NBA going full WWE

[Crimson's Ghost]

The NBA’s ratings double the NHL, and nobody knows a single person in the Stanley Cup besides Ovechkin.

To each their own, but hockey is pretty much a niche sport. People that like hockey enjoy it, casual fans don’t.

The NBA has a better product all around.

[Crimson's Ghost]

I can enjoy the NHL playoffs, and watch them and keep up with them all 2 1/2 months they are on. But hockey fans have an inferiority complex, and a jealousy of the NBA. They are always quick to point basketball's flaws and what they don't like about it. Have to tell you how exciting the NHL is, and how unpredictable it is and so on and so forth.

People are allowed to like both, it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing mentality. I don't understand why it is they way that it is, I have my suspicions. But it's championship level play for two different sports - watch and enjoy both.

[abpk2903]

You are the one that felt the need to mention that one NBA game was more entertaining than the entire NHL playoffs.  Then you accuse NHL fans of an inferiority complex.   Knowitall is right, I watch very little NBA because it literally puts me to sleep.  The regular season and first few rounds of the playoffs are absolutely brutal IMO but as I have said previous "to each his own."  Also, NBA fans tend to only look at US Market rating when they tell us how amazing and awesome the product is.  What they fail to account for is the global popularity of hockey.  Hockey is wildly popular in a lot of major countries (as is basketball) including US, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, and many more.  Both sports are the marquee team event of their respective Olympics and have high level organized leagues all around the globe. Let's not act like the NHL is some poor little step child to the NBA. 

[Crimson's Ghost]

I just do it to antagonize konjo, since I know it’ll bother him.


But hockey again is a niche sport.  In all those countries, basketball is also a big deal.  Basketball is the second most popular sport in the world to soccer, and the NBA is the second most popular league in America to the NFL and it just continues to grow. 

[Crimson's Ghost]

HI mean in my own respect. I also find regular season hockey extremely dull, there’s no point of watching it until the playoffs start to me, and if the Penguins weren’t in Pittsburgh, I don’t know if I’d watch it at all. And as I mentioned before, the NHL has player safety issues. They have very few stars to draw outside fans into the sport. I also think the NHL shoots itself in the foot sometimes and hurts their own ratings.  They should never try to go opposite the NBA.  The Caps/Pens series opening the same night as the NFL draft. When there’s 4 first round games on the same day, they should stagger them so everyone can watch all four games rather than having to pick.  It’s little things like that. 

I think in a lot of respects, the NHL can be it’s own worst enemy. So I think if it was a better run league, they could probably attract more viewers. But I think what kills it is how specialized it is. It’s always going to appeal to people in the Northeast and Canada. Getting Nashville and Vegas in the Cup should help grow the game some though. I think getting new markets excited about hockey is key. I don’t think the other three major leagues have to fight that same uphill battle.  


Like I said, I can enjoy both. I’ve just always found it weird hockey fans go out of their way to bash basketball.  Case and point, the title of this thread.

[abpk2903]

But see that is where you are doing exactly what you accuse NHL fans of. Hockey is not a niche sport. To say that it is, just is trying to take a shot at the league for no reason. 
Curling is a niche sport, diving is a niche sport, cycling is a niche sport. Hockey is wildly popular. 31 major cities completely fill 20,000 seat arenas to watch it. Tickets for NHL finals are starting at $800 a seat in DC and $3,500 a seat in Vegas. It competes head to head with the NBA in major markets like Chicago, DC, Boston, Toronto, LA, and NYC and in some of those markets even wins.  Even when using amateurs, it is the most popular event of it’s season of olympics.  

[Crimson's Ghost]

I don’t really think that’s taking a shot at hockey, or at least  not intending it to be an insult.  Most kids in America can’t afford it. There aren’t rinks in every town. There are baseball fields, basketball hoops, and football fields in every town in America though. I think that’s the major difference. It’s 100% more of a specialized sport than the others, and it’s nowhere nearly as accessible as other sports.


So it’s probably a good thing towns like Vegas and Nashville are making runs now, because that’s going to help grow the sport.  


I guess niche was the wrong term, that's probably more for wrestling, lacrosse ect.  I guess you are right. 

[abpk2903]

I can agree with that. People want to watch a sport that they remember playing as a child or maybe they have a child involved in the sport. That hurts hockey. I bet if you surveyed 1,000 people in the country that identify themselves as a sports fan, less than half could correctly identify what constitutes as icing in hockey, which is it’s most common infraction.  

The sport is growing though. A lot of major universities are now offering it as a D1 sport. It’s trickling south, slowly. Penn State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame are all major universities south of the Great Lakes with competitive programs. Arizona State is putting a lot of money into their program. 

It competes with some of the same issues as golf and NASCAR. Really only the decently wealthy have access to the resources it takes to become a professional.  I would argue though that with the advancement of the AAU and traveling club baseball programs, those sports are getting super expensive for participants and their families too. 

[konjo78]

I mean if we want to get full stupid, League of Legends esports scene is bigger than both. I mean their last final, which was in may, had 127 million people watching all at once. That completely dwarfs the niche leagues of NHL or NBA who cant even get above 20 million.


I am going to sound racist here but the NBA is watched more than the NHL because of the african American representation. That culture is very much one that tunes out things they arent really represented in. Just look at the movies this year with Black Panther, it was an alright superhero movie but because of the representation itll probably be the biggest movie of 2018 domestically.

[Crimson's Ghost]

It competes with some of the same issues as golf and NASCAR. Really only the decently wealthy have access to the resources it takes to become a professional.  I would argue though that with the advancement of the AAU and traveling club baseball programs, those sports are getting super expensive for participants and their families too. 

They do, but you can still play at the local little league and play for your high school team and enjoy the game of baseball. If you have aspirations of doing greater things like playing in college, yea it gets expensive. For the everyday person like you and me, playing little league baseball was enough to at least become a fan of baseball.