12/21/24
May 24, 2016
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Speaking as a fan of a Southern team, what difference does it make? They've been playing NHL games mainly indoors for 90 now, so what's the big deal of where the franchise is located?
Hockey fans in so-called traditional markets can be so weird about where people are allowed to play the game. Why do they have this litmus test of where the sport can be played? It's like they don't want the sport to expand and be played by kids, no matter where they are. Thanks to the presence of an NHL team, the Triangle area of North Carolina has something like six regular ice rinks, a megacomplex of multiple ice rinks, and another megacomplex on the way. Still, there's hardly any available free skate time in any of those places because of all of the youth leagues and adult leagues.
I grew up in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula and growing up, no one gave a shit about hockey. I think the only place it was played was in Traverse City. This was in the days before cable TV, so there were no Red Wings games on TV or even the radio and no one played pond hockey. It was a rich person's sport that was played in Traverse and the small towns near there where people could make it to the rink on a snowy Saturday. Now, thanks to cable TV and the Red Wings being good, everyone up there is a hockey fan.
posted by NoMich at 10:26 AM on May 24, 2016
Still, there's hardly any available free skate time in any of those places because of all of the youth leagues and adult leagues.
The rink in Santa Barbara was completed in October of 2014. There are now 4 men's adult leagues, both boys and girls youth leagues, and a line out the door for every public skating session. Of course, the town is crawling with Canadian and northeast/Midwest transplants, but I think the Kings string of success also has a lot to do with the interest.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:44 AM on May 24, 2016
Kenneth Starr (yeah, that one) is reportedly about to be fired as President and Chancellor of Baylor University due to the ever-expanding scandal over sexual assaults by football players and cover-ups thereof. Ah, irony.
posted by Etrigan at 11:47 AM on May 24, 2016
I still struggle with the concept of major league pro hockey being played in warm weather latitudes.
Not only did no Canadian teams make the NHL postseason, but if the Sharks end up facing the Lightning in the finals, I think they would be the most southerly pair of Cup finalists ever.
Heck, even if St. Louis faces Tampa Bay I think they still might be the most southerly pair.
(Except that St. Louis does get plenty cold and snowy in the winter - as well as hotter than hell in the summer. I've been there and seen both ends of that.)
Edit: just realizing that Avalanche v. Panthers might come pretty close.