by the media because it supports their belief that hockey is a niche sport. I’d enjoy trying to sell that argument every night of the week at the Roseville Ice Arena where hundreds of 2-4 year olds are learning to ice skate.

That’s the same argument that’s made about soccer – that it’s a niche sport, despite the fact that it’s the largest participatory sport among youths in this country.

In Minnesota, hockey is anything but a niche sport. On any Friday or Saturday night across this state, you can find crowds at Mariucci, in Duluth, in St. Cloud or in Mankato for college hockey games that easily dwarf what the Timberwolves draw per game at the Bullseye. I’m not even mentioning the 18,000 fans at the X for every Wild game. Do you want to argue pro basketball is a niche sport in Minnesota?

Hockey is not a niche sport, not here. Despite what Brewster thinks, universities and teams can’t control what the local media talks about. If the Gophers were to win the hockey national title, they would lead the newscasts. How do I know this? Because it happened in 2002 and 2003. How can you call that a niche sport?

people who don’t particularly care about basketball or baseball will generally still have a passing interest in what happens. People who don’t care much about hockey will usually pay very little if any attention to it. That’s my take on it.

Nascar has a massive following is covered nationally, but you can’t tell me it isn’t a niche sport. In Minnesota it is more than a niche sport, but nationally I still think that is accurate.

Hockey fans are like the Green Party

Those inside are very passionate about their party and kind of crazy. But everyone else (Republicans, Democrats, undecideds) only care to a minor degree. Rep/Dem will pay plenty of attention to what the other is up to, but unless something MAJOR comes out of the Green Party they don’t give it much time.

Kind of like GN’s latest take, I think beyond Football, Baseball, and Basketball any other sport would be a niche sport. Because in those sports when something big happens even the casual sports fan will pay attention even when it’s not their own team. I think most sports fans really don’t give the Stanley cup much thought unless the Wild are in it. I’m a big Gopher Hockey fan never miss a game, but if the Gopher’s are not in the playoffs I’m not going to watch. But I will watch the Bowl games and the Super Bowl and the NBA Finals

In 2003, when the Wild reached the Western Conference finals against Anaheim, the games were regularly drawing a 67 share on local television. In other words, of all the people in the local area that had their TVs on, two-thirds were watching the Wild.

In other words, I don’t buy the argument that casual fans don’t care what’s going on with the local hockey teams.

How often do we talk about hockey on this board? Hardly ever. You could say that is because the people who are on here aren’t huge hockey fans—but why is that? They live in Minnesota, yet hardly talk about hockey the way we do Gophers football and basketball. I know that GN would love to have more hockey coverage on this board (after all, hockey is supposedly the most popular and successful sport at the U), yet he has had trouble in the past finding someone passionate enough about it to cover it to the same extent that we cover football and basketball.

I actually agree with GN that it is a niche sport even in Minnesota. Sure, you could FIND people that have all sorts of different opinions. But I would venture to guess that even in this state, more people are dedicated to watching Gopher football and basketball, Twins and Vikings than Gopher or Wild hockey.

I’ll admit that the Wild are probably more popular now than the Timberwolves, but only because they are so God awful. BUT, when the Wolves drafted Ricky Rubio, I guarantee that made more people care about basketball than anyone the Wild could have drafted. If the Wolves do sign Rubio, I think the Wolves/Wild argument may shift back to the Wolves.

Okay, so maybe niche isn’t quite the right word, but I still think it ranks 4th on the list behind baseball, football, and basketball. If the Wolves weren’t so bad, I would even say it would be a distant 4th.

I should mention that I do like hockey. I’m not trying to bash it in any way. I just know what I observe (and of course my observation isn’t clinical, none of ours are—we don’t have random samples, but it is an observation nonetheless).