From: f31922c@kaira.hut.fi (Asko Tapani Huumonen)
Subject: Dedicated fans? (was: Re: A Proposal For a European Hockey League)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:01:46 GMT

In article <trmakuu.722102105@uta.fi> trmakuu@uta.fi (Marjo Kuusto) writes:
>
>>                             I regard Finnish hockey fans every bit as
>>dedicated and fanatical as soccer fans in most European countries. In America
>>people seem to regard sports more like an entertainment that they are paying 
>>for than something like a religion. 
>
>Just wondering, where on earth did you get that idea?  Have 
>you been to the States / Canada watching hockey, baseball or 
>football?  I have the idea that they actually are very dedicated 
>and even fanatical, although I'm not sure whether their "fanatical" 
>includes violence.  It might,I just don't know.  Finnish hockey 
>fans are not a least bit of dedicated.  As soon as their team starts 
>losing, many supporters seem to lose interest in anything else than unfair
>criticism.
>
>>themselves. In the only Major League Baseball game I ever attended (and 
>>probably the only one I ever will) half of the crowd never seemed to pay any 
>>attention to what was happening on the field. The crowd attitude in the NHL 
>>games I have seen has not been as bad, but somethig similar anyway. 
>
>OK, you have been there, it's just that my experience is different.
>Maybe you should go and see Blue Jays next time. 

My opinions of North American sports fans are based on one baseball game
(Houston Astros visiting NY Mets) and two hockey games (Vancouver at Los 
Angeles and Toronto at New Jersey).  I admit that assuming the whole continent
to be similar may be too much. But that's something they (at least some of 
them) are doing to us (Europeans) all the time.

Of these three games I have witnessed the Mets game was the worst. The traffic
on the aisles for more hot dogs and beer never ceased during the play. The 
crowd was occasionally loud all right but people seemed to shout for the 
pleasure of shouting without paying too much notice to what was happening on 
the filed. Or maybe baseball is just too difficult game for me to understand.

In LA the fans started leaving the building while there was still ten minutes 
to play the third period. The Kings were three goals ahead at that time if my
memory serves me right. The guy sitting next to me never seemed to know who the
Kings players on ice were (except a certain #99). I'm not sure if he had ever
heard of Jari Kurri (who was playing in Italy at that time).

There certainly are a number of fans in American sports also that are very
dedicated to their sport and their team. However, I think that the portion of
those who go to games without too much caring about the sport is larger than in
Europe.

All the games I saw were practically meaningless regular seasons games where
winning or losing is really not a big issue for the crowd. Perhaps during the
playoff-time the atmosphere and crowd attitude is different.

Does criticism towards a losing favourite team really represent lack of
dedication? Somebody might even regard it as an expression of concern for the
team's success. I have understood that the fans of FC Barcelona football (or
soccer if you wish) team are known of being very critical towards their own
team. Yet, I have never heard anybody blaming them undedicated. 

>Marjo




Asko Huumonen                | f31922c@kaira.hut.fi     | phone 358-0-4522211
			     |				| home  358-0-8043563
----  In certain situations a good canister is worth a flood of rhetoric   ----
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey