Why is Hockey Less Popular than Other Major League Sports?

why is hockey nationally less popular than other major league sports uh... the my opinion the reason is that people don't play it in south florida or or alabama it's very expensive uh... there are no natural surfaces on which to play it people ball hockey is a tremendously popular game right now but it's not ice hockey and to get a sheet of ice like this is this is a multimillion dollar facility so there in really lies the biggest rub that that people just don't have access to the to the ice surfaces and the expensive the expensive nature of the equipment also is prohibitive so that is going to keep us somewhat unfortunately contract what advice would you have for kids that really wanna make it in the n_h_l_ is it a realistic goal every kid should have a dream and that that that happens to be in athletics i think they should be able to dream that I think that the first thing that you need to do is learn how to skate my advice really doesn't go to the to the kids it goes to the parents where i think we've made a mockery of what we should be doing in uh... athletics as far as hockey is concerned anyway we've got kids that are six and seven and eight that are on travel teams traveling around two and three hours to play a fifteen minute game I know there's some socialization that occurs there but that could happen a lot closer to home and for a lot less expense and i think if we could we could get more training into our early hockey programs more training less travel less game playing and then of course less nonsense among parents in the stands then i think we're much better off and and some of the european countries we've always known that they've been much better technically it's because they're trained more more thoroughly and properly they don't play as many games there's not as much emphasis on the games so consequently as they get older and do play more games they're better prepared and i think that's something that we should all look at and my advice to the kids in general is learn to skate learn the skills and and you'll get your game sense as time goes on a kid though that wants to make it in the n_h_l_ all they can do today is play hockey they can't diversify man themselves it's a sad comment really for me but specialization is here to stay it looks like and i think we just have to be careful you can still as a kid play other sports uh... but the way things have been structured there's if you're part of a program it starts in september it doesn't end until april there's off-season conditioning programs that they want summer hockey schools that they want you to be a part of its tough i still think there's a little room for it but like anything else if you put your mind to it if you have a gifted with some some natural ability you've got a chance but it's not something professional sports is not something anybody can count on this is your chances are remote that you'll make it but it's uh…not unfair or unwise to dream and yeah like you say it's good to have a dream this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts school of law