Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
I've always thought that China had enormous growth potential for hockey, especially in the north. It has the climate for it and obviously the population. Beijing's winters are barely warmer than Toronto's and Harbin is colder than even Winnipeg. Even if hockey is only popular as a regional niche sport the way it is in the States, China could still become one of the best hockey countries. The KHL clearly sees the potential with their Beijing team. The NHL may not directly have a stake in hockey taking off in China but as the world's premier league surely they can find a way to benefit from it. You can bet that Europe's big soccer leagues would love to do more business in the United States, even if they will never have teams there. And NFL certainly benefits from football's popularity in Canada.
|
Definitely agree on China, which is why it's mystifying that the NHL hasn't further considered expanding its market in China. They've done nothing I can think of in that regard. The KHL at least gets it amongst their continent-conquering.
As for the NHL traveling to Beijing 2022 it isn't so much about having exposure to the Chinese (because hockey will be played regardless of NHL participation) but rather how much money the NHL can make off of sending its players. By taking two weeks off they're losing valuable revenue in the middle of the winter, and there's no guarantee they make that back with Beijing. Tack on the fact that the games will be on in the middle of the night for the States and you're starting to get a poor formula for success, at least in their eyes.
The Premier League has a lot of interest in China because China is it's biggest TV market by far.
----------
As for the WCH2016 North America ruined Finland last night which says more about the power of the NA team than it does about Finland, whose defence is less experienced than NA's. Finland's going through some definite growing pains on the national team right now and are missing veteran Defenceman who play in Europe.
North America/Russia this evening should be infinitely interesting.