Thanks to the Kings, Hockey is Hot in LA

[TonySCV]

A long article and worth reading every word.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...ockey-is-hot-in-la/article19058630/?page=all/


“I gotta show you something.”

Luc Robitaille, who’d had a Hall Of Fame career mostly playing for the Kings and was now trying to solidify the team’s business foundation, then pulled out his cellphone, scrolled down and produced a picture of his Santa Monica neighbourhood that he took before Game 4 of the Chicago Blackhawks’ series.

There, in the middle of the street, were a handful of kids, playing hockey.

“That was my big moment,” said Robitaille. “I’m driving with my son and the kids were playing in the street like how we used to do it back home. One kid had on a (Anze) Kopitar jersey, one had a (Jonathan) Quick jersey, and they were playing on roller skates. I thought, ‘that’s just like Canada’ – except you could see the ocean at the end of street. I told my son, ‘stop the car. I got to take a picture of this.’

“I’m thinking, ‘oh my gawd, after all these years, we’ve made it.’”

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"The research firm Nielsen recently did a survey in which they compared the number of adults “interested” or “very interested” in professional sports leagues in the L.A. area, from 2010 to 2014. Among respondents who described themselves as “interested” in professional sport, the NHL was up 22 per cent, the NFL up 4 per cent, while the NBA was down 8 per cent and Major League baseball was down 5 per cent. Among those who described themselves as “very interested,” the numbers were even better. Interest in the NHL was up 48 per cent, the NFL 16 per cent, while the NBA was down 2 per and Major League baseball down 1 per cent."

Click to read more...

 

[Scottkmlps]

In the words of Sutter, 'Just awesome'.

Great read.