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All-Star weekend a celebration of Nashville's growth as a hockey town |
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The NHL’s All-Star weekend wasn’t off to an ideal start Thursday – superstars such as Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews dropped out of the game citing health concerns, and the ongoing saga of enforcer-turned All-Star focal point John Scott did not cast the league in the best light – but for all the imperfections of the event, there’s one undeniable good coming out of this year’s game: the emergence of Nashville, the host city, as a genuine bright spot when it comes to growing the sport.
There are people who just read that paragraph and said to themselves, “Come on, now, Nashville? City of (predictable cultural stereotype) and (boring caricature)? They’re too busy listening to (category of music that’s flourished in the region) and eating (item of food you can almost certainly find in many, if not most other cities) to love hockey! At least, to love hockey the way I, Authentic Hockey Fan and self-appointed Arbiter Of Admittance Into The Discerning Club of AHFs, loves hockey!”
But yes, I’m here to say that Nashville, and the Predators, slowly and steadily are turning into a nifty little success story for the NHL and for hockey in general. Myopic sneerers may not want to call it a hockey town, but Nashville shouldn’t be worried about winning over that crowd anyway. The people who want to see the game’s popularity and participation numbers rise understand that nothing particularly nutritious is best eaten in microwave form, and that you don’t reap much of anything from a field mere seconds after laying down seed.
Indeed, it takes not years, but decades for a plant to set strong roots in a location where it isn’t part of the land’s history. And that’s the case in the relationship between hockey and Nashville, just as it was when the Minnesota North Stars relocated to Texas in 1993, and just as it was when the NHL first expanded to California nearly 50 years ago. Expecting that any non-Canadian city or non-northern-and-mostly-eastern American city would instantly abandon its traditional pastimes for the newest show in town is arrogant and expectant (you know, two of the qualities hockey’s gatekeepers loathe), and petulantly demanding that the NHL abandon certain U.S. markets when there isn’t an instant explosion in interest is shortsighted in the extreme.
No product lasts long in any business when its “proponents” and “ambassadors” focus on excluding a portion of consumers from consuming it. And make no mistake, people in Nashville are consuming NHL hockey at a very healthy rate. The Predators currently have an attendance average of 16,910 – better than 11 other franchises (including two Canadian teams and two teams in the greater New York City area) – and that rank is affected by the relatively small seating capacity (17,113) of Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. The more telling statistic is that the Preds have found takers for nearly 99 percent of their seats in each of the past five seasons. Given that the team failed to make the playoffs in two of those seasons and has only won two playoff rounds in its 17-season history, you can’t argue the locals are only supporting the Predators in the good times.
Maybe it took nearly losing the team to Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie and relocation in 2007 to scare Nashville residents awake, but they’ve responded the best way possible since that time: by turning out in droves, by finding corporate sponsors and area businessmen to buttress that fan support, and by building their own hockey culture. It will take that type of sustained backing in the years ahead, because a hockey culture can’t thrive without grassroots participation, and again, you don’t just snap your fingers anywhere and instantly create a deep pool of youngsters who’ll grow up with the sport and pass along their appreciation for it to future generations.
But the good news is – as we see now in California and Texas – is that it is possible for warm-weather American markets to cultivate a hockey culture in a place where it once didn’t exist. We now see young players from those states regularly drafted by NHL teams, and dozens of rinks dotting landscapes in which football and baseball fields once were the only available stages for talented young athletes.
Now there are other choices for them. And the longer places like Nashville have NHL hockey, the likelier it is their grassroots grow stronger. And every grassroots market contributes to the long-term survival of the sport.
If you truly care about hockey, that’s what you should want.
For that reason, here’s hoping the 2016 All-Star Game focuses on what the event should be about: not which players have dropped out, and not the things that set Nashville apart, but what makes that city the same as the rest of us – the same as Edmonton, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor and Moose Jaw: namely, there are thousands of people living there who love the game, and never want it to end.
Blogger •NHL Columnist • 
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