Interesting Article on the decline of Roller Hockey

[AZHockeyGuy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...urn=nhl,180197

[Sinister Soup]

.......bummer

[quick_dry]

check out that 8 year change figure -50+%

On the positive side, by taking select stats from that report you could help strengthen a case to local govt for facilities, particularly looking at 'press conference' worthy stuff like female particpation rates, lower median family incomes, etc.

(though I bet if I made the 'Clerks' reference to almost anyone in even my senior national team - men or women they'd look at you blankly)

[skooled]

Bill Raue is actually using this statistic to "rally the troops" for his MLRH broadcast, to get people to hold "broadcast parties"All in all, I think we all new in the back of our minds that this was the case, no matter how little we wanted to admit it. What has brought this on you may ask??? I think it is the lack of good quality grass-roots programs. Maybe its the attention put on tournaments, maybe its the fact that we have three leagues competing for top status, when we should be lucky to have one.

Either way, we ALL need to do what we can to get as many as possible to play

[DannyG]

...we ALL need to do what we can to get as many as possible to play

I'll build on that.

What I am doing is going to the 13 elementary and middle schools in my area. Where a principal will allow fliers, or a poster, or stuff on a community information table, I am providing that. Where the PTA or other such organization will allow me to speak, I am doing that.

My goal is to get 100 kids (ages 4-12) in my program (I am a rink owner/operator)by Halloween...and then keep building.

Please allow me to challenge everyone/anyone. Get together with your local rink operator and offer to front for him at schools, PTA's etc. Have your hockey team make a public appearance at schools. Join an "adopt-a-school" program and help out in exchange for preaching hockey to the potential little hockey players.

Good luck, and thanks! to all who help the sport to grow.

[skooled]

that is more that just a good business decision. Why not take it further? how much is the schools business worth to you?? put on a term ir semester's worth of "school development" and then have the schools compete in a mini competition, with a valuable prize (valuable to the school) in the likes of a computer, projector etc (what ever they are generally fundraising for) and then another, smaller prize for the biggest fanbase/bums on seats for said competition (non players)

[PGHhockey]

Nevermind.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

I haven't weighed in on this, but I think there's a heckuva lot more to say. However, I'm focused on finishing my book on RHI.

I will say this:

There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I never believed the statistics given out by this group at the height of the sport. They counted people who'd purchased a pair of inline skates and a stick as inline hockey players. How many of those people didn't have the makeup to become a hockey player?

Many.

[skooled]

Yes Graham, but unfortunately, they are the stats that the manufacturers (and potential manufacturers/sponsors) look at.

[Diversity Now]

Gees...where do I start.

AWARENESS, AWARENESS, AWARENESS!

Why is anyone surprised of these figures? We must take notice of these numbers regardless of what we might think about "stats". This is an issue that I've tried to raise for several years now within our own community. The lack of cooperation from the NHL and local professional ice organizations (Colorado Avalanche) must share some of the blame for the decline of the sport. In many cases these entities just don't realize which side their bread is buttered. Would you believe that a Avalanche representative actually told me…”we had no idea that this inline hockey community existed.”

Are you kidding me! I wanted to ask him, what rock are you living under?

As one (anlgo) sports reporter once wrote..."what's wrong with hockey is that it is too elitist, too white and too expensive." This was not a indictment on anyone's ideals but just stating the fact that hockey must diversify if it is ever going to reach more households to become more mainstream.

Over the years since roller hockey's early popularity, the sport was taken for granted. Many rink operators thought that the frenzy of the sports popularity would last for ever. Cultivating young players was ignored. Visiting school and building strong leagues came with no enthusiasm in exchange for a few fly-by tournaments. When did we not realize that roller hockey should have always been a "league" sport and not a tournament sport. Leave the tournaments to golf and tennis; which by the way are both doing a better job of attracting young participants while increasing awareness for their sport.

I'll stop now to avoid putting anyone to sleep. I can tell you, that I am visiting schools and working with inner city community groups. We've got a lot on our plate, but all necessary activities if we are ever going to save, what should have been, the most popular sport next to basketball, baseball, and football.

Good luck to everyone and their future endeavors to support roller hockey. Nuf said!

[growl89]

Roller hockey is a tough sell now a days, at least in Northern NJ it is. When I was growing up there was a travel roller hockey league that exsisted. Some L.I. Teams, N.J. teams and PA teams. It was a great time. What happened? Why did this kind of growth stop? And I don't think it's fair that some poeple blame the tournaments because their numbers are down as well. In NJ tournaments would sell out all of the time, Isca, the collesium, skaters choice, even instant replay in morristown. Hell, even the in house leagues were flooded with players. As an example, In the late 90's ISCA would have 2 fully sold out 14-17 year old divisons, that was 24 teams! As of today, there are 4! I'm not picking on ISCA, it's just where I played growing up and I find these numbers shocking. Instant Replay in Morristown, as of last check, has no youth program, at all! Same with Inman sports center in Edison. Eventually all of us are going to get older and stop playing. What's going to happen to these places?


Lacrosse taking off hurt roller hockey a lot. As well as the ice hockey craze here in NJ. There are over 200 high school ice hockey teams in the state of NJ. When I graduated hs in 2000, there were 85. Roller hockey had it's shot, it needed to become a varsity sport while the RHI was going on, that would have been the perfect time for it to take off. Instead people just tried to capitalize for short term profit, leaving not much of a future in the sport.


The last post mentioned about how golf and tennis numbers are up amongst participants. That should not be surprising. Guys like Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are in the limelight of the country. Last weekend I went to The Barclays in Jersey City. I have never seen more people so intense over one person. I hate to break it to everyone, but Tiger Woods, himself is probably more popular then the NHL as a whole, so to compare roller hockey to golf is not a fair comparison for our sport.


In order to increase the participation manufacterers need to drop the price on their equipment. That's the only was we will attract a "economically diverse" group to the sport. Roller blades should not cost equal/more then top of the line ice skates. I enjoy roller hockey, always played ice, but loved doing something different in the summer, but if I had kids, what would be the motivation to get them into roller hockey over ice hockey or lacrosse or golf or tennis?

The stigma that is given off from roller hockey is that of unorganized and second rate. I coach a college ice hockey team and just mentioning "roller hockey" gets a laugh out of all of them. Then I try and defend the sport to all of them and say, "come to narch it'll change your opinion." Until we figure out how to get the class of narch incorporated into a semi-pro league, I fear that we will just be arguing on message boards until we get fed up enough to just give it up.

[AZHockeyGuy]

While I think that a lot of you guys make good points I think there is one important thing that need saying on this issue. The problems that have started this decline in the sport are too complex and diverse (economics, large institution changes, etc.) to even begin to understand or even develop a plan to solve. This is what academics in political theory refer to as a "wicked problem." The worst thing we can do is try to boil it down to quick fix solution. However, there is only one concerted effort that has worked in most major social movements. That is the grassroots movements. I hope we see more of them in the near future. It would definitely help more than just the hockey.

[skooled]

Thats right. it must be fixed from the ground up