from Lawrence Martin at the Globe and Mail,
Picked up the sports section of a newspaper the other day and was greeted by an irritating headline: “The Year that Hockey Died.”
Increasingly, we’ve seen these doomsday stories about our national sport. They’re exaggerated, of course. The sport is nowhere near the netherworld. The NHL is doing fine. TV contracts are big. The game – check the Pittsburgh-Washington series – still offers dramatic entertainment. Ottawa is putting up a new arena. The Toronto Doormats (Maple Leafs) have just won the draft rights to a superstar. Chances are they will be revived in this millennium.
So where does all the codswallop, all the stories about hockey’s demise come from? They come from immigration patterns which have seen millions arriving in Canada from cultures where hockey is barely heard of. They come from melting ice caps, a dwindling number of backyard rinks, falling enrolments in hockey youth programs.
They come from hockey being far more expensive than other sports; from its turn from a blue-collar sport to a rich kids’ one. They come from the steep rise of basketball and soccer.
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