PGT: WJC Gold Medal Game | Finland Win Gold Over USA 3-2 | Part II
- Thread starter hangman005
- Start date
-
Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
While you have a point, your point can also be construed to fit his point.
Just because the US has the second highest amount playing hockey, doesn’t mean that hockey is getting the best players or athletes the US has to offer.
Like he said, in the majority of countries listed, hockey is the number one sport. The sport young kids dream of making it in because that’s basically all these countries are doing. Which isn’t a bad thing and I know it not the only thing happening in these countries.
I’d like to see the numbers of other sports that kids are playing in these other countries. I’d assume that hockey is either the top or right near it. Which speaks to hockey, more than likely, getting the very best athletes possible within that country.
Here in the US, I wouldn’t be surprised if hockey isn’t even in the top 5. I’d guess that it went basketball, football, baseball and soccer definitely above hockey. When these sports have the opportunity to pay much more than hockey does, the very best athletes in this country tend to veer away from hockey or never even step on ice and start playing to begin with.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
LOFIN
Registered User
- Sep 16, 2011
- 18,833
- 27,723
I absolutely suppor Sweden in football, and the majority of my friends do also.
If we are talking about big tournaments we are not in, that needs to be added ofc.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
My friends always laugh at me when I'm not worried about what happens in the group stage. I would much rather have it like this than the 2000's "they tried their best and got bronze" teams. Finland didn't deserve to be in the final IMO but they took advantage of the opportunity, LEIJONAT!!
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
That’s true and a good point. I wanted to add the great saying of “context is relative”, but decided to leave my thoughts to what I put.
I said in an earlier post on some other topic a while back my thoughts on what you stated and how they relate to people in this country.
Like you said, there is a imaginary but very distinct line in this country in regards to hockey participation. I believe in an earlier post I wrote that it was probably around the Mason Dixon line and spread west. From there and north, hockey is probably among the most popular. I wouldn’t be surprised if 99% of the participation in hockey is from those states north of that line.
But south of that line? Not only do basically none of these kids of access to hockey, a large majority of them will only see snowfall a couple times in their entire life. Summers aren’t spent indoors in a hockey rink for them. They are out in 100° weather playing basketball/football/baseball. Winters aren’t spent indoors when some of these places are 50°F and above at their lowest temperatures. They don’t get to play with friends on an outside rink. Nor do they get to watch national hero’s play hockey like they get to watch the other sports.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
Hockey is number one in Canada and Finland. Seven countries were listed. 2/7 is not a majority.
In 2015 Finland had 130,000 registered football players, 73,000 registered hockey players, and 53,000 registered floorball players.
Sweden has 240,000 licensed football players, four times more than hockey. Sweden also has more than 120,000 registered floorball players. That's twice as many as hockey.
What is number 1 in Russia, Sweden, Switzerland? If not hockey, I’d assume soccer? And if so, hockey would be the second most popular probably.
And I also took the US out of the list because they were the anomaly but misspoke about the majority.
And I also took the US out of the list because they were the anomaly but misspoke about the majority.
Machinehead
HFNYR MVP
Hockey is only number 1 in Canada, Finland, and Latvia.
In all those other countries, it's soccer.
In the US, it's football by far.
To continue:
Russia has over 800,000 registered football players and 110,000 hockey players.
The Czech Republic has 280,000 registered football players and 120,000 hockey players.
Russia has over 800,000 registered football players and 110,000 hockey players.
The Czech Republic has 280,000 registered football players and 120,000 hockey players.
To go a different way with my post to put into light better.
Finland has a population of 5,500,000 people. 73,000 of them play hockey. Which is roughly 1.33%
USA has a population of 327,000,000 people. 600,000 play hockey. That’s only .183% of the population playing ice hockey here.
To further it, if Finland kept the same national interest and had the population that the US had, there would be over 4 million people playing ice hockey then. That just goes to show how much insanely more popular that hockey is in some countries.
And if LeBron James and Calvin Johnson had ever started playing hockey, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby wouldn't look that great.
hangman005
Have I told you I miss Logan Thompson
Maybe my maths bad (quite likely) or I misunderstood what you meant (also quite likely) But wouldn't 1.33% rate still hold true in your scenario, which would still put them lower than than the use at 1.83%. ?
Feel free to correct me, but from that post I'm not sure how anything changes to get that 4 million figure.
Sergei Shirokov
Registered User
Well you are obviously running much farther with my comments than I meant, but you at least get the jist of it.
They’d still be great at it. But without baseball, football and basketball in this country, there’d be a hell of a lot more athletes here focusing on making the NHL. Which would greatly increase the competition not only in the NHL but on a world stage.
The hockey participation in terms of population here in the US is only .183% not 1.83%
I'm not arguing. You're completely right. The Finnish NHL players are very lucky that they're able to make millions in big American cities playing a sport that's hard to access because of the high cost of equipment and lack of outdoor rinks in the vast majority of the world. If the competition was anywhere near as tough as it is in the NFL, there wouldn't be many Finns in the NHL. They'd have to play here earning peanuts compared to what they're making now.
TimThomas24
Registered User
- Jun 13, 2013
- 1,205
- 1,485
hangman005
Have I told you I miss Logan Thompson
Past Considerations
Registered User
True that that other sports make the available talent pool smaller but you can't assume that a top player in sport x would have automatically become a top player in another sport. Studies have shown genes have little to do with this, it is more up to the system and for that you just need a large enough pool of athletes/players. <-- Actually that kind of supports your view at the same time but my underlying point is that US has enough young players and much more than many other countries.
Past Considerations
Registered User
In a way these should give some sort of picture of the situation but it might be hard to compare these numbers between different sports. Comparing amount of players under certain age groups might give a better idea because that would exclude beer league hobbyists. Cheaper sports obviously have a lot more of hobbyists. I still wouldn't be surprised if soccer comes out on top even in Finland.
