Why is McDavid so little known outside of hockey?

[BigGoalBrad]

Because tickets are expensive and limited in quantity. The NBA could fill football stadiums if the tickets were priced so the average family could afford it.

Hockey just isn't a league fueled by player personalities, it's more of a team-oriented fanbase. In what other sport do you see team uniforms without numbers or nameplates for sale? Granted every person who buys an Edmonton Oilers sweater know who Connor McDavid is, but the logo on the front of the jersey is what most people gravitate towards, not the name on the back.

Paulina Gretzky generates more internet searches than Wayne ever will amongst the YouTube generation, so I have little hope for a hockey player who plays in Canada.

Haha that is complete BS about NBA tickets not being cheap. The upper decks sell for $10 per game in most cities. Yes being close is more important and costs more. Its a TV friendly sport so not everyone is as motivated to attend in person.

I took my GF to two Celtics playoff games Game 1 second round and Game 1 conference finals. We got in for $100 each and moved into unsold resale tickets in the lower bowl. Scalpers lost a fortune on those games bc noone was buying and half the arena was pink seats on ticketmaster 2 hours before. I attended 3 Bruins playoff games and each cost me over $200 to get in the door and I was super cheap and waited for as close as possible to puck drop.

 

[islesfan3913]

I admittedly haven’t read the entire thread so maybe my following point has already been brought up, so apologies ahead of time.

I’ve seen explanations on here ranging from McDavid not having an extroverted personality, him playing in a small market, the NHL being bad at marketing, etc. All those reasons can definitely play a role, but I think those who mentioned hockey being a niche sport are closer to being correct and I don’t think people realize just how niche it is. Between the USA and Canada, there’s roughly one million people who play organized hockey. That pales in comparison to sports like basketball, baseball, and even football where millions or tens of millions are playing. These sports all being in close proximity to each other combined with hockey being the most expensive and hardest to organize makes it obvious why it and its stars aren’t nearly as popular.

And speaking of proximity, hockey is the most popular sport in a country of 40 million people that is next to a country of 300+ million people that has three other professionally and globally popular and rich leagues, and many people in Canada follow those other three sports as well. Basically what it comes down to is that hockey is really only very popular/the number one sport in one country that has a medium sized population which borders another county that has the third largest population in the world and which has the top three largest leagues in the world by revenue. There’s simply too much competition for the NHL to truly compete and the level of difficulty it takes to play it in an organized setting makes it hard for people to get into it which just reinforces its niche status.

 

[Johnny Rifle]

Haha that is complete BS about NBA tickets not being cheap. The upper decks sell for $10 per game in most cities. Yes being close is more important and costs more. Its a TV friendly sport so not everyone is as motivated to attend in person.

I took my GF to two Celtics playoff games Game 1 second round and Game 1 conference finals. We got in for $100 each and moved into unsold resale tickets in the lower bowl. Scalpers lost a fortune on those games bc noone was buying and half the arena was pink seats on ticketmaster 2 hours before. I attended 3 Bruins playoff games and each cost me over $200 to get in the door and I was super cheap and waited for as close as possible to puck drop.

Not to generalize too much, but I'd assume Bruins fans are generally more affluent than Celtics fans. You might get 20,000 Bruins fans to buy #200 tickets to see a playoff game, but you could find 2 million Celtics fans willing to pay $20 to see a Celtics playoff game.

That doesn't even factor in the fact that basketball Is like football and perfectly packaged for television, while hockey will always be better live.

The NHL gets enough iehards in every city it goes to to sell out most games. (Arizona is just an atrocity), but the casual fans just don't exist right now. If the league could market to the casual fan better, maybe Connor McDavid would be a household name.

 

[Leafidelity]

Gary Bettman, Edmonton, and his personality, in no order.

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Hockey is like a well preserved secret society. As soon as the dumb masses find out how awesome it is, they’ll ruin it.

 

[Realm]

Honest answer that nobody will like....He plays hockey.

 

[PaulD]

He was still the most popular player by far. McDavid's jersey was outsold by a retired Lundqvist just a few years ago.

Look at the list of top-selling jerseys for the 2022-23 season.

How the hell do you get outsold by David Pastrnak or Jack Hughes when you're a player of McDavid's caliber?

Oilers jerseys are ugly. Look like little kids Pajamas

Fans who want the NHL to "market their players better "

Why is thay ?

 

[Goose]

Niche sport, smaller market, no championships, limited charisma, no major brand ambassadorships, not really surprising at all to me, nor a problem really.

 

[Bruce Granville]

For starters, hockey is little known outside of hockey…

 

[MacMacandBarbie]

That's mostly it. It isn't Edmonton, everyone has the internet now and gets exposed to all kinds of athletes. It isn't his very bland personality, plenty of stars in sports (Brady, Messi, Ronaldo, James) are as bland as can be, or worse in some cases. It's that the NHL has done such a poor job of promoting the sport for decades.

You always get people who think they are smarter than the masses and who claim that Bettman and company have actually done a good job because franchise values have gone up, as if that isn't the case in every single established sport. The NHL has lost ground to other leagues and hockey has lost ground to other sports, in USA and even in Canada. Hockey has less cultural currency now so its biggest star gets less too.

Ding ding ding. People under 30 don’t watch hockey like they used to.

 

[Soundwave]

Then why is NHL attendance neck and neck with NBA?

There hasn't been a great Canadian team since the Sedin era Nucks the US franchises carry the sport? Why do 20,000 people who can't skate go to games in Tampa, Carolina, Dallas etc.

League is not perfect but its more than punching above its weight. G League basketball or lacrosse draw a couple hundred people don't act like its a product like that.

McDavid is playing in the ESPN era with better exposure and has given the league almost nothing Crosby contributed more when hockey was banished to Vs. At this point its maybe even too late for him to leave and have his Wayne to LAK moment stay in Canada and try and win a Cup I guess. Maybe swap jerseys with Marner or Matthews if the Leafs fans get sick of them.

Baseball's superstars aren't American and can't even be bothered to learn English (that is wrong of course they can all speak it well they just refuse to do English interviews.) Maybe modern stars suck. Well just those sports not fair to call out NBA and NFL stars most are interesting dudes for the most part and are accessible do social media etc. Even someone dislikable like Aaron Rodgers does more from an entertainment perspective than McDavid.

Ticket prices vary wildly in different markets for one, so I don't use that as a barometer in many markets NHL tickets are a fraction of the cost of an NBA ticket.


The NHL is a gate driven league, but that's the point. It has no national standing in the US and has never been able to break that ceiling. There are hockey fans in the US sure, but generally they only will watch their own team and don't follow the league per se in the way NBA, NFL, MLB fans do.

That's why there's little to no traction for a hockey superstar in the US who has marketing deals like an NBA or NFL or MLB star would. Gatorade won't put Crosby in US nationwide commercials, their marketing execs look at that and say "lose the hockey guy, no one knows who he is". Those commercials with him only run in Canada.

It would be no different for McDavid. He's not magically going to do something for the sport beyond where it is now in the US. People just need to get over that and let that dream die. There isn't going to be a hockey version of Michael Jordan, the American audience doesn't care enough about hockey for that to happen. They may cheer for a local team sure, but that's about as good as it gets in the US.

 

[HolyGhost]

so is Crosby. So you can not blame him playing for a Canadian team. None are Gretz

 

[Rorschach]

People saying Gretzky didn’t become famous until in LA are wrong. In fact Gretzky was the one player everyone knew who didn’t know hockey. The Forum was pre-sold out when the trade news came down including tons of LA celebrities…how would they know to buy tickets if Gretzky wasn’t already famous?

A huge part of Gretzky’s fame was due to being on covers of sports magazines especially the weekly ones like Sports Illustrated. So many people would buy or follow that magazine and read it cover to cover, and got exposed to all sports including hockey.

 

[alko]

Ist very simple: He should create some buzz:
- with his wife
- Or others wife
- Or he should dance in TV
- Trying to survive on some island. Naked!!!
- Or make love on Love Island

such things. As my lovely wife says: Hockey star is a star, when i know his name.

 

[Catscountry40]

yikes, this an embarrassing amount of salt lol

Truth hurts

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Truth hurts

there is a 0% chance the Oilers ever move...they're one of the most profitable franchises in the NHL

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Hockey is like a well preserved secret society. As soon as the dumb masses find out how awesome it is, they’ll ruin it.

I don't want it to become popular , what's in it for me if the sport explodes? Absolutely nothing

 

[gretzkyoilers]

Ok we are on page 17 and I have not read all these threads. Wayne was EVERYWHERE in the 80's and being a kid in the Toronto area and he seemed to be in every commercial and just a household name. Heck non sports fans in Canada knew who Wayne was, and Wayne also had 10 times the personality of McDavid. He was also on the huge daytime soap opera the Young and the Restless in 1981, well before he was traded and only 2-3 years into his NHL career:

 

[Profet]

Ok we are on page 17 and I have not read all these threads. Wayne was EVERYWHERE in the 80's and being a kid in the Toronto area and he seemed to be in every commercial and just a household name. Heck non sports fans in Canada knew who Wayne was, and Wayne also had 10 times the personality of McDavid. He was also on the huge daytime soap opera the Young and the Restless in 1981, well before he was traded and only 2-3 years into his NHL career:

Meanwhile in the US:

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

The NHL is run by basketball people, the problem is that hockey is the opposite of basketball. That's why marketing for the NHL consists of players talking about hair gel and what they carry in their purses.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The NHL is run by basketball people, the problem is that hockey is the opposite of basketball. That's why marketing for the NHL consists of players talking about hair gel and what they carry in their purses.

Only your boy AM34 and Mitchy does that , don't paint everybody like this

 

[IdleTraveller]

I mean, if people don't care about hockey, then why the hell should they care about a hockey star? I haven't read all these pages but if you want a sports star to be known outside of their sport, then they have to offer something that appeals to those masses outside of how good they are at their sport.

That could be a fun, out-there personality a la Ovie/PK Subban/Chucky, outspoken opinions or championing of social/political causes, or a non-hockey talent like singing/being in a band [oh Hank...]. Fun origin story or juicy relationships also work - doesn't have to be romatic or familial, it could even be a hot rivalry a la Crosby vs Ovie. And if all else fails, then just looking good in and out of clothes - particularly if you're willing to show your HUGE package in a broody underwear ad [ahem, Beckham].

As it relates to McDavid, he is obviously pulling all the possible stops to appear as boring and as uninteresting as he can. I spent the finals being absolutely terrified of him whenever he was on the ice, but got so bored by his interviews that I couldn't take a word in - and that shit is obviously intentional. All power to him: he clearly has zero interest in being any kind of media star.

Although I'm now thinking of McDavid in a Calvin Klein underwear ad and I'm not sure whether I want to laugh or bleach my brain! But maybe this is what is necessary to "grow the sport". Come on Conner - take one for the team ...

 

[joelef]

People saying Gretzky didn’t become famous until in LA are wrong. In fact Gretzky was the one player everyone knew who didn’t know hockey. The Forum was pre-sold out when the trade news came down including tons of LA celebrities…how would they know to buy tickets if Gretzky wasn’t already famous?

A huge part of Gretzky’s fame was due to being on covers of sports magazines especially the weekly ones like Sports Illustrated. So many people would buy or follow that magazine and read it cover to cover, and got exposed to all sports including hockey.

Gretzky also knows the power of self promotion unlike most nhl players

 

[42]

He's a hockey player and outside of hockey he is not interesting.

 

[WayTooCold]

Here in Russia people rarely even know Barkov. Eventho he just captained his team as Russian to Stanley Cup victory!