Why is McDavid so little known outside of hockey?

[BB79]

Mario was never that popular on a national scale. Gretzky is the only hockey player that's ever moved a needle in the US and even his level of popularity is overstated by hockey fans.

He had some popularity, I do recall people who didn't follow hockey knowing who he was back in the 90s, but no one has ever had the level of recognition that Gretzky earned. He's the Jordan/Brady/Babe Ruth of hockey. Howe and Orr didn't even get much recognition but I'm sure in their playing days if you mentioned their name to a non-hockey fan many at least knew they were a hockey player. They're so far in the rear window at this point no one under 40 who isn't a hockey fan has heard their name.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

The personality thing is way overblown. If McDavid was a bimbo playboy like say Cristiano Ronaldo, it wouldn't make hockey popular to random people, but only to a smaller subset of airheads and gold-diggers.

Same with the laundry. He went to the same market as Gretzky. Took forever to elevate his team and its already past time for him to go to a bigger market. At this point he might as well stay and see if he can end the Canada Stanley Cup drought.

The NHL is a good product but the Canadian teams drag the league down despite popularity and national TV money being higher in Canada. An American CFL team has won the grey Cup more recently than a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup.

My Bruins are one of the marquee NHL franchises but its better for the NHL if the Canucks beat us in 2011. I don't think there has been a Canadian team close to the Sedin era Canucks since either couple times Winnipeg or Calgary have been good they've collapsed early in the playoffs.

 

[Nineteen67]

How does NHL compete with this? This is culture, it’s beautiful and it’s all across this great county.

 

[habdynasty]

It’s hockey first then the rest here in Canada. Love it.

 

[Nineteen67]

It’s hockey first then the rest here in Canada. Love it.

I was at the final game that the Ole Miss band played from Dixie with Love and it’s was the most tear jerking thing I’ve experienced in sports. As a Canadian I wished we had that love for our teams.

 

[BlueSeal]

Non-fans only pay attention to winners. What makes it worse is setting playoff records that only folks like Gretzky could match and then not win it all, puts a stigma on a player, To the general non-hockey fan public, that makes him appear to be an even bigger loser.

Also, what endorsements would the general public outside of Hockeyworld see around them that has Connor McDavid in it? He's literally non-existant. The NHL wil pull teeth to keep a team in Arizona but will not work with product sponsors and advertisers to help put the game more into view of the general public. That would be better money spent.

 

[Riseonfire]

Even worse, he plays in Edmonton. A small market deep up north in Canada away from the border. If he played for a big market he would be more marketable. But honestly, there's still a lot of people out there who have no clue who Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are. I think hockey fans overestimate how many (few) people actually follow hockey close enough in America to know who the biggest stars are. Hell, most Americans probably couldn't point to where Edmonton is on a map.

Thinking McDavid will ever be as popular as Gretzky or Mario is dumb, not sure why anyone expects that.

Yeah pretty much this.

My aunt can name Ovechkin and Crosby. Hell even Patrick Kane.

He would need to be traded to the Flyers or Boston or something.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

People don't give a f*** about hockey unless they watch it, niche sport.

McDavid would have to be one damn charismatic dude that spent hours per day on social media hyping himself up to even move the needle a little bit.

 

[BB79]

How does NHL compete with this? This is culture, it’s beautiful and it’s all across this great county.

The SJW crowd made us get rid of ice girls, so the NHL got set further back from competing with that

 

[JPT]

I was at the final game that the Ole Miss band played from Dixie with Love and it’s was the most tear jerking thing I’ve experienced in sports. As a Canadian I wished we had that love for our teams.

Oh yes. That song at the end of which students would shout "the south will rise again!" That's definitely showing love for something.

 

[Nineteen67]

Oh yes. That song at the end of which students would shout "the south will rise again!" That's definitely showing love for something.

Some did, most didn’t.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Charles Barkely markets the NHL playoffs better than the NHL

Patt McAffee and Charles Barkley have probably made more americans interested in the game than anybody else in the world lol

 

[Nineteen67]

The SJW crowd made us get rid of ice girls, so the NHL got set further back from competing with that

The female fans in the south are even prettier than the cheerleaders.

 

[JPT]

Some did, most didn’t.

Yeah that's really bad

 

[Catscountry40]

weren't we always hearing that the reason Barkov is so underrated was because he plays for a small-market Panthers team? that's a southern market

It is because old hockey media spends all day just d*** riding the same franchises. Always taking small shots at southern markets. Like the Barstool tweets of photos of the panthers seats 1 min into the 2nd period when fans are still getting back to their seats. When you could see the same thing happens in any arena.

Or the crying about taxes now when they did not say shit for years.

Or when a Kevin Bieksa crys about Nick Cousins then defends Trouba.

These bias northern analysts need to be fired into the sun. They only hurt the growth game at this point.

It still boggles my mind how a business like the NHL can keep a team in Edmonton when you need to take a dog sled to get there.

Move them to Houston.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

It is because old hockey media spends all day just d*** riding the same franchises. Always taking small shots at southern markets. Like the Barstool tweets of photos of the panthers seats 1 min into the 2nd period when fans are still getting back to their seats. When you could see the same thing happens in any arena.

Or the crying about taxes now when they did not say shit for years.

Or when a Kevin Bieksa crys about Nick Cousins then defends Trouba.

These bias northern analysts need to be fired into the sun. They only hurt the growth game at this point.

It still boggles my mind how a business like the NHL can keep a team in Edmonton when you need to take a dog sled to get there.

Move them to Houston.

yikes, this an embarrassing amount of salt lol

 

[Nineteen67]

Yeah that's really bad

A small few ruined it for the majority, but at least they still play a portion of the trilogy.

 

[ottawa]

Ah yes, Canada is so tiny (pretty large geographically though. Especially if we include Alaska. “Manifest Destiny” and all) and hardly puts a dent in the world population, therefore, the fact that Connor McDavid is very well-known in Canada outside of hockey is meaningless. The NHL is based in two countries. Connor McDavid is only unknown “outside of hockey” in one of them.

But the only thing that matters is what Americans, which has about 3% of the world’s population think, right? Statements such as “hockey is a niche sport” without any further clarification is biased and American-centric. Y’all might consider recognizing, and admitting, it for a change.

You think Americans are following hockey? This just brings us back full circle

 

[Oleksiak]

I'm no Oilers fan by a long shot, but this is all bullshit and I doubt you actually believe any of it yourself.

You think his refusal to play like a man doesn't hurt his marketability?

 

[JPT]

Even in Canada I remember seeing more kids with Grant Hill jerseys than Gretzky Kings jerseys in the 90s.

The NBA was rising in popularity a lot because it was "cool", everyone wearing Chicago Bulls gear even people who never watched any of the games and this was even happening in Canada.

The NHL has never really had "that" going for it.

Um excuse me, but a zombie was wearing a Nashville Predators jersey in the culture-shifting film Resident Evil. I think it's pretty popular, OK?

 

[Soundwave]

Same with the laundry. He went to the same market as Gretzky. Took forever to elevate his team and its already past time for him to go to a bigger market. At this point he might as well stay and see if he can end the Canada Stanley Cup drought.

The NHL is a good product but the Canadian teams drag the league down despite popularity and national TV money being higher in Canada. An American CFL team has won the grey Cup more recently than a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup.

My Bruins are one of the marquee NHL franchises but its better for the NHL if the Canucks beat us in 2011. I don't think there has been a Canadian team close to the Sedin era Canucks since either couple times Winnipeg or Calgary have been good they've collapsed early in the playoffs.

Markets don't make a big difference. Bedard is in Chicago, Crosby is in Pittsburgh, Ovy in Washington, MacK and Makar in Colorado, the average American sports fan does not care.

The NHL is not a nationwide sport in the US, it's regional at best with pockets of fans who watch only their local team, and that's the best case scenario for the NHL, the worst case is local fans don't even care about their local NHL team which happens plenty.

 

[Telos]

It is kind of an all of the above sort of result. The NHL isn't the best at marketing, the league is still behind the likes of football, basketball, and baseball, he doesn't play in a major market, and Connor is just flat out the most boring and non-assuming face of the league out of any major sport. He isn't a marketable personality - he is a marketable/magical on-ice product, but if you want general recognition and interest in him on a social level then he has to be interesting in some way off the ice.

 

[BruinsFan37]

McDavid has only slightly more personality than a cardboard cutout version of himself and he's playing in an overgrown town city in the Western Conference that not everyone has even heard of and even fewer could point to on a map.

And yet, despite all of that, the NHL could do a better job of marketing him (and the game as a whole)

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Because he plays in a city almost no one has heard of outside of Canada

And he's boring (but most hockey players are, so what's new) in a world full of superstar athlete personalities.


Dude needs to release a sex tape or something to get some recognition

 

[Toene]

McDavid is like a lot of the star players that grew up in hockey culture in Canada. Robotic, boring, just about playing hockey and that’s it. The NHL is a poorly run business no doubt, the players themselves are part of the reason why they aren’t marketed well too imo.

"So uhhhh I'm working on uhhhhh some stuff in the off-season and uhh obviously cant wait to get back on the ice uhhhh with the guys and uhhhh pretty excited with the talent we got here and uhhhh yeah can't wait for training camp to uhhh get going and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...."