there is then all the CTE stuff in contact sports, all of which have taken a hit (no pun intended). All of this millieu adds to the bottom line that hockey is not ingrained in our cultural fabric as it was once was. Which I think is why the NHL is trying to promote the game across the borders, and across the oceans since if they can show others in typical non-hockey markets what a great game this is, perhaps if they decide to come to North America, they can bring that interest with them since it's harder to develop it here than it once was. I am sure some of the scandals around sexual abuse, bullying and such don't help in terms of the optics of hockey culture in general. But none of these individually are the cause, but collectively they all contribute.
Personally if I could afford it and my kids were younger, they all would have gone through the experience. My oldest son (21) did and relishes the memories of playing organized hockey. He still plays with his buddies, renting ice at an arena at midnight when it is cheaper. I am not a fan of basketball and absolute detest soccer so I have exposed my kids to as much hockey culture as possible. But when they go to school and my son tells me no one in his class watched game 7, I realize this may be an uphill battle.
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