Tagged: NHL

Northwest Sports Gets a Boost

With the announcement that there could be a new stadium being built in Seattle, that could house both an NBA franchise and an NHL franchise, the northwest has once again been given the opportunity to show just how great of a sporting fan base there is here in Washington and Oregon.

For the past five years the Northwest has been seen by the rest of the country as a place where sports teams just die or move away half dead.  Seattle lost the Super Sonics, has a Mariners team that has struggled to be relevant, and is home to the Seahawks whom made the playoffs a year ago despite being the only team in history to have a losing record and accomplish making the playoffs.  The city of Portland hasn’t fared much better as they were not only able to keep the Portland Beavers but also have failed to even draw enough support to attempt to bring another team to the city.

There have been a few bright spots for the Northwest.  Both Portland and Seattle have MLS teams that are being fully supported and embraced by there communities.  Although I’m not a big soccer fan I still understand the importance of having every major sports team in a region drawing fans and gaining support.  Rarely is a fan only a fan of one sport.  As one team in a region begins to find success it can pressure the other teams, even in different sports, to try and match the same success to keep the fan base excited about their team.

It is because of this that I am excited about the possibility of two new teams moving to Seattle.  If one team is able to find success and give a bit of life to the sports community in a city it can ignite the spark that is needed to build winning franchises in multiple sports.  I also am excited that Seattle is attempting to draw in more teams because this just might be the push that is needed to encourage Portland to start reaching out and building support to bring in additional franchises to Portland.  I don’t know if Portland can support a Major League Baseball team or an NHL just yet but I would love to see an attempt find out.

Sports can unite a city, but only if they are given a chance to do so.

The forgotten sport

Today I was flipping through the ESPN channels and I noticed that a player in the NHL was getting suspended for shoving a fan.  This totally caught be off guard and surprised me, not because a hockey player shoved a fan, but because I had no clue that hockey had even started yet.

At first I thought it must be pre-season and that is why I just haven’t heard anything about it, but then I noticed that it’s the regular season for the NHL.  Is the NHL so far behind the other sports in popularity that even a sports fan like me didn’t catch the start of their season?

Now I know that the NBA with the Miami Heat story has been a big headlines this fall, and the first couple weeks of the NFL have had a lot of interesting stories coming out. The constant shake up of the college football rankings, and the exciting games of the MLB playoffs have all been the main focus of SportsCenter, but come on NHL you have to get the word out a little better.

I know the main reason I didn’t know about the NHL is because there isn’t a team with in 300 miles of me at the least, but still the NHL needs to do a little more than just having their special channels on Direct TV if they want the casual fan to tune in.

Realizing that hockey has begun does have some positive affects for me. I get to start looking at tickets to the Portland Winterhawks.  It’s always fun to sit right next to the glass and scream at the opposing team.  If you live in the Portland area and haven’t been to a Winterhawks game I highly recommend it.  Just remember its okay to make a ton of noise and laugh with the drunk guys who yell at the opposing team. (The drunk guys make the games even better.)