The Fate of "the 4th Major Sport"

So what did you do this Sunday? You probably watched some TV...I know I did. Most people usually do.

Super Bowl bye week so no football. College basketball had some good games. Lebron vs. Kobe. Tiger tearing up Torrey Pines at the Buick. Some FA Cup games early in the morning (dont get me started on those balloons on the field during the Sheffield Utd goal...if you haven't seen it already I'll post it later in the week). The Australian Open Mens final was on late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. So there were a lot of good sports events on the tube...

But probably the best of them all was the game played on the ice in Atlanta. The NHL's All-Star Game. And I bet very few-if any-of you watched it.

For years the National Hockey League has been struggling- in attendance, in TV viewers, in advertising, in overall popularity. Even before the canceled season of 2004-05 the NHL's popularity was on the steady decline....A far cry from the glory days of Gretzky and Lemiuex in the 80's or Howe and "Rocket" Richard in the 50's as the face of the league.

Last season's All-Star game ratings dropped 76%-yes 76%!- from the previous year. The Stanley Cup continued with record low ratings on NBC. Viewers in the US who wanted to watch the All-Star game had to be lucky enough to have The VS. Channel (formerly the Outdoor Life Network) to even catch a glimpse.

A Harris Interactive poll, taken in January 2007, polled 2309 US Adults on their favorite sports.
The poll listed Hockey right behind Men's Golf in 8th place. 1 spot ahead of Men's soccer. Thats right. In the USA, SOCCER is almost as popular as Hockey.

So will the NHL die, fade off into oblivion, be doomed to th VS. network forever???

Well with the strong fan base that the NHL has, not only in Canada but in many European countries as well I don't see the NHL ever falling completely off the map.(Although why the league keeps awarding NHL franchises to places like Columbus and Atlanta instead of say Winnipeg is beyond me.)

But one thing about Sunday's game did give me hope for the future of "the 4th Major Sport."

Youth.

Eric Stahl, Anze Kopitar, Rick Nash, Paul Stastny, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin and others...and of course Sidney Crosby-the new face of the NHL- give the NHL hope. In a game that can be at times one of the most exciting spectacles in sport, fast-paced, full of action, and full of flair. The injection of some individuality from this new group of young stars could be just what hockey needs to throw it back into the national spotlight. Coupled with new innovative ideas like outdoor games and the All-Star game skills competition population could increase again.

Red Wings Goalie Chris Osgood said, ""A lot of the other leagues -- football, baseball -- they have some personalities in the league that draw attention with the fans, and I think in the last six, seven years, our league's lost that. We don't have as many of the characters like we need in our league to promote the game and sell tickets. We tried to do that this weekend. I'm hoping it works."

I hope it works too.