The author is right that there is a long laundry list of things that will keep hockey out of talk with the big 3. My thoughts are two key points. Americans follow and play sports by seasons. Spring/Summer is baseball, Fall is football, and Winter/Spring is basketball. There isn’t room for anything else for the crowds. That is why soccer is tough to catch on. Kids playing soccer are honestly kids of parents who resent the major sports since they weren’t good themselves or are themselves not good enough for the major 3. Soccer players will get mad at that, but it is absolutely the truth.

When I chose to play soccer in the 9^th grade, I was very embarrassed. I didn’t want people to know that I chose to play that over baseball. The real reason I chose it over baseball was just that I didn’t like guys on our baseball team and I knew I could play summer league baseball. The other point is ease of play. I can run out in the yard and throw a baseball with someone. I shoot hoops in my backyard. I can throw a little football in the yard. I can’t play hockey. People aren’t going to buy the equipment so that enough kids can actually play. You will need to be committed outside of major hockey regions to actually play the sport.

OLN does hurt hockey, but I think just give it time. When TNT first took on the NBA, people were pissed. Not many people watched TNT back in those days. A lot of people didn’t even have TNT on their systems. The thought of play-offs not being available on free tv was weird. Of course, basketball had enough of national fan base to overcome that challenge. I think the NHL can do that as long as OLN is a well marketed network. I bet most people don’t even know they have that network. The NHL fan base is definitely a long work in progress.