NHL lockout?

[Popeye_Card]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

Dang it. I have a strong policy where I can only follow popular sports!

[TimeForGuinness]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

Dang it. I have a strong policy where I can only follow popular sports!

Soccer should be at the top of your list...considering it's the world's game.

If the NFL continues down the road of becoming the National Flag-football League, then I think baseball can make up ground against it.

[pioneer98]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

Dang it. I have a strong policy where I can only follow popular sports!

Well, maybe my perspective is jaded about hockey with all the trials and tribulations of our local minor league team here. It makes it tough for fans to follow a sport if the team closest to them folds due to lack of popularity. And since there are several NHL teams bleeding money, I would not be shocked if they contracted a bit, or if we saw more relocation of teams.

[TimeForGuinness]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

Dang it. I have a strong policy where I can only follow popular sports!

Well, maybe my perspective is jaded about hockey with all the trials and tribulations of our local minor league team here. It makes it tough for fans to follow a sport if the team closest to them folds due to lack of popularity. And since there are several NHL teams bleeding money, I would not be shocked if they contracted a bit, or if we saw more relocation of teams.

My guess is they relocate back to Canada.

[jim]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

No way. Pro soccer will never ever be popular in the U.S. Ever.

[longhornbaseball]

This is pathetic. The NHL cannot afford to lose fans. They are just speeding up the date to when soccer passes them on the list of popular team sports.

Pretty much.

I think soccer eclipses hockey within 5 years...even without a lockout.

No way. Pro soccer will never ever be popular in the U.S. Ever.

Yep. I don't know what country you guys are living in.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Measuring these things is a futile exercise, but if I had to guess, I'd say that Soccer and Hockey are about the same in popularity, with Soccer maybe holding a slight edge. Soccer's interest is much more fragmented though, which makes any sort of measurement even more difficult.

[longhornbaseball]

The MLS had total attendance of 4,766,817 last year. The American NHL teams had 16,133,902.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Which means that MLS outdrew the NHL on a per-game basis. And MLS is the 3rd most popular competition among US soccer fans, who have attention divided between National team competition, EPL, MLS, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, with some Champions league games sprinkled in. Obviously most of those are overseas, making comparing attendance a difficult thing. I haven't taken the time to seek out and compare the cumulative TV eyeballs on soccer matches v. that of hockey games, but I don't think they're terribly different. There's simply a lot of soccer fans who are more interested in a higher level of soccer than MLS provides, much like the dynamic between MiLB and MLB. That's borne out in the TV ratings, and the huge jump in attendance when that higher caliber of soccer comes to the states, where you see an average attendance upwards of 3x the average MLS game for exhibitions involving top Euro teams, or exhibitions involving the US against any international competition.

[MrSaigon]

Television is where other sports really have an edge on MLS, but I would guess this is only true on a local level for hockey.