A few days ago I had lunch with a dear friend from Costa Rica. He was born and raised in Central American culture and of course loved Futbol (soccer). As the conversation developed, I couldn’t help make the comparison between Latin America’s love for their game and Canadians’ love for hockey. To my surprise, he was very familiar with the game and pointed out some of the finer points of what makes hockey great. My pride for our national sport grew and then without warning, he added that he couldn’t understand “why we let the players fight”, a flaw in the game that he felt disqualified it from being a great sport – one he could love.
In one sentence, Fernando brought me from a warm glow of pride for our nation to a knowing shame for the way Canadians and our national sport are perceived around the world. It was an honest question…..but one I could not answer.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Fernando’s question: Why DO WE allow the players to fight? I was familiar with the sacraments Don Cherry preaches to Canadians every Saturday night about how violence is necessary in the game; but I realized that trying to explain Don Cherry to a Costa Rican, or to anyone for that matter, would only make me sound ridiculous. Is it credible to blame a TV “personality” for the state of our national sport – I think not. Cherry may be the most vocal, but he could not be the reason fighting is allowed in hockey.
There is a reason that fighting is allowed in hockey and it isn’t about altruistic ideals – it’s about money. For the broadcasters who buy and sell hockey, it is only the space between the advertising. Hockey is about delivering to advertisers a certain group of people. Broadcasters sell the eyes and ears of the audience who watches hockey to other people who make and sell stuff. The system has become very sophisticated with ongoing studies conducted about the age, sex, income, and values of the people who tune into hockey. Currently, the largest group of viewers are young males age 19-32 which is very different from the early days of televised hockey which attracted families. Somewhere between then and now, the game changed and so did the audience. For many Canadians (then and now), watching hockey is like passing a car wreck – you want to look, but you don’t want to see. What we loved about hockey, the skill and the speed, became overshadowed by the intimidation tactics, stick work and bullying of untalented players. Hockey substituted violence and brutality for skill and talent and even exported it to Europe.
Hockey is the way it is, because advertisers don’t want change. They believe there is only one audience for hockey – the one that they currently have. They don’t know that 100s of thousands of viewers would come back to hockey IF it got rid of the violence that blemishes the sport and diminishes talent and skill. Concussions threaten to end the careers of some of the best players currently playing the game. The owners, the commissioner, the players’ union and a lot of Canadians are being held hostage by the broadcasters and their advertisers. That is the current state of the game of hockey and the answer I could not give Fernando.
For those of us who love hockey and Canada’s association with it, hockey must change. The game that we love has deteriorated into something unappealing to most Canadians. Some very good changes have been made proving that change is possible. Though change is what we all need, it is the one thing we seem to dread the most. Change happens when we see the future (what we want) and act as if it already is; that means watching hockey and changing its demographics and continuing to believe that Hockey can be great again….