Let me first state that I like hockey a lot. I grew up in Quebec for 10 years (was a major Canadiens fan) ...then .lived in Toronto until my 20s. Growing up I thought hockey was awesome and never really thought past that until I noticed (not sure if the rest did) that the sport was being shoved down our throats by the media since the early 2000s more than it was ever done when I was a kid (or when my parents were kids).
It was when I first stepped out of Canada to travel the world that I realized that the hockey culture in Canada isn't even 10% of what other countries have for their national sports. First of all, when a country loves Soccer/Rugby/ Aussie Rules, you can bet your ass that the average male/ young adult is fantastic at it, and it actually is played very regularly by the majority of the population.
For hockey, I honestly can't name 2 people (i have ever met, and this is me traveling all over Canada throughout my life) who has has played hockey. I find that even the ratings hockey gets for Hockey Night in Canada pales in to the ratings an average football match gets in Argentina even (i work in marketing, i see these #s every day).
Lately, the ads for the olympics had Donald Sutherland state over and over how hockey is the national obsession. I had to step out of my shell and integrate into various ethnic communities (or meet 2nd generation Canadians from ______(insert anywhere), to realize how little most non white Canadians care about Hockey.
In fact, I was shocked to find that a common view among many Canadians is that they blame the over funding of hockey for Canada's lack of success in other sports. In BC , regular citizens have tried to fund basketball, rugby, soccer out of their own pockets!
Working in my firm has changed the way i used to think of this. I was wondering ......what do you think? The 1 view I find most in my line of work is that hockey has become the only sport not to adapt to multi ethnic/ cultural changes of the modern world. Basketball, Soccer, Rugby, have embrased this and tried to promote the game all around the world, and to all peoples in their countries.
But most immigrants or 2nd/3rd gen Canadians I speak to (even foreigners from English nations like Australia) , have told me that 1 of the reasons they can't get into hockey is because it seems to be too centralized on "White people" (as racist as that sounds). They feel excluded and can't relate to the Don Cherry's of this world.
Yet the television ads make you think everyone is obsessed over this. ....
It was when I first stepped out of Canada to travel the world that I realized that the hockey culture in Canada isn't even 10% of what other countries have for their national sports. First of all, when a country loves Soccer/Rugby/ Aussie Rules, you can bet your ass that the average male/ young adult is fantastic at it, and it actually is played very regularly by the majority of the population.
For hockey, I honestly can't name 2 people (i have ever met, and this is me traveling all over Canada throughout my life) who has has played hockey. I find that even the ratings hockey gets for Hockey Night in Canada pales in to the ratings an average football match gets in Argentina even (i work in marketing, i see these #s every day).
Lately, the ads for the olympics had Donald Sutherland state over and over how hockey is the national obsession. I had to step out of my shell and integrate into various ethnic communities (or meet 2nd generation Canadians from ______(insert anywhere), to realize how little most non white Canadians care about Hockey.
In fact, I was shocked to find that a common view among many Canadians is that they blame the over funding of hockey for Canada's lack of success in other sports. In BC , regular citizens have tried to fund basketball, rugby, soccer out of their own pockets!
Working in my firm has changed the way i used to think of this. I was wondering ......what do you think? The 1 view I find most in my line of work is that hockey has become the only sport not to adapt to multi ethnic/ cultural changes of the modern world. Basketball, Soccer, Rugby, have embrased this and tried to promote the game all around the world, and to all peoples in their countries.
But most immigrants or 2nd/3rd gen Canadians I speak to (even foreigners from English nations like Australia) , have told me that 1 of the reasons they can't get into hockey is because it seems to be too centralized on "White people" (as racist as that sounds). They feel excluded and can't relate to the Don Cherry's of this world.
Yet the television ads make you think everyone is obsessed over this. ....