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Why is international hockey not popular?

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Justshootmore

Justshootmore

Registered User
Mar 13, 2018
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Every year around that time I wonder why international hockey is not more popular. I tend to compare it to soccer since it's the second team sport that I follow. Something that I cannot understand that soccer players are (usually) willing to participate in friendlies in the middle of the season which mean absolutely nothing, while in hockey players are not willing to represent their countries in a tournament that actually means something. I am not talking about players still in PO or injured players, but some seem to prefer spending time on their sofa to representing their country and potentially winning a medal. While this is most noticable in North America, also some countries in Europe struggle to get their best players to play.

I am also surprised that also fans in North America do not seem to care too much about international hockey. I can partly understand the argument that the IIHF tournament does not have the best players in it, but that doesn't mean that the games are bad. And Russia vs. Sweden for example has probably better players and definitely more "stars" than, let's say, a Canes vs. Islanders PO game. Yet, more people would watch the NHL game compared to a World Championship final Russia vs Sweden.

So what would need to change to make international hockey (in general + the IIHF tournament) more attractive to players and fans?
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StepDownKennyH said:
It is popular. It’s just Canadians and Americans who doesn’t care about cuz it’s not “best on best” tournament.
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I feel like it’s gaining little more popularity even there, obviously not comparable to Europe though.
The reason why this is not best on best is money. NHL don’t want to stop even for olympics which are once in 4 years, naturally they would lose lots of money from breaks every year. I don’t think moving to September would help either. Clubs would not allow players to go because they would be shaping up players in final phase of training preparations, players would not go because they will be afraid of hurting themselves just before the start of the season. Maybe it would help to organise it every 2 years instead.

There is no final solution like in football, where players are allowed because of agreement of all organisations. This won’t never replicate in hockey. We should be happy the way it is. There could also be no international hockey at all.
 
Outside of this board and Twitter, nobody cares about "best on best." Very few people in North America seem to care about the World Championship because it's always played in Europe, so the games are during the daytime when most people are working. Legal and logistical concerns make it impossible to host the tournament in either the US or Canada. Also, the NHL playoffs are going on. At least in Boston, a lot of people believe that the only hockey worth watching is the Bruins.

Maybe someone can correct me, but I'd heard that back in 2008, when Canada hosted Worlds, that most of the local populations of Quebec City and Halifax were more concerned with the NHL playoffs than the event going on in their cities.
 
StepDownKennyH said:
It is popular. It’s just Canadians and Americans who doesn’t care about cuz it’s not “best on best” tournament.
Click to expand...

While I agree that it is more popular in Europe, even hockey nations like Sweden is missing some of their best players because they declined invitations (Zibanajad,Backstrom, etc.)

And two of the best nations not really caring about it is a problem in my opinion.
 
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There are a few reasons. One, hockey's roots are in North America as opposed to Europe. Sports that started in Europe tend to be much more focused on international competition, while those that started in North America aren't. Even in hockey's case, Canadians were playing hockey for decades prior to the creation of the IIHF world championships and seemingly there was no push to make any international hockey. Likely part of this is that Canada only has one country near it, while in Europe there are many countries in a relatively small area. A second issue is the way the IIHF organized the tournament. The IIHF stupidly made it an amateur tournament, while the best Canadians and Americans were professionals. Why would people take a tournament calling itself a world championship seriously when it bans the best players from competing? Worse for the tournament's credibility, the Canadian amateurs are quite competitive for a long time, making the quality of the tournament look very poor. Unlike the NHL, the tournament takes place an ocean away so the opportunity to experience the tournament up close is not really there. For a long time the tournament also took place during the NHL season, which people care more about as they have grown up with it and it contains the best players until at least the late 1960s. Most people inevitably care more about the NHL, so in a direct competition for attention the IIHF world championship loses. Eventually you do have NHLers going, but the teams are far from Canada's best and most people dislike the way the games are reffed. By this point it's too late and there is no way to really appease the European fans and the Canadian fans. To the IIHF's credit, it has done a lot to actually try to be more open to working with the NHL but realistically it's too late to make the tournament a huge deal in Canada.

All that said, you can't say that international hockey is unpopular in Canada. No country supports the WJC more than Canada does and best on best hockey gets a lot of support. I'm confident that women's international hockey gets more attention in Canada than it does anywhere else. It's basically one tournament that doesn't, and realistically it's too late to change that significantly. USA is a different matter and doesn't really get up for international hockey that much outside of the Olympics.
 
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International hockey is popular. Look at 2010 in vancouver. People went nuts on the streets.

It seems that international hockey is on the rise in USA also. It has always been popular in europe.

I dont get this thread.
 
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Because the NHL season is excessively long (not complaining) and people need a break from hockey for those 3 months. Plus there are too many International tournaments. WJC 18, WJC 20 (this one is amazing though) WC, Olympics, that terrible thing the NHL tried in September. NHL players need breaks too, the quality of these tournaments is normally lacking. (well not the Olympics when NHLers went)
 
TheAustrian said:
While I agree that it is more popular in Europe, even hockey nations like Sweden is missing some of their best players because they declined invitations (Zibanajad,Backstrom, etc.)

And two of the best nations not really caring about it is a problem in my opinion.
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On the other hand we don’t care about marketing Mickey Mouse tournament, regardless of the result I can quite enjoy it though, but won’t stay awake because of it. North Americans have same approach to World Championships.
 
The Crypto Guy said:
Because the NHL season is excessively long (not complaining) and people need a break from hockey for those 3 months. Plus there are too many International tournaments. WJC 18, WJC 20 (this one is amazing though) WC, Olympics, that terrible thing the NHL tried in September. NHL players need breaks too, the quality of these tournaments is normally lacking. (well not the Olympics when NHLers went)
Click to expand...
Too many? For seniors there is only WC. Olympics are once per 4 years and it may be without NHL players for 20 years or so...
 
I think there's a perception by North Americans that the games aren't worth watching because it's not "the best"--whatever that means--since it's at the same time of year as the NHL playoffs. Also as mentioned, the games tend to be on in the middle of the day. I will say that it's nice how easy it can be to watch these days, if you've got the time. Used to be you needed a crazy cable package or satellite dish or whatever; now you just need someone on the other end to have the forethought to broadcast it live on YouTube. (Right now there's a "IIHF Worlds 2019" YouTube channel that broadcasts the games live, and I'm pretty sure you can go back and watch whole games later, as well.)
 
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The Stanley Cup playoffs are getting the biggest attention I suppose.

I'd like to ask how much the u20 and u18 World Champs are getting popularity in North-America? How do they compare to the popularity of men's WHCs?
 
Star Ocean said:
International hockey is popular. Look at 2010 in vancouver. People went nuts on the streets.

It seems that international hockey is on the rise in USA also. It has always been popular in europe.

I dont get this thread.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not popular with Crosby, Stamkos, etc. (to just list two of many) this year.

If Canadians wouldn't care about the Olympics in their own country international hockey would not be unpopular, it would be dead.

The Crypto Guy said:
Because the NHL season is excessively long (not complaining) and people need a break from hockey for those 3 months. Plus there are too many International tournaments. WJC 18, WJC 20 (this one is amazing though) WC, Olympics, that terrible thing the NHL tried in September. NHL players need breaks too, the quality of these tournaments is normally lacking. (well not the Olympics when NHLers went)
Click to expand...

I mean I kinda get that, but players who play playoffs don't complain about it which underlines my point that the World Championship isn't that important to them. Especially because players who don't make the playoffs have essentially 5 months off.
 
TheAustrian said:
Especially because players who don't make the playoffs have essentially 5 months off.
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Yeah, but they also have to play without almost any break 7 months prior to this tourney, many are injured, many just want to take rest and spend time with family. And some just don’t see any prestige in tourney.
 
Not in the Czech Republic. 16 days during WCH almost all people live only for our team. Hockey ads, competitions for fans, highlights from hockey history ... it's everywhere. I wish you could have seen it what's happening here at least once :nod:
 
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ElHefe said:
I'd like to ask how much the u20 and u18 World Champs are getting popularity in North-America?
Click to expand...

U20 seems to be part of the Canadian national identity. It's big in parts of the States like New England, Minnesota, and Michigan, but generally ignored. No idea about U18 in Canada, but it's barely a blip on the radar in the States.
 
TheAustrian said:
Every year around that time I wonder why international hockey is not more popular. I tend to compare it to soccer since it's the second team sport that I follow. Something that I cannot understand that soccer players are (usually) willing to participate in friendlies in the middle of the season which mean absolutely nothing, while in hockey players are not willing to represent their countries in a tournament that actually means something. I am not talking about players still in PO or injured players, but some seem to prefer spending time on their sofa to representing their country and potentially winning a medal. While this is most noticable in North America, also some countries in Europe struggle to get their best players to play.

I am also surprised that also fans in North America do not seem to care too much about international hockey. I can partly understand the argument that the IIHF tournament does not have the best players in it, but that doesn't mean that the games are bad. And Russia vs. Sweden for example has probably better players and definitely more "stars" than, let's say, a Canes vs. Islanders PO game. Yet, more people would watch the NHL game compared to a World Championship final Russia vs Sweden.

So what would need to change to make international hockey (in general + the IIHF tournament) more attractive to players and fans?
Click to expand...
What we need is to put an end to the NHL sabotage.
 
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