Why is Mcdavid SO Little Known Outside of Hockey

[daver]

His online gambling ads were not that compelling.

 

[Brownies]

Honest opinion : who cares ?

I have watched exactly 0 NBA games in the last 20 years at least (hate it), I have no business knowing who Lebron James is. I don’t expect nor care if people who don’t watch hockey know who Mcdavid is. Hockey fans sure know who he is and it’s all that matters.

I also don’t see the fascination with making the game more popular. To me, the only impact in my life would be more expansive tickets, so…

 

[alphafox]

1, The NHL isn't that popular a sport and (thankfully in my opinion) doesn't market their stars and maintains a team first focus
2. Clothing and Shoe Mega brands don't have much of a way to make money off of hockey so marketing dollars and opportunities are much more limited than other sports meaning the promotion channels are relatively limited to the general public (in addition to the streaming fragmentation of attention)
3. He's plays in Edmonton meaning most of the united states doesn't see him regularly
4. He's Canadian so he doesn't get the air time in the USA, which is especially true because he isn't a champion

 

[King In The North]

I can't emphasize how bad the NHL is at marketing itself.

 

[Soundwave]

Yeah because he plays in Edmonton and he honestly isn’t as marketable as Crosby and Ovechkin were. I think there’s something stale about him compared to the other two.

No one in the US gives a shit about Crosby or Ovechkin, neither or them have any national marketing deals in the US. Crosby has a deal with Gatorade and he actively gets cut out of the US ads that have a bunch of other athletes.

The versions of those commercials that actually have Crosby for Gatorade only run in Canada.

Crosby is a big marketing draw in Canada but not the US. In Canada he has Tim Horton's, Gatorade, etc. In the US he has basically nothing nationally. Ovy is even worse.

If that's the supposed "high water mark", McDavid is not missing out on much. He gets plenty of marketing in Canada. McDavid has McDonalds, Rogers, CIBC, etc. in Canada.

The US doesn't care about individual hockey players. Patrick Kane at minimum should have been at least a moderate marketing success in the US. He's American, he played in a huge US market (Chicago), he's not bad on camera has some personality, the team he played on won multiple Stanley Cups, he plays a highlight reel, exciting style of hockey. If he can't take off in the US marketing wise, no one can.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

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?

thats just logic, the best players in bigger markets sell more, why would people outside edm who
isnt fans buy a jersey?

 

[Greatzsky 99]

Its because its hockey, thats just the way it is in US, stop with these threads, they
come every other months, this topic has been settled, it doesnt
matter how much marketing or pushing down people throats, in sweden
LeBron James is nothing, Tom Brady could walk through sthlm and nobody would notice
thats just the way it is sometimes

 

[BFLO]

It's because the NHL hasn't been to the Olympics in 11 years.

Most Americans only watch hockey during the winter Olympics.

The NHL opting out of the olympics has cost them an untold number of fans and revenue.

 

[Montreal Shadow]

, in sweden
LeBron James is nothing,

That's blatantly false. Basketball is an international sport and Lebron is famous worldwide, not just in North America.

Tom Brady could walk through sthlm and nobody would notice
thats just the way it is sometimes

Sure, the NFL is only big in North America.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

That's blatantly false. Basketball is an international sport and Lebron is famous worldwide, not just in North America.

Sure, the NFL is only big in North America.

lol, in your own mind maybe, basket is maybe 8th popular sport in sweden, dream on
Have i said that NFL is only big in US? i said in sweden he is probably more unrecognized
then MxDavid is in US, but sure i dont know, LeBron is NOT a household name in sweden
thats laughable

im sorry i hurt your feelings....

 

[Greatzsky 99]

lol, in your own mind maybe, basket is maybe 8th popular sport in sweden, dream on
Have i said that NFL is only big in US? i said in sweden he is probably more unrecognized
then MxDavid is in US, but sure i dont know, LeBron is NOT a household name in sweden
thats laughable

volleyball is bigger sport then BBall, name a household name in US...

 

[Montreal Shadow]

lol, in your own mind maybe, basket is maybe 8th popular sport in sweden, dream on
Have i said that NFL is only big in US? i said in sweden he is probably more unrecognized
then MxDavid is in US, but sure i dont know, LeBron is NOT a household name in sweden
thats laughable

I'm saying Lebron is an international star and he is still a major athlete worldwide, not just restricted to some niche markets like McDavid.

im sorry i hurt your feelings....

Quit smoking crack.

 

[psycat]

That's blatantly false. Basketball is an international sport and Lebron is famous worldwide, not just in North America.

Sure, the NFL is only big in North America.

Idk, id second that most people in Sweden have absolutely zero idea who LeBron is, maybe 10% or so knows of the name and that is all most know. Let's just say he is no Jordan.

Probably pretty popular amongst younger people, often immigrants, but the vast majority here couldn't name 3 current NBA players.

Amongst sports fans? Id guess most know the name but most know McDavid aswell. I have actually never heard a Swede say they watch basketball, heck ive had some Swedes randomly bring up superbowl etc but never basketball. Sure that's just my experience and im sure quite a few do watch it but it's just not a part of our culture, it's a fringesport deluxe here.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

I'm saying Lebron is an international star and he is still a major athlete worldwide, not just restricted to some niche markets like McDavid.

Quit smoking crack.

IF you read what i said i said SWEDEN didnt I?

in SWEDEN basket has less then 1k average, speedway is 3 times bigger, NBA is practically
non existent, its beyond niche, NHL is way more prevalent in US then Basket in Sweden,
in all my life i have met 2 people i talked basket with, both were 7 feet tall,one guy
had an NFL obsession back in the 90s, thats it. I dont know where you live, but you seem
to have a warped sense of the star power of LeBron, he is no Messi or Ronaldo, but probably well
known by sportsfans, not outside that world, and this is just a guess, but over 50 procent of the world does not care about sports at ALL

 

[ManofSteel55]

McDavid doesn't have much of a personality really.

Also, as mentioned before, Gretzky didn't become a big US celebrity until he was traded to L.A.

Didn't he host SNL and have a spot on a soap opera while still in Edmonton?

Also, compare him with the other big stars in the big 3 major sports at the time. Gretzky was famous, but he wasn't as big as Joe Montana, half of the roster of the Lakers or Celtics.

Media is different nowadays too. There was less competition for superstar status among celebrities. It was basically sports stars - basketball, football and baseball in NA- Gretzky was the only hockey player making that kind of impact - musicians, and actors in movies or TV shows on 4 major networks. Other than that, there were no celebs, unlike today, where you have more TV networks (although not all have major household names on any shows), you still have movies, there are still musicians, but there are also tons of streamers, e-sports stars, and all of these other digital celebrities out there taking some attention. Reality TV wasn't a thing, and today you have celebs who are famous for being reality tv stars, like the Kardashians.

You also have more sports inching there way in, and that makes it harder for a hockey star to grab a foothold. Compound that with him being a soft-spoken guy without a boisterous personality, playing in a small Canadian city, while playing a sport where the teams are more important to the fans than the player name on the jersey, unlike, say, basketball, where people loved Shaq for being Shaq, Kobe for being Kobe, Lebron for being Lebron, etc.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think part of hockey culture is to be part of the team and not really draw attention to yourself, so it makes it more difficult to market star players

Occasionally, the stars align and you get like an Ovechkin who is a little more outgoing than average

 

[Lieutenant Bookman]

Speaking from a US perspective, other than Wayne Gretzky, I can’t think of a single hockey player who was very well known beyond hockey circles. And it took a perfect storm of being the greatest ever, being in the LA market, and having a certain charisma to get him there.

I would disagree with OP in that I don’t even see Sidney Crosby being more popular than McDavid from my perspective. If he was it was ever so slight and maybe due to the fact that he played for and won cups for a US team. But this thread is built on the premise that McDavid is somehow bucking a trend of more popular hockey stars. But that has never been my experience. Hockey is a niche sport in the US so for the most part only hockey fans really know any of these guys, no matter how good they are. Probably other dynamics involved from a Canadian lens though.

 

[vancityluongo]

the nhl will never have a star become a household name in the US until the clear best player in the league (ie. generation defining player) is an american, likely one playing in a big (US) market. patrick kane only had one of the two - he was never a generation defining player, even if he arguably had short stretches as the best player in the league above crosby, ovi and malkin.

all american media is nationalistic propaganda lol. there's a reason espn is currently bending over backwards to declare anthony edwards as the next face of the nba; they cannot give the crown to jokic, or sga, or even wemby, because it doesn't align with the american exceptionalism argument they are mandated to push.

this is why caitlin clark generates 10x more interest than mcdavid or any nhl player - because american media needs it to be that way. ovechkin breaking the goals record might be surpassed by clark's home opener lol

Google Trends

none of that is to absolve the absolute f***ing morons that are in charge of the nhl and supposedly marketing it, but they're fighting an uphill battle.

 

[PistolPete]

Do most hockey fans or Canadians know who John John Florence is? Likely no. Hockey is a niche sport with a heavy emphasis on cost and location. The same as surfing, so both sports are bound to be pretty niche and more difficult to relate to unless you have a prior connection. Soccer, basketball, etc aren’t bound by weather or high costs so people can relate to it a lot easier.

Technically speaking hockey hasn't been bound by weather for over 100 years once artifical ice making machines were created.

I have come across a stat that there are more or same number of registered hockey players in Texas than in Canada (it may even be per capita)), can't recall fir sure).

I think your most solid point is the prohibitive cost of hockey. It's akin to tennis and golf in that it can make a lot of money, but it doesn't have that widespread appeal. Even this I have questioned though since I it's been suggested in reading I've done on the topic that playing the game isn't a necessary prerequisites to Fandom.

After all, many women watch it, teams in southern climes are able to generate more revenue than Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Calgary. So fans can be created without playing the game itself, it's really a question of how exactly?

 

[Bourque]

He's only played 10 seasons, never won a cup, is not top 20 all-time yet, and most people can't name 10 NHL players.

 

[Miro4Norris]

It's because he is a loser and has an unlikable personality. Difficult to make a name of a player that doesn't win. NHL wants Oilers a win badly

 

[HisIceness]

Good luck trying to get the average person to name one NHLer not named Gretzky. They damn sure aren't going to know McDavid

 

[SavBigMoneyAtBedards]

McDavid would need to assume Ric Flair's personality to make himself well known in the US.

 

[PistolPete]

McDavid would need to assume Ric Flair's personality to make himself well known in the US.

Woooooooooooooooo!!! You said it brother!

 

[BLNY]

2. Clothing and Shoe Mega brands don't have much of a way to make money off of hockey so marketing dollars and opportunities are much more limited than other sports meaning the promotion channels are relatively limited to the general public (in addition to the streaming fragmentation of attention)

Nike tried. Despite some entertaining commercials, they failed to make inroads and got out.