The past few weeks have been rough for the NHL, with both the first-place Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres both filing for bankruptcy protection.

Now, I’m not a big fan of hockey, and I don’t really know if I would miss it if it went away. The interesting thing to me, though, is why hockey is having so much trouble. Of course there are the typical arguments… high ticket prices, declining attendence with a rough economy, and fragmented TV rights (similar to the baseball argument). Those are probably more relevant to the current crisis in hockey.

In the big picture, I believe the NHL suffers because of why and how people start rooting for sports. Simply put, people will pay for and attend sporting events for sports that they can play or do play on their own. Josh and I talked a little bit about this yesterday. Basketball is easy… nearly every gym in every school has at least 2 nets. There are outdoor courts nearly everywhere. Football just requires an open field, and again, nearly every school has at least one field. Baseball requires a bit more infrastructure (diamond, a backstop, bases), but there are a ton of baseball fields. Even tennis, which is an expensive sport to get into, is fairly accessible to the general public.

Hockey, on the other hand, is nearly impossible to play unless it’s street hockey. Ice time is difficult to get, and rinks are hard to find. As a result, few people play hockey in the U.S., and it’s popularity suffers greatly. Think about it… will there ever be a “Be Like Mario” ad campaign?

Just my random thought for the day.