Smizik ponders who is most popular - Pens vs Steelers

[pensfan1989]

Do the Pens need to do a better job of marketing their brand to blacks, such as by acquiring a black player who can actually play (i.e., not an enforcer like Georges Laraque who wouldn’t enforce anyway)?

No. You acquire players who can help you win a cup. Not to pander to an "underrepresented" demographic in your fan base.

[moondart]

Do the Pens need to do a better job of marketing their brand to blacks, such as by acquiring a black player who can actually play (i.e., not an enforcer like Georges Laraque who wouldn’t enforce anyway)?

Amen!! Political correctness is going to be the death of this country.

Blacks, for the most part, generally don't play hockey at this moment in time compared to the other sports (football, baseball, etc)...did I just offend someone for telling the truth?

[Gaucho]

No, but political correctness has nothing to do with this at all.

[moondart]

No, but political correctness has nothing to do with this at all.

Yea...the "hockey in the hood" campaign I haven't seen in a while...hmmm.

[Gaucho]

Never mind.

[Rylan]

I...hmmm...I am not touching this discussion.

[Bathgate]

Yup. "Blacks" is totally considered derogatory

Then I guess the Pittsburgh Courier is a racist newspaper.

[shmenguin]

Yup. "Blacks" is totally considered derogatory

Then I guess the Pittsburgh Courier is a racist newspaper.

Either that or startlingly ignorant.

[RisslingsMissingTeeth]

The only thing that matters here is marketing yourself to people who make high incomes. So, you don't need youth popularity per se, you need to market to the influential parents and they will market you to their youth. I'm speaking from experience. I can't get my son to watch 10 minutes of a Steelers game (even though my son loves football), but he watches Pens games with me all of the time and plays ice hockey almost year round. We have bought 5X more Pens merch and dumped an infinitely (all hockey parents already know this) larger sum of money into the junior hockey system.

As a person who works with numbers, I can tell you that the levels matter much less than the trends and the Pens growth trends are soaring. As more of the Saad and Gibson stories occur, more influential (read kids with $$$) kids will pursue hockey over football.

[pittsoccer33]

Ironically, despite the fact it is more accessible to well-off families at the youth level, the NHL strikes me as much more blue-collar than the other major sports.

http://www.danbylsma.com/askDanAnswer.asp?q=20

Question #20:
I'm under the impression that professional hockey has more of an educational background than other sports. Do you know know the percentage of players in the NHL that have college degrees? B.W. CT.

Dan Replies:
Dear B.T. - I'm pleased that you think the players in the NHL have more of an educational background than other professional sports, but it is my opinion that it only appears that way. I believe the nationality percentages in the NHL this season are 56% Canadian, 19% USA born and 25%European. It would be my guess that only about 20% of the Canadian players came through college (but this percentage is growing), about 90% of the USA born players and almost none of the European players. So considerably less than half of the NHL is college educated compared to nearly all of the NFL and NBA. This is because the farm systems for the NBA and NFL is almost exclusively college sports. The NHL's farm system is more than 50% Canadian Jr. A and European hockey.

What you perceive, I believe, is not an educational bias but a cultural one. Almost all hockey players come from middle class or upper middle class families and reflect typical middle class family/moral values and work ethics. So you don't read as much about personal wreckage among hockey players as in some of the other professional sports. Hockey is not without its sinners, but there is not one illegitimate child for each player (numerically) as there is reported to be in the NBA, for example (Sports Illustrated), and I doubt if it's even one per team.

Some of the reason for this may be the amount of serious parental involvement in terms of money and time required in youth hockey. It's not something you can do with ten or fifteen guys and one $20 ball on a playground or a vacant lot. I believe that more parental involvement (oversight?) leads to a more responsible participant. And that responsibility follows the player to the professional level. Almost without exception, the guys I've come to know in five seasons in the NHL are regular family-orientated guys who are exceptional athletes who can "lace 'em up".

NHL players do not have more education, they just act like it.

[thepittman]

Well another reason would be that central PA has most of the Steelers games blacked out because the NFL is evil.

[pittsoccer33]

Well another reason would be that central PA has most of the Steelers games blacked out because the NFL is evil.

Thats a good point in general - of the 16 Steelers games per year you can watch 14 or 15 of them without a $40+ per month cable package. Except for Monday Night Football on ESPN all the games are available over the air with an antenna.

The Penguins get what - three to six games on NBC per year out of 82. I don't think any will be showing up on the CW any time soon again either.