It’s been a fascinating discussion to watch… the glee of so-called hockey fans, reveling in the potential loss of Nashville’s team, the scorn heaped upon “non-traditional” markets daring to attempt to be successful in the NHL… and heaven forbid if you struggle. I need to start off this rant by saying that we hockey fans appreciate that hockey is a world game, a lot of hockey fans come from traditional markets and love sharing the sport with new fans. We know that hockey is not the national sport of the US. Us fans in the lower 48 know we are the bald-headed step child of sports behind football, basketball, baseball, and even NASCAR for heaven’s sake… the interesting thing is… we seem to like it. We know a secret that other, less-evolved sports fans don’t know, or don’t get… we know that hockey is the greatest sport there is.

However, that knowledge is also one of the most disappointing aspects of the game we all love so much. The passion that most fans feel toward our game sometimes crosses the line into deriding anything that may be perceived as outside of the box. Anything (or anywhere) that might be interpreted as non-traditional is preyed upon as “bad for the game” or “unfair to the sport” or (and I love this one) “diluting the talent pool.” This is the only sport that I can think of who’s fans believe that it doesn’t “belong” in certain places. Could you imagine a die-hard football fan in Chicago saying that football doesn’t belong in Seattle… Maybe a big hoops fan in Philly saying that the NBA shouldn’t be in Phoenix… Perhaps a crazed baseball fan in St. Louis saying that baseball doesn’t belong in Toronto? It truly boggles the mind to think that hockey fans wouldn’t want more hockey fans in more places.

I truly believe that the biggest problem that the NHL has is the lack of vision of its’ traditionalists, the die-hards that can’t see beyond their own misperceptions, be they owners, executives, coaches, media or fans. Hockey fans know the history of the game, they know the stats and the records, however they get their facts wrong when discussing the growth of this sport… and hockey does continue to grow… especially in the “non-traditional” markets. I have spent a great deal of time in interviews with different radio stations refuting bad data that some media types have accepted as fact and have passed on to their listeners.

Let’s talk about the facts, in the 10 years since the Predators have come to Tennessee…
• Ice availability has quadrupled with two more ice rinks in various stages of planning
• Youth hockey has gone from a hundred or so kids playing in one league to thousands actively involved in multiple leagues at all ages and proficiencies
• Multiple travel programs have formed playing at upper skill levels which are developing players that are just now hitting the Junior B and Junior A levels.
• No one playing at the high school level to a 20 team league representing 27 different high schools in middle Tennessee alone. 12 more teams in Memphis and Knoxville
• A local mite team has won the International Silver Stick Tournament in Sarnia, four others have made it through to the international level
• We’ve seen the first NHL draft pick that played his youth hockey in Nashville, and calls Tennessee home in Blake Geoffrion

Those are facts that show the growth of our sport in a “non-traditional” area. How about another misconception… attendance...

The NHL set another record for overall attendance this year… Were you aware that only eight teams have shown attendance growth in each of the past two seasons? Of those eight teams, five of those teams are in markets that would be called “non-traditional,” Nashville would be one of them (along with Atlanta, Anaheim, Carolina and San Jose). Nashville has shown steady growth in ticket sales and attendance and has grown attendance to 89% capacity, up 12.2% in the two seasons since the lockout. Only four other teams had larger growth rates.

Ten teams were at or above 100% capacity last season. Ten teams at 90% or above. That puts the Nashville attendance figure in the lower middle of the league, improvement needed to be sure, but above such “traditional” markets like St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey and New York.

The time has come to stop this petty bickering and get behind the sport, not just our teams or our cities. We know that this is the best sport going. For some reason there is a bias against it… in the media especially. Unfortunately, we as the hockey-loving people we are, don’t make things better by continually and publically sniping at the game, at the rules, at the league, and at the cities where the NHL is located.

Let’s save our sniping for these folks… we can demand better coverage in our local media… we can make our voices heard at the NHL offices and demand they get better and more television coverage in the states. As long as we are arguing over where the game belongs, the real issues with the game we love so much will never be addressed.

Until we, as hockey fans, accept the game (and the league) in its’ current form, how can we expect anyone else to?

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