Inline Hockey Numbers

[Dave Garland]

Hey everyone,

I was curious if anyone has information on how many people "play" inline hockey in the United States.

Play of course has many different meanings. How many AAU/USA Inline registered players are there? Are there other databases of players (including of course rec league players)?

Also, what defines someone as an inline hockey "player"? Once a month? Four times a year?

Thanks and I appreciate any information (and sources of information)

-David Garland

[ACCCT2]

Hi Dave --

UPDATED --

Check out the Sporting Goods Manufactures Association (SGMA) website (www.sgma.com): click "research reports" and then under "General" click the "Sports Participation Topline Report 2006" -- their most recent survey/report indicates a 7-year (1998 - 2005) decline of 46% (3,876,000 in 1998 to 2,094,000 in 2005). You can certainly contact them directly about anything they might not be publishing (regarding inline hockey), as well ask them your "participation" questions and maybe quiz them about their "methodologies".

The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) should have them in their "Sports Participation Reports" ("SPR's"), but interestingly, inline roller hockey is apparently now so unimportant and inconsequential as a sport (and sport market/segment) that it's no longer even listed in any of their current reports -- as it always was up until a few years ago. AGAIN, you can certainly contact them directly about anything they might not be publishing, as well ask them your "participation" questions and once again, maybe "quiz" them about their "methodologies".

The NSGA website: www.nsga.org

[ACCCT2]

UPDATED info in above post.

[Dave Garland]

Excellent, great info!

[ACCCT2]

Hi Dave --

I just got SGMA's last survey measurement that put inline roller hockey participation at 1.2 million -- a 70% decline (crash?) from 1995 when it was at the sport's high water-mark of 4.2 million (ouch!)...

[Dave Garland]

Yikes. I will have to contact them and see how those numbers are "defined" meaning what it means to be a participant.

[ACCCT2]

Don't worry, Dave -- a good marketing/ad-guy (like yourself?) can 'spin' numbers almost any way they need to be "spun" -- that's why really good "marketing/ad-guys" always wind up running someone's presidential or political "damage-control" campaigns...!!!

[Dave Garland]

That is correct

[RichardGraham]

Dave,

Be careful how you "spin." Journalists like myself like to question that spin and make you look bad, especially when you've been coached by a "spinner" whose spin would make Bill O'Reilly's head spin clear off.

It's like quoting game attendance. RHI used to have all sorts of attendance numbers, and there were games I attended that they must have been counting cockroaches and ghosts as well as spectators.

My advice? Stick to the truth. It will get everyone a greater distance in the long run.

[ACCCT2]

Dave,

Be careful how you "spin."

Yeah, be REALLY "careful" how you "spin", Dave ("wink-wink"!) -- I second that...!!!

My advice? Stick to the truth. It will get everyone a greater distance in the long run.

And if that doesn't work, yup -- "spin" the "truth" as best you can...!!!

In all seriousness though, Richard's correct about not overdoing what I might call "hyperbole".

[CUDangled]

When I read numbers like those, without even trying to "spin" them, I immediately start to wonder how they were calculated. In 1995 were they counting the kids that only played in the streets with 3-buckle Rollerblades and mylec sticks curved with their feet? Since that "fad" has essentially disappeared, I can see why the numbers have dropped. I find it hard to believe that the numbers in "competitive" (sanctioned leagues/tournaments) have dropped off that much. In my own hockey world I have access to more rinks now than I did then, the tournament series are larger than they were then, you have entire manufacturing lines that based on inline, but have crept into ice...are these signs of a 70% declining sport?

I would also be interested to see what the % decline of others sports are. Teenageers today know the cheat codes for Grand Theft Auto, rather than how to throw a curveball...so perhaps these numbers in the report are just a sign of the change in times OVERALL of active sports and not necessarily the decline of JUST roller hockey in the sports world?

??? Just speculating...

[CUDangled]

It's like quoting game attendance. RHI used to have all sorts of attendance numbers, and there were games I attended that they must have been counting cockroaches and ghosts as well as spectators.

I know exactly what you mean! Just because a team/league/etc gives away tickets at the gas station with a fill-up, does not mean that ticket was USED. So you gave out 1000 tickets through a combination of sales and promotions...big deal. How many people showed up!?! Just like when you watch (or go to) an NHL game and they say this is XXth sell-out this season and you look around at empty seats.

[ACCCT2]

When I read numbers like those, without even trying to "spin" them, I immediately start to wonder how they were calculated...

I find it hard to believe that the numbers in "competitive" (sanctioned leagues/tournaments) have dropped off that much. In my own hockey world I have access to more rinks now than I did then, the tournament series are larger than they were then, you have entire manufacturing lines that based on inline, but have crept into ice...are these signs of a 70% declining sport?

I would also be interested to see what the % decline of others sports are...so perhaps these numbers in the report are just a sign of the change in times OVERALL of active sports and not necessarily the decline of JUST roller hockey in the sports world?

??? Just speculating...

While you might want to 'disbelieve' the numbers, the survey/report "methodolgies" used are consistent (otherwise the studies would never be accepted within the industry). Sometimes we can be too close -- emotionally as well as physically -- to something to actually 'see' the classic "BIG picture" and the reality is that inline roller hockey is "off the radar" as a meaningful sport in the consciousness of the sports industry and the vast majority of consumers that such sports industries obviously have to cater to.

Don't get me wrong, as I absolutely DO see a myriad of opportunities in all this if the sport can somehow properly and dramatically turn things around...

[quick_dry]

be careful of being so North-America-centric - there is a whole wide world out there and yes, the participation numbers in leagues are falling overall.

I imagine that other sports may have a fall in participation with kids playing playstation instead of soccer, but even proportionately, inline has participation numbers dropping more than other sports.

[FLATBALL39]

When I read numbers like those, without even trying to "spin" them, I immediately start to wonder how they were calculated. In 1995 were they counting the kids that only played in the streets with 3-buckle Rollerblades and mylec sticks curved with their feet? Since that "fad" has essentially disappeared, I can see why the numbers have dropped. I find it hard to believe that the numbers in "competitive" (sanctioned leagues/tournaments) have dropped off that much. In my own hockey world I have access to more rinks now than I did then, the tournament series are larger than they were then, you have entire manufacturing lines that based on inline, but have crept into ice...are these signs of a 70% declining sport?

I would also be interested to see what the % decline of others sports are. Teenageers today know the cheat codes for Grand Theft Auto, rather than how to throw a curveball...so perhaps these numbers in the report are just a sign of the change in times OVERALL of active sports and not necessarily the decline of JUST roller hockey in the sports world?

??? Just speculating...

Dave,

Hello -- according to a large IHC "I" "AM" really "ACCCT2" -- so this introduction perhaps is not really necessary.

I don't know if there is a way to send a print-ready, post-scripted Portable Document Format (PDF) attachment, but I DO have exactly and ALL of the latest (most recent) numbers you're craving!

So -- izzit possible to 'attach' (somehow) within the IHC platform?



"Lascivio hockey, ergo sum."