Why is McDavid so little known outside of hockey?

[LeonDraisaitl]

He has the personality of a wet dish rag but in saying that he makes up for it on the ice

 

[Babe Ruth]

The NHL is run by morons who don't know how to market. Outside marketing..

I think outside marketing falls more on the ad agencies, athlete' business managers, and TV networks.. who want NFL & NBA endorsersers.

I think the relative absence of hockey player endorsements is a blend of both market research and ideology. Ad agencies recognize that NFL & NBA players have bigger built-in audiences and  believe they have broader crossover appeal. But I don't actually know/accept that this increases sales.. I always wondered if the idiotic Chris Paul ad campaign demonstrably increased insurance policy sales. I'm not sure Paul's assist stats made a difference to people insuring their homes..

I suspect less famous athletes, with more dedicated, specific fans could be more active, relevant consumers, but I'm not sure.

 

[Soundwave]

Sadly unless he is in a big market, american team he won't get recognition. Even though Hockey is a Canadian dominated sport, they seem to only get real traction in the US, and even then I think Crosby or Ovi could likely go under the radar in any city that isn't a major hockey town, but if they step foot in Canada they are impossible to miss.

You think Austin Matthews is going to get noticed in Texas? or 40 of the 50 US states? Probably not. lol

No hockey player will get noticed in Texas, doesn't matter what market they play for. Maybe if it's the Dallas Stars, but even then it's iffy.

 

[FMichael]

You must not watch McDavid than, the guy has already surpassed Crosby in the whining category. A gust of wind goes by him and he’s falling over or looking towards the refs

You won the Cup…No need to be salty.

 

[rfournier103]

No hockey player will get noticed in Texas, doesn't matter what market they play for. Maybe if it's the Dallas Stars, but even then it's iffy.

About 15 years ago I was working in South Texas and when I was wearing a Bruins t-shirt one day, a guy came up to me and asked me if Bobby Orr was as great as he had heard.

Orr’s heyday predated the internet and widespread cable and satellite TV. Even though Orr played way back in the dark ages, that Texan I met knew who Orr was. I doubt he could have named anyone on the Bruins then-current roster.

 

[Soundwave]

About 15 years ago I was working in South Texas and when I was wearing a Bruins t-shirt one day, a guy came up to me and asked me if Bobby Orr was as great as he had heard.

Orr’s heyday predated the internet and widespread cable and satellite TV. Even though Orr played way back in the dark ages, that Texan I met knew who Orr was. I doubt he could have named anyone on the Bruins then-current roster.

Sports has changed a lot, I think in the 70s/80s/early 90s it was more common to just "be a sports fan" which kinda meant you were open to any sport or at least seemed to care about who was the best in other sports.

It seems like the lack of centralized media coverage (as you mentioned the loss of things like Sports Illustrated) has made sports fans basically only know about the sports they follow and very little else.

I'll be honest the only NFL and MLB (I'm a NHL and NBA guy) players I could name today would be Mahomes, Kelce (because of Taylor Swift, had no idea who he was prior), and Ohtani and Judge (because he played with Ohtani lol).

Even the NBA, how many of their stars in their 20s (so the new wave of NBA stars) can non-NBA fans name? I bet many people here have never heard of Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic. LeBron is almost 40, he is not going to be around much longer, his brand recoginition was grandfathered in from decades ago.

 

[NeverForget06]

You must not watch McDavid than, the guy has already surpassed Crosby in the whining category. A gust of wind goes by him and he’s falling over or looking towards the refs

You won the Cup…No need to be salty.

He's not an actual Panthers fan... he's a salty Canucks fan who posts 30 times a day on here about the Oilers and McDavid

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

He’s a white guy from Canada with no personality. The NHL doesn’t market well historically either.

 

[Three On Zero]

You won the Cup…No need to be salty.

Not salty at all, it’s just silly when someone tries to claim he doesn’t dive. We get to witness most of the top players in the league embellish calls. It’s not a knock solely on McDavid.

 

[geebster]

Hockey isnt big in the US and thats where much of the marketing is. This plus the fact he has zero personality or reason to follow him outside of just his on ice stuff is why no one cares outside of hockey fans. You have to do more than just dominate your sport to be big nowadays, unless you are in the NFL or NBA.

 

[FMichael]

He has the personality of a wet dish rag but in saying that he makes up for it on the ice

I honestly like the fact that McDavid keeps to himself…Why people feel he needs to promote the league and his image is beyond me…

 

[FMichael]

He has the personality of a wet dish rag but in saying that he makes up for it on the ice

And that’s what is most important…If he wants to be left alone while away from the rink I feel both fans and media should honor that.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Hockey isnt big in the US and thats where much of the marketing is. This plus the fact he has zero personality or reason to follow him outside of just his on ice stuff is why no one cares outside of hockey fans. You have to do more than just dominate your sport to be big nowadays, unless you are in the NFL or NBA.

It's your imagination that thinks he has 0 personality. You do not know him. Wearing a helmet has a lot to do with it.

I followed Cycling when the riders didn't wear helmets. It changed a lot of things to no longer see the runners' faces. Concretely, he is nothing less than Nikola Jokic or Patrick Mahomes.Without helmets, hockey players would be more attractive, especially to female audiences. Lots of good-looking boys in the league.

I don't really see what you want him to do besides hockey to be great. Politics ? When an athlete tries it is divisive and catastrophic. Scandals ? As soon as an NHL player slips, there is pressure to eject him.

No NBA/NFL/MLB player really has any aura in the world either. A guy like Tom Brady or LeBron James is unknown to the general public in France. My sister and my wife know neither of them. Ohtani is less known than McDavid in Europe.

Jordan was only known because American soft power decided to invest immense propaganda on him in the 90s. In fact, Michael Jordan had less influence than Christophe Dugarry in France. A guy like Richard Virenque, 1000 times more.

 

[AtlantaHockeyFanatic]

It's your imagination that thinks he has 0 personality. You do not know him. Wearing a helmet has a lot to do with it.

I followed Cycling when the riders didn't wear helmets. It changed a lot of things to no longer see the runners' faces. Concretely, he is nothing less than Nikola Jokic or Patrick Mahomes.Without helmets, hockey players would be more attractive, especially to female audiences. Lots of good-looking boys in the league.

I don't really see what you want him to do besides hockey to be great. Politics ? When an athlete tries it is divisive and catastrophic. Scandals ? As soon as an NHL player slips, there is pressure to eject him.

No NBA/NFL/MLB player really has any aura in the world either. A guy like Tom Brady or LeBron James is unknown to the general public in France. My sister and my wife know neither of them. Ohtani is less known than McDavid in Europe.

Jordan was only known because American soft power decided to invest immense propaganda on him in the 90s. In fact, Michael Jordan had less influence than Christophe Dugarry in France. A guy like Richard Virenque, 1000 times more.

Loud & wrong

 

[Soundwave]

There aren't many big marketing sports stars in their 20s period.

Mahomes, ok, biggest star in the NFL which is massive, but who else really.

Luka Doncic is not a household name, neither is Giannis Antemempko, sorry NBA.

Mbappe I guess? Soccer is the largest global sport they should have at least 1 big star who isn't old.

Nike stock is cratering in part because today's younger kids aren't buying into athlete marketing the way they did 15-20 years ago. They signed Caitlyn Clark to a big deal but so far have no real big marketing campaign for her.

NHL missed the bus on this whole "market your individual players!" by decades, the time to make hay was the 90s and 2000s and they didn't do a good enough job then.

 

[biturbo19]

He's just a boring and not very likeable personality. And not even just in the sense that most star players are "hockey robots". He transcends that with his personality. Listening to him talk is painful. And even his "highlights" that are so allegedly "electrifying"...everything just looks the same over and over again. It's boring.

Throw in that he plays for a team in Northern Alberta that most of the rest of the world doesn't care about, the fact that he hasn't actually taken home the ultimate prize to define him as a "winner" to other outsiders, and you've got your answer.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Loud & wrong

I don't know why you object, you live in the USA. You don't know what it's like elsewhere.

For example, I'm still better placed than you to know that Richard Virenque was 1,000 times more popular than Michael Jordan in France in the 90s - I experienced it.

LeBron James is nothing in France. You only have one in ten teenagers who know him. Tom Brady is one in a hundred.

American sports have very little visibility in France. It's just an attraction for a male minority fascinated by American culture.

American Football game (10 by year) are broadcast on a minor channel and attract very little audience. The NBA is even worse. MLB is nothingness. Hockey only exists through international tournaments.

In my entourage, I am alone in being interested in it.

To publicize McDavid, the best way is to expose him to the Olympic Games. The thing about lack of charisma is nonsense. He even has more advantages than the others. He is handsome, classy, humble, natural.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

He's just a boring and not very likeable personality. And not even just in the sense that most star players are "hockey robots". He transcends that with his personality. Listening to him talk is painful. And even his "highlights" that are so allegedly "electrifying"...everything just looks the same over and over again. It's boring.

Throw in that he plays for a team in Northern Alberta that most of the rest of the world doesn't care about, the fact that he hasn't actually taken home the ultimate prize to define him as a "winner" to other outsiders, and you've got your answer.

I don't even know why you're here if you find the hockey show boring and even the highlights of the most spectacular player don't suit you.

Personally, the overplayed and false tone that we often see on American television annoys me. This is programmed idiocracy. There, you have a guy who behaves normally in society and that's good.

What would it take for a hockey player to do to excite you ? We have never had as many exceptional actions and players as last year. If guys like Matthews, Kucherov, Ovechkin, Bedard, Hughes, Zegras don't excite you, what do you need ?

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

I don't even know why you're here if you find the hockey show boring and even the highlights of the most spectacular player don't suit you.

Personally, the overplayed and false tone that we often see on American television annoys me. This is programmed idiocracy. There, you have a guy who behaves normally in society and that's good.

What would it take for a hockey player to do to excite you ? We have never had as many exceptional actions and players as last year. If guys like Matthews, Kucherov, Ovechkin, Bedard, Hughes, Zegras don't excite you, what do you need ?

Almost had me until you said Zegras.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Almost had me until you said Zegras.

I actually mentioned a less strong but very spectacular guy.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Get back to me when he leads his team to a couple of Cup wins.

Nobody will know who he is either , so many people in this thread are missing the point lol

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Nobody will know who he is either , so many people in this thread are missing the point lol

A guy who doesn't follow a sport doesn't know anyone. Or vaguely a guy the media talks about all the time.

I know 2 MLB players by name (Ohtani & Judge), I will be unable to name an NFL player who started after 2020 and I know less than 10 NBA players. James, Anteto etc, Jokic, Doncic, Durant, Curry, Harden and that's it. However, I followed this sport until 2008.

I know that there were French guys drafted No. 1 but I don't know their names, I don't know their faces and in France they are unknown to the general public.

I know them because I go to general sports sites and because I'm interested in the prize lists. So imagine the common Europeans. The overwhelming majority do not know any of them.

The only French sportsman mostly known in France is Mbappe. Apart from Antoine Dupont, Teddy Riner, Leon Marchand, Nikola Karabatic, Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud, Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba, Hugo Lloris, Julian Alaphilippe, Felix Lebrun - no one is known by a significant minority. And I'm sure the guys I'm quoting speak vaguely to you.

 

[biturbo19]

I don't even know why you're here if you find the hockey show boring and even the highlights of the most spectacular player don't suit you.

Personally, the overplayed and false tone that we often see on American television annoys me. This is programmed idiocracy. There, you have a guy who behaves normally in society and that's good.

What would it take for a hockey player to do to excite you ? We have never had as many exceptional actions and players as last year. If guys like Matthews, Kucherov, Ovechkin, Bedard, Hughes, Zegras don't excite you, what do you need ?

Calm down. lol. I really enjoy all but one of those players, and i adore watching Leon Draisaitl as a Oiler even.


I just find McDavid specifically, exceedingly dull as a person and a player.

 

[Jumptheshark]

As a Canadian who travel the world the answer is easy.

Ice hockey is considered a NICHE sport in 90% of the world.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

One word:

Edmonton.

Gretzky didn't become a household name (outside of Canada) until he was in LA.

It's not even that.

It's hockey. Hockey has produced very few superstars outside of the hockey universe.

Gretzky, Orr, and Howe are basically the only names that some random person would recognize from all of hockey history, and even that might be generous.