Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
If you go to actual US NHL cities though, it's pretty obvious that with only a few exceptions they are mostly afterthoughts. In most US NHL cities that I've visited, the local hockey team is roughly on par with TFC or the Argonauts in Toronto in terms of how they're received... they have their own fanbase, but they are largely on the margins of the sports pages.
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This is still an improvement over 20 years ago, though. At least there's knowledge that ice hockey is a thing that exists. That wasn't the case previously. Even if they only have a small sliver of a large city it's still something.
Morning Consult recently did a nationwide survey asking people which sports teams they followed. I'll paraphrase some of the results:
https://morningconsult.com/2018/10/1...ggest-markets/
So immediately we can see the NHL is more popular than the NBA in Philadelphia and Boston and effectively tied in Chicago.
Nationwide, Favourite Sport, All Adults:
NFL 43%
MLB 25%
NBA 17%
NHL 9%
MLS 6%
If you look at just generation Z (18-21 year olds) there's some fun differences:
NFL 37%
NBA 28%
MLB 15%
MLS 12%
NHL 9%
If you look at it by regions:
Northeast US, Favourite Sport, All Adults:
NFL: 40%
MLB: 31%
NBA: 13%
NHL: 11%
MLS: 5%
Midwest US, Favourite Sport, All Adults:
NFL: 42%
MLB: 29%
NBA: 15%
NHL: 10%
MLS: 5%
The most interesting thing about the NHL numbers in total is how consistent they are. Outside of African Americans (3% of whom have the NHL as their favourite sport) the remaining categories are consistently 8%-10%. Regardless of income, regardless of location, regardless of who they voted for, regardless of educational attainment, the NHL is usually around 9% favourability. That's pretty good, I think.
Vegas numbers: Although the NHL is third in favourite league it's first (44%) in most followed league. The NHL has a near-equal following number to the NBA in the Northeast (10% v 12%). So if you're in Boston or New York (or Buffalo, or Philadelphia, or Pittsburgh) you can assume the NHL is effectively even with the NBA, at least based on this survey.
As a bit of an aside, you can see MLB's popularity wilting away with younger viewers:
Favorite Sport, Nation, by age, MLB:
54-72: 34%
38-53: 23%
22-37: 17%
18-21: 15%
The NHL floats around 9% to 10% through all ages. MLS more than triples from 50+ 4% to 12% 21 and under. The NFL peaks with the 38-53 age group and steadily declines from there as the NBA catches up.
Either way, the NHL is likely more popular than you think in the US' larger cities, and even if the NHL is only followed by 10% of people in NYC that's still more people total than most Canadian markets have in total.