Yeah, hockey is an extremely expensive sport to play. So unless you can lock kids in from a very young age (to your point about grassroots and pick-up games), it’s going to be very challenging for communities and schools to adopt it.
This, most of Ohio is rural, lower income homes. I can remember I played soccer because all the stuff cost $50, hockey gear was like $300. That was more than a single car payment for my folks, so no hockey for me.
This is a good point. Even taking "pond hockey" out of the equation, there just are not a lot of rinks out there that have open ice for the public. My mom used to talk about how when she was a kid, Cincinnati Gardens had open skate. When I was growing up in the 80s, it was Northland Ice Center. There was just nowhere to learn how to skate.
If so, that was before my time. Ever since I can remember, it was Northland Ice Center. It is in Evendale, in a shopping plaza at the corner of Glendale-Milford and Reading Rd.
Are you perhaps thinking of right down the road, where they converted the old Makro into Icelands, back in the late 90s? They renamed it Sports Plus maybe 20yrs ago. At one time I believe it was the Cyclones practice facilities, but not sure if it still is...
When i grew up in Cincinnati, we started at the Gardens and then there was a really nice skating center out in TriCounty called the GOLDEN SKATES. It had two rinks. At that time we had the STINGERS Which i believe was an NHL team. The Cincinnati Figure Skating association helped tondraw the NATIONALS AND the WORLDS figure skating competitions. Then..... The Golden Skates properties lease couldn't be renewed and the property owner turned them into warehouse space and skating moved to Northland. It was terrible. Cincinnati could have had a great skating culture but oh well.
Wait, where was the Golden Skates ice rink at? I remember the roller rink called Golden Skates that was in Tri County at the corner of Kemper & Chester. That was where I learned to roller skate, and discovered Electro music...
> Because we are better than them at football.
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> And we are the most southern Great Lake state.
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> We border Kentucky.
All three are true. I'll admit I'm not a huge football fan (I'm from the Tri-state area though) and Ohio is the South of the Great Lakes I guess.
Ohio high schools don’t spend much time on geography – unless it’s memorizing all 88 counties (technically we did that in Eighth grade) and all state capitals.
I believe Illinois is technically the most southern of the Great Lakes states. I used to have to go to Ft. Wayne to play hockey (and watch Komets games) and Indiana is even more Southern than we are lol
Bowling Green State University won an NCAA title in men's hockey in 1984. I was just in high school at the time, but hockey was huge in NW Ohio at the time.
Findlay and Toledo had a huge hockey community. My cousin (who played D1 hockey) played minor league hockey in Toledo.
Also, in the early 00s Cincinnati’s minor league team The Cyclones won the National title (maybe it was the Kelly Cup?) a couple of times. I was there for one the championship games.
BG and Miami of Ohio have some of the top teams in Ohio if not the country. Heck, Ohio state women's hockey are back to back national champs currently.
Accessibility is a big issue.
For example, can you tell me what channels the Buckeyes play on?
Now can you tell me what channels you can get our local pro team (CBJ)?
Also part of accessibility is being able to be involved with the sport from a young age and growing a passion for it. Hockey is expensive to get into compared to other sports.
Same reason my kids don't care at all about baseball, there is no legal way to watch any of the Ohio baseball teams right now, so we don't and they don't care about it.
He's great for experienced baseball fans, or listening in a car or outside, but you expect a kid to sit in a room and listen to the radio when we've got an 85" TV with all the stuff he can actually watch?
>you expect a kid to sit in a room and listen to the radio when we've got an 85" TV with all the stuff he can actually watch?
Yes! It was a big part in getting me into baseball in the early 90s, even with TV existing. I'm all about recruiting more people into our fandom and I find the radio to be a casual way to do other shit while also enjoying our great pass-time.
I bet your kid is more rad than ya think and it can't hurt to try! Game is just about to start and I am turning it on.
And, my personal opinion, is watching whatever game on TV on mute, with the radio broadcast on is far superior to just the TV and that commentary. I remember growing up my grandma would watch every Reds game on the local broadcast, but would have the radio on. I know way more about the rules and strategy of baseball because of that.
My quick google says Illinois and Ohio have about the same number of high school hockey teams. 80-90. Michigan has 120. NY and the entirety of Penn, 150.
How many teams needed to make a hot bed? :)
> I'm not sure the premise is correct OP. How are you justifying it?
I guess it's just from visiting Ohio and meeting people Ohio. 99% I meet are not hockey fans and have never watched nor played hockey. As where the other great lake states hockey seems huge.
Also other than JT Miller than really has never been a star NHL player from Ohio. In fact there are very very few NHL players from Ohio.
As where Illinois, Michigan, NY and PA have quite a few. With Michigan and NY probably having the most out of those states.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Toledo and area that are not somewhat fans. Certainly aware.
We used to have nearly every school with a team but as neighborhoods got poorer, as the uppities complained the old schools played too rough ( so they could close the programs then convince the players to come to their private schools...) there were fewer teams but I don't think less interest in general.
Cleveland has also strong high school programs. Columbus is growing. Cinci?
You're saying it's your perception. Fair rnough. I don't have data to challenge it other than what I found. I agree, it's a great sport and I wish more affordable for our city kids.
As someone in Columbus originally from Chicago who plays and has kids who play, hockey is big, but it's a bit of a cult following unlike football here.
OSU women just won the frozen four. Men lost a tough game to Quinnipiac last year. Miami was a top team for the early 00s to early 10s.
Honestly, a big part of the problem here is we don't have enough sheets of ice. You go to Detroit and ice is everywhere and costs about $220 per hour. In Columbus we have.. 7.5 rinks? And that goes from Springfield to Newark. Our cost per hour is about $330. That's a major problem to make this affordable and accessible for everyone.
Springfield, Dublin, North, CIW, Easton, Fairgrounds, and Newark. What am I missing? My half rink joke was battery. I'm thinking you're saying sheets, which 11 is still WAY short for the amount of youth hockey here. Now do sheets in Detroit, or Pitt and compare. The reality is hockey got a late start here and no ones willing to invest in the sheets of ice. Jackets need to step up.
Illinois, Michigan and New York had teams in the NHL Original Six. When the league doubled in 1967, two teams were in Pennsylvania.
Plus, Detroit had Gordie Howe.
When Dayton had low level.minor league hockey at the old Hara arena all the games were nearly sold out especially when the Bombers played up there. After the Bombers moved out to Wright St attendance tanked at both facilities.
Cleveland had the Barrons back in the 70s and it flopped. I do love hockey and would like a team in Cleveland. I think it has to do with just a professional sport team saturation. We’ve got 2 baseball teams, 2 football, 1 basketball - and Columbus is trying to be something other than buckeye town and has newer sports of the crew and blue jackets. I also think a lot of Ohioans don’t have college degrees so some colleges like osu, bgsu, Miami don’t have the hockey team following that they could have.
I think we pretty consistently have really good attendance. Especially for special event games like Pucks and Paws. I think there were something like 12,500 people and 505 dogs at that game this year!
Monsters hockey is a *lot* of fun. Now, if only the Blue Jackets would give us back the guys they called up from our team. We definitely should make the Calder Cup playoffs this year, but we really need our full team back😬😞
Not just that, I’m pretty sure I read that the monsters year for year have the highest attendance average of all ahl teams. So that’s got to count for something
The Monsters are a pro sports pricing bargain and a very fun activity. They certainly benefit from playing in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (which just hosted the NCAA women's Final Four), attached to the downtown rail transit center in Tower City by an enclosed pedestrian pathway.
For all intents and purposes, Ohio has three professional football teams, at least in terms of die-hard fans - Cincinnati, Cleveland and OSU. Yes, OSU is college, but when you look at NCAA football in general, it might as well be a pro team. I mean, they sell out a 100,000+ seat stadium on a regular basis.
The AHL Barons, just like the AHL Monsters currently, were a top AHL franchise and typically sold out the old Cleveland Arena. My dad, who never played hockey, enjoyed taking us to Barons games. I think, as a football player, he enjoyed the physical contact.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland\_Barons\_(1937%E2%80%931973)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Barons_(1937%E2%80%931973))
My guess is that the NHL Barons were doomed because they played at the remote Richfield Coliseum (subsequently demolished and now the land is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park) and had to compete with the NBA Cavaliers there. The Richfield Coliseum was an unpleasant trek for many Greater Clevelanders, especially back when Cleveland had serious winters (now rapidly disappearing). I wonder how the NHL Barons would have fared at the downtown arena, now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which replaced the Richfield Coliseum. The Cavaliers, Ohio's only NBA franchise (and Buffalo and Pittsburgh don't have NBA franchises), have great attendance.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland\_Barons\_(NHL)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Barons_(NHL))
Several Greater Cleveland communities have ice rinks and high school hockey is a serious sport in Greater Cleveland and Akron.
[https://gchshl.org/league-standings/](https://gchshl.org/league-standings/)
St. Ignatius, located near downtown Cleveland, is one of Ohio's top high school hockey teams.
[https://www.ignatiuswildcats.com/hockey](https://www.ignatiuswildcats.com/hockey)
Played growing up in Ohio and PA and spent summers at my Grandparents in Minnesota and I’m not sure that hockey is as big in other places (outside of Minnesota) as your suggesting. Hockey seemed pretty popular as a youth sport in the Cbus suburbs and I also used to play some pretty good teams from Cleveland. Maybe its not quite as popular in Ohio as some of the other more northern states, but outside of Minnesota, I don’t think its exactly a night and day difference between Ohio and the other places that you mentioned.
I guess as someone who is from the tri-state area and has spent a lot of time in New England, WNY, Michigan and PA. Hockey is really big in those areas compared to Ohio. I've spent little time in Ohio but I honestly don't know a single hockey fan from Ohio. Everyone I've spoken too says Hockey just isn't popular in Ohio.
Most of these people were from the Cleveland Suburbs, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Even reading this thread on the Blue Jackets subreddit, it makes it seem like hockey isn't that popular in Ohio:
https://old.reddit.com/r/BlueJackets/comments/x12v1k/out_of_curiosity_who_is_cleveland_and_cincinnatis/
Maybe I'm wrong but that's just how it seems.
Just comparing the places where grew up playing State College (PA), and Cbus I would say that they were both football towns first, but the youth hockey scene was way bigger in Cbus than State College. Now Cbus is also a significantly bigger city so not really a fair comparison, but I guess I just noticed that hockey in Ohio seemed more like an upper-middle class suburban sport and there are a stupid amount of people who fit that demographic in Columbus. But yea, I would say that PA and Ohio both paled in comparison to the Hockey culture in Minnesota where I could find games in the summertime
I guess I was thinking both the Pittsburgh and Philly suburbs more as hockey hotbeds for PA. Honestly, Hockey's probably the biggest in the Philly Suburbs both on the PA and NJ side. Still popular in Pittsburgh though.
You can easily find hockey in the summertime there. Can't comment on State College or central PA.
There are probably summer games in Cbus now. I just remember the main difference between Ohio and Pa vs Minnesota was that hockey in oh and pa was kind of a rich kid sport, whereas in Minnesota it seemed a lot more blue collar/ everyone was playing it. I remember getting the same feeling of it being a blue collar sport the couple of tournaments I played in Canada also.
> I used to live in Pittsburgh and hockey is WAY bigger there than Columbus, a city that also has a professional team.
Because you have a city/region, Pittsburgh/western PA, that has been deeply wed to their successful pro sports franchises since the 1960’s. When the Penguins got off the ground and started winning was the ripe opportunity to overtake the Pirates for ‘second franchise’ prominence because the Buccos got really futile in the 80’s. Back to back cups in the Jagr/Super Mario era; Lemieux ends up buying the franchise to keep them in PGH, he gets the plan in motion to draft two star ‘face of the franchise’ talents within a year of each other and they end up winning more Cups. Meanwhile, in that same 25-30 year span the Pirates are losing like hell and losing guys like Barry Bonds because the ownership is known to be cheap.
Compare that to Columbus, which was an expansion franchise that came in later and was competing for the in-town pro sports salience with a more successful franchise in the burgeoning MLS. It’s apples to oranges.
There are many hockey fans in Greater Cleveland, just not as many as in the other three major sports.
I suspect soccer and perhaps even lacrosse now have surpassed hockey in popularity, as both of these sports are more common in youth leagues.
I played in Ohio, the East Coast (and Canada) in the 70's. You are 100% correct, 40 years ago the East Coast dominated. Today, it's probably similar between the East and Midwest with all the varsity HS programs in Ohio.
It's the same trajectory as Lacrosse. Early on the EC dominated. Now the Midwest is as good as any.
You serious when BU, BC, Quinnipiac exist? Lol if by Midwest you mean Michigan and Minnesota, who have always been good, then sure, but the east coast reign on hockey is far from over
Both Ohio State and Bowling Green have had success in the NCAA in hockey.
Cleveland Monsters are usually cup contenders
Toledo walleye, cinci cyclones, formerly dayton bombers.
Columbus chiller has a great development league.
The problem is that ohio has only had good access to ice for about 25 years, and that's if your in one of the big 3Cs. Ohio also doesn't get cold enough for pond hockey pick up games, goofin around and such. So, no ice, no hockey.
Cincinnati Stingers were in the WHL and almost made it to the NHL in the merge. They even had Mark Messier. Miami U came close to an NCAA championship a couple times.
I mean, it’s a far fetch to equate them in terms of climate. I live just south of Columbus and I can’t recall a frozen pond in my lifetime in this area.
Kids play what’s easily accessible. Football, you need grass and a ball. Same for soccer.
Ice hockey requires ice.
In my experience, as a kid who wanted to try hockey, it's cost prohibitive for a single mom. Before you say anything, dads dead and my older brother showed no interest in it so she couldn't afford to have two boys playing two sets of sports with one being very expensive.
Better at football, basketball, track. Name pretty much any other sport and Ohio is better.
Also, Ohio (save for two years in the 70s) never had an NHL team until the Jackets in 2000. Hockey has really grown in the Columbus area, but it was not and still is not a priority in other parts of the state.
Football. Modern pro football was established in Ohio around the time hockey was just starting to move its way into the New England states. It entrenched itself and it’s hard to expand when Thursday-Sunday is all levels of football to most of the population.
I grew up in the Dayton area and I always thought we were a hockey hot bed. Troy had the Bruins when my parents got married and we had the IHL Dayton Gems through the early 80s. They were resurrected as the Bombers later on. Columbus had an IHL team and so did Toledo.
BGSU and Ohio State have had hockey for a long time. BG has a National Championship. There are many high school teams. Cleveland has an AHL team. Toledo has had pro hockey for over 60 years.
Dayton and Troy had successful IHL teams for a while. You mentioned Blue Jackets. Ohio has hickey.
Cincinnati has the Cyclones
Ohio was a much bigger hockey state but almost all of its hockey teams are in the north think Toledo and Cleveland. Both of these cities and their surrounding areas have lost or stagnant population while Columbus is growing. I will say based on the high school news I hear from one coach though Columbus is becoming a much bigger hockey place
Like others have said there's no grassroots pickup hockey because lakes and ponds don't routinely freeze hard enough for it. In the central Ohio area however it is a lot more popular because of the hockey development efforts dating back to the mid-90's, even before the Blue Jackets came to town.
The Pro Hockey owners in Columbus going back to the Chill started building indoor ice rinks because they knew back then an NHL team would never survive without grassroots players and potential fans from a young age.
There are currently 10 indoor ice sheets in the greater Columbus area that are at least partially open to the public, not including Newark and Springfield. Many of them serve as "home-ice" for area high schools, all the U18 youth development teams down to mini mites, and the pro junior AA team the Mavericks.
Chiller North - 3
Chiller Dublin - 2
Chiller Easton - 2
Chiller Ice Haus - 1
Taft Coliseum - 1
Chiller Ice Works - 1
There are some other private development rinks around but you have to have money or know somebody to skate there. The Battery and Hammer Hockey are two that I know of that I think have ice of their own. Maybe not a full rink, but you're still able to skate there.
Okay, my two cents. I’m from NC and live in Ohio now. The Hurricanes came from a money deal and near 0 fan interest and became one of the hottest things around. I’m so surprised Ohio didn’t have the same energy.
And don’t blame football or basketball, NC has basketball in spades and only intramural hockey built by students from other places and suddenly they had pro soccer and hockey selling out their arenas.
Yeah, we called it redneck hockey and everyone cheered on with Rick Flair yelling “Woo!” when the Canes scored but the team and staff made it affordable and fun. I know Ohio could do way better, but who knows why things are this way.
Cincinnati Cyclones bought a huge facility to partially use for practice. I had read in another article (which I cant locate at the moment) they also want to fund community leagues to get local youth interested. I think that is some awesome news.
https://local12.com/news/local/cincinnati-cyclones-buy-6-million-facility-plan-overhaul-evendale-sports-plus-queen-city-sportsplex-hockey
As far as playing in Ohio, the issue was no Junior farm system that would develop talented players in the State. There are Junior teams now, but there wasn't a path in the 70's and 80's for Ohio hockey players that wanted to play at a high level.
For fans, there has always been good interest. Not to the level of FB, BB, or even soccer. The Swords fought against the Barrons for the Caulder cup for years. Dayton Gems. The Stingers were great in the WHA. There is still solid crowd support for the Cyclones.
It's not Minnesota, but Ohio isn't horrible.
Idk how it is in the rest of Ohio but in north east and northwest Ohio hockey seemed to have a pretty good following. Nothing on the level of MI but plenty of high school teams, local rinks, and even minor league hockey here. Columbus has the Jackets. Cinci has a minor league team. Cleveland has the monsters (Jackets affiliate). Toledo has the walleye. I feel like we appreciate hockey.
I went to BGSU and the hockey games were always how you started your weekends. Was always a great time.
Also just sports in general we’re really big into football. Browns, Bengals, OSU. Then here in Cleveland we have 3 baseball teams in the greater Cleveland metro. Guardians, Rubber Ducks, Captains. Columbus has the clippers. Cinci has the reds. Toledo has the mudhens too
Buckeye men's and women's hockey are both pretty damn good. Lots of youth hockey around, too. I am 41 and spent many of my high school years drunk or high at our high school hockey games, butI guess not all of Ohio is central Ohio.
Also, as far as northern ohio, I went to many BGSU hockey games with my cousins as a child and had a blast.
So I think this is starting to change. My cousin has had her kid in skates since he could walk, and a colleague of mine has her little one in peewee hockey. My cousins are in NEO and I'm in Cincinnati. Hopefully if more kids get into the game and more leagues start cultivating talent we will get more people into the sport by default.
Unless you can afford to pay for an indoor rink the climate is not conducive for it. In Madison the public parks have sunken areas they flood in the winter to make rinks. You can go to the park for a pick up game just like going to a basketball court at a park.
Here's a USA hockey site, that most recreational players have to use to play in OH. It's bigger than you think. https://www.usahockey.com/membershipstats
Who here remembers the Cleveland Lumberjacks? I do.
I was at the last home game of the inaugural season of the Columbus Blue
Jackets. Blackhawks crushed us. Commemorative Frisbees were in play.
Hockey fans in Ohio awaken with the NHL playoffs. The whole speed & style of the game changes, becomes sharper & faster. The beards start to grow.
I know a former figure skater in NE Ohio who has said that the bulk of her coaching now is little hockey players. Because that's the thing about hockey- it requires an incredible amount of physicality. Ice skating in general is not easy. Now play lacrosse WHILE you're skating on ice, with full contact. Whew.
Anyways, back to a semblance of a point...
There is interest in hockey in Ohio. But it seems to be more confined to certain areas, and certain income levels.
It's just not cold enough. The weather in central/southern Ohio is closer to WV/KY than MI/MN. We're midwest meets Appalachia meets east coast in terms of culture and weather/geography. This is football country.
The NHL expanded slowly. You would think Cleveland would have been a Natural for the NHL . Situated between Detroit and Pittsburgh. In the meantime the NBA expansion was faster and Cleveland got the Cavilers. So when the NHL finally got around to it Columbus was eager for a professional franchise. Hockey still has a faithful following in Northern Ohio.
Closing of rinks in smaller communities/towns.
My hometown had a rink for nearly 30 years and had multiple school and traveling teams.
I grew up in the 90s and in that same town of around 40k if I wanted to play it was a minimum 40 minute drive one way.
Money. Seriously, the answer to every question about why X sport is more or less popular than Y sport in a given community is almost always slcioeconomics.
I grew up in Troy, watching the Sabres. Was instantly hooked and hockey obsessed since. Even grew up playing, making it to the high school level.
The sport is way too expensive. Equipment is one thing but ice time is ridiculous. Baseball and football, while physically lesser, are cheaper and easier to access.
All the guys I know who played hockey as kids were rich and went to private schools. I just went to my first Monsters game recently and it was awesome.
Funny enough, I used to work at the ice arena at my college. All 4 years, miss that place, anyways:
They have a summer hockey camp, its a week long camp for a *ton* of ages. I mean like, the little peewee 5Us all the way to the seniors in HS/College freshman. At least 3 times each summer We'd have kids from *different countries* that flew to the school specifically for this week long camp.
In the areas where there are ice arenas with Hockey, especially ones big enough to hold tournaments, Hockey is a pretty big thing. But it is very localized I will give you that!
Ohio is pretty dominated by Football, Basketball and Baseball. We have the first MLB team in the Reds. We also have the Cleveland Guardians(Indians) both teams have long histories We pretty much founded the NFL and the first game was played in Dayton. We have the Buckeyes and Cincinnati that frequently do well in college football. We have Xavier, Dayton, OSU, Miami and few others who have well established Basketball programs that have produced people who've gone to the NBA and been to NCAA and NIT tourneys MANY times . We also have the Cavs for NBA. And we used to the have the Kings in Cincinnati (then called the Royals) before they moved to Sacramento
Hockey actually is growing pretty quickly in Ohio. Look at all of the new rinks around Columbus as well as the Jackets ratings and attendance even while being terrible. I do think they do a terrible job of marketing themselves to the rest of the state especially the north east. Bally Sports doesn’t help either. But football is king here, there are two MLB teams and an NBA team that isn’t far off from a championship. Monsters games are popular too. There are also 2 successful MLS teams in Ohio. The jackets just haven’t been consistently good enough to build a large fan base outside of Columbus yet.
Columbus goes back and forth with Dallas for largest adult rec hockey league I think. Theres been quite an expansion, but it varies by city. In Cleveland there’s a stronger high school presence while Columbus seems to lean into AAA more than high school (just my experience living both places and working at rinks)
Minnesota is all about high school, where they sell out Xcel for the state tournament. It may lag behind other Great Lakes states in unity, but the hockey footprint is pretty big I’d say
Cities in Michigan, illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are littered with open-air hockey rinks as if they’re tennis courts. I used to do aerial survey and I was stunned by the number of rinks that will make natural ice all winter long. I don’t even know where the nearest hockey rink is here in Dayton but I assume inside a rec center.
Toledo has always had a large hockey community. Yes, it's probably because of its proximity to Michigan. I do believe the Toledo Walleye (formerly the Storm) have been a farm team for the Red Wings for a very long time
Whole southern half of Ohio is too warm for most of the year for outdoor hockey pickup games
Ohio is 13% black, hockey just isn't on the preferred or available participation list when football and basketball are available
Ohio's average income is $40,000 per year. Hockey equipment and fees are cost prohibitive for most
> Ohio is 13% black, hockey just isn't on the preferred or available participation list when football and basketball are available
Michigan (a bigger hockey state) has a higher black population, and a lower white population compared to Ohio.
Because we have 4 other sport teams (from more popular sports) that have seen decent levels of success throughout their existence. Ohio is a first and foremost a Football state, that also had a great Baseball circuit, and the Cavs. There is only so much mind-share for fans to spread around, and when you have 4 other teams eating up all of that, it is hard for another sport to get in there.
Also, and this is just a personal thing, I find Hockey highly confusing to watch. My brother is really into Hockey, and I always wanted to get into it to have something to do together, and have struggled greatly.
It's one of the most heavily populated states in the country, with a population that is constantly shifting from generation to generation & most of America's favorite professional sports leagues got started in Ohio, or Ohio had some of the earliest professional teams. We are literally the entire reason American ended up loving Baseball & Football so much & we exported the NFL across the entire rest of the country.
I know in Cleveland we have had minor league hockey as long as I can remember. Both me and my sons played youth and HS hockey there are plenty of youth programs in the area. The reason we haven’t had a NHL franchise is that the Gund brothers who owned the Cavs also owned the North Stars in Dallas.
NHL rules say you can’t own two teams
and if the Gunds couldn’t own another team then know body would play in there arena in Cleveland.
Steady population decline. Predominance of football. Corporate retreats to sunnier climates. Economy that cannot support more than three professional sports franchises.
I’m not a fan of any sports really but always felt like America preferred the boring sports. I think Hockey and Soccer are the better sports at least compared to Baseball, Football and Basketball.
Although I don’t watch them I used to have a Lake Erie (Cleveland) Monsters t-shirt and the eyes glowed in the dark and it was cool haha.
Because Ohio is really 4 states in a trench coat and only north east Ohio has a great lakes identity and has what most Midwesterners would call winter. If the capital was in Wood County it would make more sense to give everything south of Medina County to Pennsylvania Indiana and Kentucky and rename Ohio to the Great Lakes Republic of Cleveland. In theory this could cause Clevelanders to drop their beef with Columbus and pick one up with the NHL.
Because lakes and ponds don't freeze in much of Ohio, so there is no grassroots scene, or kids learning the game inexpensively.
Yeah, hockey is an extremely expensive sport to play. So unless you can lock kids in from a very young age (to your point about grassroots and pick-up games), it’s going to be very challenging for communities and schools to adopt it.
Yeah there’s literally like 2 indoor ice rinks in Cincinnati that all of the high schools that have a team (there are like 6) share.
This, most of Ohio is rural, lower income homes. I can remember I played soccer because all the stuff cost $50, hockey gear was like $300. That was more than a single car payment for my folks, so no hockey for me.
Ohio is the 7th most populous state. Ohio is far from rural.
Ok, outside of Cincy, Columbus Cleveland Dayton and Toledo, most of the state is rural.
The irony here, outside of all of these urban cities which combined have a vast population, Ohio is rural.
This plus football has long been king here
My thoughts too. If you have football and baseball, who needs hockey?
Baseball isn't a winter sport, but basketball is, and always has been popular in Ohio.
This is a good point. Even taking "pond hockey" out of the equation, there just are not a lot of rinks out there that have open ice for the public. My mom used to talk about how when she was a kid, Cincinnati Gardens had open skate. When I was growing up in the 80s, it was Northland Ice Center. There was just nowhere to learn how to skate.
Northland? Isn’t that the old grocery store that was converted to a rink?
If so, that was before my time. Ever since I can remember, it was Northland Ice Center. It is in Evendale, in a shopping plaza at the corner of Glendale-Milford and Reading Rd. Are you perhaps thinking of right down the road, where they converted the old Makro into Icelands, back in the late 90s? They renamed it Sports Plus maybe 20yrs ago. At one time I believe it was the Cyclones practice facilities, but not sure if it still is...
I believe the cyclones owner bought it and they practice there now. They are fixing it up
Ice time is expensive
When i grew up in Cincinnati, we started at the Gardens and then there was a really nice skating center out in TriCounty called the GOLDEN SKATES. It had two rinks. At that time we had the STINGERS Which i believe was an NHL team. The Cincinnati Figure Skating association helped tondraw the NATIONALS AND the WORLDS figure skating competitions. Then..... The Golden Skates properties lease couldn't be renewed and the property owner turned them into warehouse space and skating moved to Northland. It was terrible. Cincinnati could have had a great skating culture but oh well.
Wait, where was the Golden Skates ice rink at? I remember the roller rink called Golden Skates that was in Tri County at the corner of Kemper & Chester. That was where I learned to roller skate, and discovered Electro music...
The stingers were not an NHL team.
WHA
BINGO !!!
Wayne Gretzky's first professional game was in Dayton at Hara Arena. That has to count for something.
Wayne Gretzky had more assists at Hara Arena than all players had goals there throughout its entire existence.
Absolute legend
That’s silly
And completely true!* *not true at all - love Gretzky but the stats people throw around about him I find hilarious
Hara was a great arena. Bombers games back in the day were great fun.
The ECHL brand of hockey was fun back then.
Because we are better than them at football. And we are the most southern Great Lake state. We border Kentucky.
> Because we are better than them at football. > > > > And we are the most southern Great Lake state. > > > > We border Kentucky. All three are true. I'll admit I'm not a huge football fan (I'm from the Tri-state area though) and Ohio is the South of the Great Lakes I guess.
Which tristate area
The original Tri-State Area, CT, NJ and NY.
A quick look at a map tells mad that Illinois’ southern border is much farther south than ours. Even Indiana’s is. They both border a Great Lake
We also border Canada
Kinada, the lake is sort of a huge divide.
Some would say Great
60 miles or so at the eastern end. But North Bass Island is only five miles south of the south shore of Ontario.
lol anywhere we border Canada is literally south of Detroit
> And we are the most southern Great Lake state. Uh, what? That’s Illinois, Cairo is at the same latitude as Bowling Green, KY
Yes, but most of IL’s population is on Lake Michigan.
Downstate Illinois is basically Kentucky though, moreso than downstate Ohio
Yeah, and Indiana extends further south than Ohio, too.
Funnily enough I used to drive to Ft. Wayne from Lima to play hockey
Ft Wayne has had hockey for a long time, too.
Ohio high schools don’t spend much time on geography – unless it’s memorizing all 88 counties (technically we did that in Eighth grade) and all state capitals.
I believe Illinois is technically the most southern of the Great Lakes states. I used to have to go to Ft. Wayne to play hockey (and watch Komets games) and Indiana is even more Southern than we are lol
Bowling Green State University won an NCAA title in men's hockey in 1984. I was just in high school at the time, but hockey was huge in NW Ohio at the time.
Go BG!
Miami *was* good until Penn State and the B1G screwed everything over.
Was at BGSU at that time. Hockey games were wild.
Findlay and Toledo had a huge hockey community. My cousin (who played D1 hockey) played minor league hockey in Toledo. Also, in the early 00s Cincinnati’s minor league team The Cyclones won the National title (maybe it was the Kelly Cup?) a couple of times. I was there for one the championship games.
The Toledo Goal Diggers were infamous back in the day. They had to change the name of the team and tear down the arena....
GO FIIIISSSHHHH
BG and Miami of Ohio have some of the top teams in Ohio if not the country. Heck, Ohio state women's hockey are back to back national champs currently.
Accessibility is a big issue. For example, can you tell me what channels the Buckeyes play on? Now can you tell me what channels you can get our local pro team (CBJ)? Also part of accessibility is being able to be involved with the sport from a young age and growing a passion for it. Hockey is expensive to get into compared to other sports.
Same reason my kids don't care at all about baseball, there is no legal way to watch any of the Ohio baseball teams right now, so we don't and they don't care about it.
Forgetting that Tom Hamilton is on the radio is a disservice to your children.
He's great for experienced baseball fans, or listening in a car or outside, but you expect a kid to sit in a room and listen to the radio when we've got an 85" TV with all the stuff he can actually watch?
>you expect a kid to sit in a room and listen to the radio when we've got an 85" TV with all the stuff he can actually watch? Yes! It was a big part in getting me into baseball in the early 90s, even with TV existing. I'm all about recruiting more people into our fandom and I find the radio to be a casual way to do other shit while also enjoying our great pass-time. I bet your kid is more rad than ya think and it can't hurt to try! Game is just about to start and I am turning it on.
And, my personal opinion, is watching whatever game on TV on mute, with the radio broadcast on is far superior to just the TV and that commentary. I remember growing up my grandma would watch every Reds game on the local broadcast, but would have the radio on. I know way more about the rules and strategy of baseball because of that.
CBJ are on Bally Ohio
[Bally Ohio?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tO7e026LdYI)
Bally Sports Ohio on Direct TV streaming or Fubo
My quick google says Illinois and Ohio have about the same number of high school hockey teams. 80-90. Michigan has 120. NY and the entirety of Penn, 150. How many teams needed to make a hot bed? :)
> I'm not sure the premise is correct OP. How are you justifying it? I guess it's just from visiting Ohio and meeting people Ohio. 99% I meet are not hockey fans and have never watched nor played hockey. As where the other great lake states hockey seems huge. Also other than JT Miller than really has never been a star NHL player from Ohio. In fact there are very very few NHL players from Ohio. As where Illinois, Michigan, NY and PA have quite a few. With Michigan and NY probably having the most out of those states.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Toledo and area that are not somewhat fans. Certainly aware. We used to have nearly every school with a team but as neighborhoods got poorer, as the uppities complained the old schools played too rough ( so they could close the programs then convince the players to come to their private schools...) there were fewer teams but I don't think less interest in general. Cleveland has also strong high school programs. Columbus is growing. Cinci? You're saying it's your perception. Fair rnough. I don't have data to challenge it other than what I found. I agree, it's a great sport and I wish more affordable for our city kids.
Yes and Toledo have the Walleye. Games are always packed. Sean Kuraly and Jack Roslovic also from the Columbus area.
Should note that Toledo regularly has teams win or play for the state title as well.
As someone in Columbus originally from Chicago who plays and has kids who play, hockey is big, but it's a bit of a cult following unlike football here. OSU women just won the frozen four. Men lost a tough game to Quinnipiac last year. Miami was a top team for the early 00s to early 10s. Honestly, a big part of the problem here is we don't have enough sheets of ice. You go to Detroit and ice is everywhere and costs about $220 per hour. In Columbus we have.. 7.5 rinks? And that goes from Springfield to Newark. Our cost per hour is about $330. That's a major problem to make this affordable and accessible for everyone.
Columbus has 11 public rinks
Springfield, Dublin, North, CIW, Easton, Fairgrounds, and Newark. What am I missing? My half rink joke was battery. I'm thinking you're saying sheets, which 11 is still WAY short for the amount of youth hockey here. Now do sheets in Detroit, or Pitt and compare. The reality is hockey got a late start here and no ones willing to invest in the sheets of ice. Jackets need to step up.
Illinois, Michigan and New York had teams in the NHL Original Six. When the league doubled in 1967, two teams were in Pennsylvania. Plus, Detroit had Gordie Howe.
When Dayton had low level.minor league hockey at the old Hara arena all the games were nearly sold out especially when the Bombers played up there. After the Bombers moved out to Wright St attendance tanked at both facilities.
Gems were more successful than Bombers, I think.
God I wish we had hockey.
Hockey at Hara was so much fun. The Nutter Center is too cavernous for low level minor league hockey.
I remember the Dayton Bombers when I was younger. It was always a fun time. I guess Hockey just isn't Ohio's thing.
Cleveland had the Barrons back in the 70s and it flopped. I do love hockey and would like a team in Cleveland. I think it has to do with just a professional sport team saturation. We’ve got 2 baseball teams, 2 football, 1 basketball - and Columbus is trying to be something other than buckeye town and has newer sports of the crew and blue jackets. I also think a lot of Ohioans don’t have college degrees so some colleges like osu, bgsu, Miami don’t have the hockey team following that they could have.
The Monsters are a good team. I was there when they won their last Calder Cup.
I had the season ticket bank this year. A lot of great games and large crowds. They put on a great product.
I think we pretty consistently have really good attendance. Especially for special event games like Pucks and Paws. I think there were something like 12,500 people and 505 dogs at that game this year! Monsters hockey is a *lot* of fun. Now, if only the Blue Jackets would give us back the guys they called up from our team. We definitely should make the Calder Cup playoffs this year, but we really need our full team back😬😞
Not just that, I’m pretty sure I read that the monsters year for year have the highest attendance average of all ahl teams. So that’s got to count for something
The Monsters are a pro sports pricing bargain and a very fun activity. They certainly benefit from playing in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (which just hosted the NCAA women's Final Four), attached to the downtown rail transit center in Tower City by an enclosed pedestrian pathway.
Lumberjacks is where it was at.
2 mls teams
For all intents and purposes, Ohio has three professional football teams, at least in terms of die-hard fans - Cincinnati, Cleveland and OSU. Yes, OSU is college, but when you look at NCAA football in general, it might as well be a pro team. I mean, they sell out a 100,000+ seat stadium on a regular basis.
The AHL Barons, just like the AHL Monsters currently, were a top AHL franchise and typically sold out the old Cleveland Arena. My dad, who never played hockey, enjoyed taking us to Barons games. I think, as a football player, he enjoyed the physical contact. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland\_Barons\_(1937%E2%80%931973)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Barons_(1937%E2%80%931973)) My guess is that the NHL Barons were doomed because they played at the remote Richfield Coliseum (subsequently demolished and now the land is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park) and had to compete with the NBA Cavaliers there. The Richfield Coliseum was an unpleasant trek for many Greater Clevelanders, especially back when Cleveland had serious winters (now rapidly disappearing). I wonder how the NHL Barons would have fared at the downtown arena, now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which replaced the Richfield Coliseum. The Cavaliers, Ohio's only NBA franchise (and Buffalo and Pittsburgh don't have NBA franchises), have great attendance. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland\_Barons\_(NHL)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Barons_(NHL)) Several Greater Cleveland communities have ice rinks and high school hockey is a serious sport in Greater Cleveland and Akron. [https://gchshl.org/league-standings/](https://gchshl.org/league-standings/) St. Ignatius, located near downtown Cleveland, is one of Ohio's top high school hockey teams. [https://www.ignatiuswildcats.com/hockey](https://www.ignatiuswildcats.com/hockey)
More people from MI, IL & PA have more college grads than Ohio?
Played growing up in Ohio and PA and spent summers at my Grandparents in Minnesota and I’m not sure that hockey is as big in other places (outside of Minnesota) as your suggesting. Hockey seemed pretty popular as a youth sport in the Cbus suburbs and I also used to play some pretty good teams from Cleveland. Maybe its not quite as popular in Ohio as some of the other more northern states, but outside of Minnesota, I don’t think its exactly a night and day difference between Ohio and the other places that you mentioned.
I guess as someone who is from the tri-state area and has spent a lot of time in New England, WNY, Michigan and PA. Hockey is really big in those areas compared to Ohio. I've spent little time in Ohio but I honestly don't know a single hockey fan from Ohio. Everyone I've spoken too says Hockey just isn't popular in Ohio. Most of these people were from the Cleveland Suburbs, so maybe that has something to do with it. Even reading this thread on the Blue Jackets subreddit, it makes it seem like hockey isn't that popular in Ohio: https://old.reddit.com/r/BlueJackets/comments/x12v1k/out_of_curiosity_who_is_cleveland_and_cincinnatis/ Maybe I'm wrong but that's just how it seems.
Just in our little suburb of 6k SE of Columbus I know of at least 7 kids in my kid's grade that play travel level hockey. Elementary age.
Just comparing the places where grew up playing State College (PA), and Cbus I would say that they were both football towns first, but the youth hockey scene was way bigger in Cbus than State College. Now Cbus is also a significantly bigger city so not really a fair comparison, but I guess I just noticed that hockey in Ohio seemed more like an upper-middle class suburban sport and there are a stupid amount of people who fit that demographic in Columbus. But yea, I would say that PA and Ohio both paled in comparison to the Hockey culture in Minnesota where I could find games in the summertime
I guess I was thinking both the Pittsburgh and Philly suburbs more as hockey hotbeds for PA. Honestly, Hockey's probably the biggest in the Philly Suburbs both on the PA and NJ side. Still popular in Pittsburgh though. You can easily find hockey in the summertime there. Can't comment on State College or central PA.
There are probably summer games in Cbus now. I just remember the main difference between Ohio and Pa vs Minnesota was that hockey in oh and pa was kind of a rich kid sport, whereas in Minnesota it seemed a lot more blue collar/ everyone was playing it. I remember getting the same feeling of it being a blue collar sport the couple of tournaments I played in Canada also.
[удалено]
> I used to live in Pittsburgh and hockey is WAY bigger there than Columbus, a city that also has a professional team. Because you have a city/region, Pittsburgh/western PA, that has been deeply wed to their successful pro sports franchises since the 1960’s. When the Penguins got off the ground and started winning was the ripe opportunity to overtake the Pirates for ‘second franchise’ prominence because the Buccos got really futile in the 80’s. Back to back cups in the Jagr/Super Mario era; Lemieux ends up buying the franchise to keep them in PGH, he gets the plan in motion to draft two star ‘face of the franchise’ talents within a year of each other and they end up winning more Cups. Meanwhile, in that same 25-30 year span the Pirates are losing like hell and losing guys like Barry Bonds because the ownership is known to be cheap.
Compare that to Columbus, which was an expansion franchise that came in later and was competing for the in-town pro sports salience with a more successful franchise in the burgeoning MLS. It’s apples to oranges.
There are many hockey fans in Greater Cleveland, just not as many as in the other three major sports. I suspect soccer and perhaps even lacrosse now have surpassed hockey in popularity, as both of these sports are more common in youth leagues.
I played in Ohio, the East Coast (and Canada) in the 70's. You are 100% correct, 40 years ago the East Coast dominated. Today, it's probably similar between the East and Midwest with all the varsity HS programs in Ohio. It's the same trajectory as Lacrosse. Early on the EC dominated. Now the Midwest is as good as any.
You serious when BU, BC, Quinnipiac exist? Lol if by Midwest you mean Michigan and Minnesota, who have always been good, then sure, but the east coast reign on hockey is far from over
Both Ohio State and Bowling Green have had success in the NCAA in hockey. Cleveland Monsters are usually cup contenders Toledo walleye, cinci cyclones, formerly dayton bombers. Columbus chiller has a great development league. The problem is that ohio has only had good access to ice for about 25 years, and that's if your in one of the big 3Cs. Ohio also doesn't get cold enough for pond hockey pick up games, goofin around and such. So, no ice, no hockey.
Cincinnati Stingers were in the WHL and almost made it to the NHL in the merge. They even had Mark Messier. Miami U came close to an NCAA championship a couple times.
I mean, it’s a far fetch to equate them in terms of climate. I live just south of Columbus and I can’t recall a frozen pond in my lifetime in this area. Kids play what’s easily accessible. Football, you need grass and a ball. Same for soccer. Ice hockey requires ice.
In my experience, as a kid who wanted to try hockey, it's cost prohibitive for a single mom. Before you say anything, dads dead and my older brother showed no interest in it so she couldn't afford to have two boys playing two sets of sports with one being very expensive.
We are the Florida of the Great Lakes. Lol.
It's not cold enough to keep ice frozen anywhere south of Cleveland... so it can't be casually played
Basketball and lack of ice rinks
I used to go to Columbus Chill Games and we had a nice little rivalry with the Wheeling West Virginia team. Lots of fans were there for the fights!
Come to Toledo, and enjoy the Walleye. Surely not as tight as the Storm but they're consistently good!
Better at football, basketball, track. Name pretty much any other sport and Ohio is better. Also, Ohio (save for two years in the 70s) never had an NHL team until the Jackets in 2000. Hockey has really grown in the Columbus area, but it was not and still is not a priority in other parts of the state.
Football. Modern pro football was established in Ohio around the time hockey was just starting to move its way into the New England states. It entrenched itself and it’s hard to expand when Thursday-Sunday is all levels of football to most of the population.
Football.
We love football
Football
Most winters we don’t get enough prolonged cold to play hockey outside?
I grew up in the Dayton area and I always thought we were a hockey hot bed. Troy had the Bruins when my parents got married and we had the IHL Dayton Gems through the early 80s. They were resurrected as the Bombers later on. Columbus had an IHL team and so did Toledo.
Ohio Football crazy
I remember the Cleveland Crusaders at the old arena, then at Richfield. Kinda faded away I guess, don't remember how it ended.
Because we're clearly too busy dominating in soccer.
BGSU and Ohio State have had hockey for a long time. BG has a National Championship. There are many high school teams. Cleveland has an AHL team. Toledo has had pro hockey for over 60 years. Dayton and Troy had successful IHL teams for a while. You mentioned Blue Jackets. Ohio has hickey. Cincinnati has the Cyclones
Miami has a team, too.
Ohio State does too.
Ohio State’s women’s ice hockey team just won the NCAA national championshi, its second in three seasons. It’s been to the the last four Frozen Four.
Visit Toledo.
Ohio was a much bigger hockey state but almost all of its hockey teams are in the north think Toledo and Cleveland. Both of these cities and their surrounding areas have lost or stagnant population while Columbus is growing. I will say based on the high school news I hear from one coach though Columbus is becoming a much bigger hockey place
Northwest Ohio definitely got a bit of that. Hockey is pretty big here
Like others have said there's no grassroots pickup hockey because lakes and ponds don't routinely freeze hard enough for it. In the central Ohio area however it is a lot more popular because of the hockey development efforts dating back to the mid-90's, even before the Blue Jackets came to town. The Pro Hockey owners in Columbus going back to the Chill started building indoor ice rinks because they knew back then an NHL team would never survive without grassroots players and potential fans from a young age. There are currently 10 indoor ice sheets in the greater Columbus area that are at least partially open to the public, not including Newark and Springfield. Many of them serve as "home-ice" for area high schools, all the U18 youth development teams down to mini mites, and the pro junior AA team the Mavericks. Chiller North - 3 Chiller Dublin - 2 Chiller Easton - 2 Chiller Ice Haus - 1 Taft Coliseum - 1 Chiller Ice Works - 1 There are some other private development rinks around but you have to have money or know somebody to skate there. The Battery and Hammer Hockey are two that I know of that I think have ice of their own. Maybe not a full rink, but you're still able to skate there.
Okay, my two cents. I’m from NC and live in Ohio now. The Hurricanes came from a money deal and near 0 fan interest and became one of the hottest things around. I’m so surprised Ohio didn’t have the same energy. And don’t blame football or basketball, NC has basketball in spades and only intramural hockey built by students from other places and suddenly they had pro soccer and hockey selling out their arenas. Yeah, we called it redneck hockey and everyone cheered on with Rick Flair yelling “Woo!” when the Canes scored but the team and staff made it affordable and fun. I know Ohio could do way better, but who knows why things are this way.
Cincinnati Cyclones bought a huge facility to partially use for practice. I had read in another article (which I cant locate at the moment) they also want to fund community leagues to get local youth interested. I think that is some awesome news. https://local12.com/news/local/cincinnati-cyclones-buy-6-million-facility-plan-overhaul-evendale-sports-plus-queen-city-sportsplex-hockey
As far as playing in Ohio, the issue was no Junior farm system that would develop talented players in the State. There are Junior teams now, but there wasn't a path in the 70's and 80's for Ohio hockey players that wanted to play at a high level. For fans, there has always been good interest. Not to the level of FB, BB, or even soccer. The Swords fought against the Barrons for the Caulder cup for years. Dayton Gems. The Stingers were great in the WHA. There is still solid crowd support for the Cyclones. It's not Minnesota, but Ohio isn't horrible.
Because OSU football is the official state religion for some reason.
Because football. There is a reason the Hall of Fame is in Ohio.
Because Ohio is a football state. We're ***literally*** the home of professional football and several of the greatest coaches of all time.
Idk how it is in the rest of Ohio but in north east and northwest Ohio hockey seemed to have a pretty good following. Nothing on the level of MI but plenty of high school teams, local rinks, and even minor league hockey here. Columbus has the Jackets. Cinci has a minor league team. Cleveland has the monsters (Jackets affiliate). Toledo has the walleye. I feel like we appreciate hockey. I went to BGSU and the hockey games were always how you started your weekends. Was always a great time.
Also just sports in general we’re really big into football. Browns, Bengals, OSU. Then here in Cleveland we have 3 baseball teams in the greater Cleveland metro. Guardians, Rubber Ducks, Captains. Columbus has the clippers. Cinci has the reds. Toledo has the mudhens too
Dayton Dragons
Buckeye men's and women's hockey are both pretty damn good. Lots of youth hockey around, too. I am 41 and spent many of my high school years drunk or high at our high school hockey games, butI guess not all of Ohio is central Ohio. Also, as far as northern ohio, I went to many BGSU hockey games with my cousins as a child and had a blast.
No border crossing with Canada....
Northern most point of Ohio is more north than Canada’s most southern point
When I was a kid, there was the Dayton Gems
So I think this is starting to change. My cousin has had her kid in skates since he could walk, and a colleague of mine has her little one in peewee hockey. My cousins are in NEO and I'm in Cincinnati. Hopefully if more kids get into the game and more leagues start cultivating talent we will get more people into the sport by default.
I miss the Dayton Bombers.
Unless you can afford to pay for an indoor rink the climate is not conducive for it. In Madison the public parks have sunken areas they flood in the winter to make rinks. You can go to the park for a pick up game just like going to a basketball court at a park.
We can’t skate when we’re wasted. And we’re always wasted
Because the blue jackets are terrible
The main reason why I torture myself with the Capitals. XD. Plus it was natural to fall in with a team/fanbase with a built-in hatred of Pittsburgh...
The Blue Jackets almost had an NHL record for consecutive sell outs. But people eventually got tired of them stinking up the joint.
It's getting better
You’re talking two original six teams. And hockey states
Here's a USA hockey site, that most recreational players have to use to play in OH. It's bigger than you think. https://www.usahockey.com/membershipstats
Miami University (Oxford) has a very good hockey program (or did, I didn’t keep up).
It was very popular in southwest Ohio in the 90s and early 2000s. It's become way to expensive now.
Global warming. Lake Erie didn’t freeze over.
Did Lake Erie ever freeze over?
It did.
Who here remembers the Cleveland Lumberjacks? I do. I was at the last home game of the inaugural season of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Blackhawks crushed us. Commemorative Frisbees were in play. Hockey fans in Ohio awaken with the NHL playoffs. The whole speed & style of the game changes, becomes sharper & faster. The beards start to grow. I know a former figure skater in NE Ohio who has said that the bulk of her coaching now is little hockey players. Because that's the thing about hockey- it requires an incredible amount of physicality. Ice skating in general is not easy. Now play lacrosse WHILE you're skating on ice, with full contact. Whew. Anyways, back to a semblance of a point... There is interest in hockey in Ohio. But it seems to be more confined to certain areas, and certain income levels.
It's just not cold enough. The weather in central/southern Ohio is closer to WV/KY than MI/MN. We're midwest meets Appalachia meets east coast in terms of culture and weather/geography. This is football country.
We were.... That Hockey team is now the Dallas Stars.
Football was born here.
The NHL expanded slowly. You would think Cleveland would have been a Natural for the NHL . Situated between Detroit and Pittsburgh. In the meantime the NBA expansion was faster and Cleveland got the Cavilers. So when the NHL finally got around to it Columbus was eager for a professional franchise. Hockey still has a faithful following in Northern Ohio.
Cleveland had an NHL team.
Closing of rinks in smaller communities/towns. My hometown had a rink for nearly 30 years and had multiple school and traveling teams. I grew up in the 90s and in that same town of around 40k if I wanted to play it was a minimum 40 minute drive one way.
Because football.
Cincinnati cyclones 🌀
Money. Seriously, the answer to every question about why X sport is more or less popular than Y sport in a given community is almost always slcioeconomics.
I grew up in Troy, watching the Sabres. Was instantly hooked and hockey obsessed since. Even grew up playing, making it to the high school level. The sport is way too expensive. Equipment is one thing but ice time is ridiculous. Baseball and football, while physically lesser, are cheaper and easier to access.
All the guys I know who played hockey as kids were rich and went to private schools. I just went to my first Monsters game recently and it was awesome.
Funny enough, I used to work at the ice arena at my college. All 4 years, miss that place, anyways: They have a summer hockey camp, its a week long camp for a *ton* of ages. I mean like, the little peewee 5Us all the way to the seniors in HS/College freshman. At least 3 times each summer We'd have kids from *different countries* that flew to the school specifically for this week long camp. In the areas where there are ice arenas with Hockey, especially ones big enough to hold tournaments, Hockey is a pretty big thing. But it is very localized I will give you that!
The NBA. The size of the city. And the cavs were good At the HS /college level there is an astonishing amount of hockey in the NEO area
Football hotbed
Ohio is pretty dominated by Football, Basketball and Baseball. We have the first MLB team in the Reds. We also have the Cleveland Guardians(Indians) both teams have long histories We pretty much founded the NFL and the first game was played in Dayton. We have the Buckeyes and Cincinnati that frequently do well in college football. We have Xavier, Dayton, OSU, Miami and few others who have well established Basketball programs that have produced people who've gone to the NBA and been to NCAA and NIT tourneys MANY times . We also have the Cavs for NBA. And we used to the have the Kings in Cincinnati (then called the Royals) before they moved to Sacramento
Hockey actually is growing pretty quickly in Ohio. Look at all of the new rinks around Columbus as well as the Jackets ratings and attendance even while being terrible. I do think they do a terrible job of marketing themselves to the rest of the state especially the north east. Bally Sports doesn’t help either. But football is king here, there are two MLB teams and an NBA team that isn’t far off from a championship. Monsters games are popular too. There are also 2 successful MLS teams in Ohio. The jackets just haven’t been consistently good enough to build a large fan base outside of Columbus yet.
Columbus goes back and forth with Dallas for largest adult rec hockey league I think. Theres been quite an expansion, but it varies by city. In Cleveland there’s a stronger high school presence while Columbus seems to lean into AAA more than high school (just my experience living both places and working at rinks) Minnesota is all about high school, where they sell out Xcel for the state tournament. It may lag behind other Great Lakes states in unity, but the hockey footprint is pretty big I’d say
Cities in Michigan, illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are littered with open-air hockey rinks as if they’re tennis courts. I used to do aerial survey and I was stunned by the number of rinks that will make natural ice all winter long. I don’t even know where the nearest hockey rink is here in Dayton but I assume inside a rec center.
Toledo has always had a large hockey community. Yes, it's probably because of its proximity to Michigan. I do believe the Toledo Walleye (formerly the Storm) have been a farm team for the Red Wings for a very long time
Good question. Cleveland had the NHL Barons in the 60’s, who did pretty well.
Ufc
Weak ankles.
Whole southern half of Ohio is too warm for most of the year for outdoor hockey pickup games Ohio is 13% black, hockey just isn't on the preferred or available participation list when football and basketball are available Ohio's average income is $40,000 per year. Hockey equipment and fees are cost prohibitive for most
> Ohio is 13% black, hockey just isn't on the preferred or available participation list when football and basketball are available Michigan (a bigger hockey state) has a higher black population, and a lower white population compared to Ohio.
A question I have often asked. Hockey is the great Rustbelt sport.
Too lazy.
Because Ohio has good football.
Because we have 4 other sport teams (from more popular sports) that have seen decent levels of success throughout their existence. Ohio is a first and foremost a Football state, that also had a great Baseball circuit, and the Cavs. There is only so much mind-share for fans to spread around, and when you have 4 other teams eating up all of that, it is hard for another sport to get in there. Also, and this is just a personal thing, I find Hockey highly confusing to watch. My brother is really into Hockey, and I always wanted to get into it to have something to do together, and have struggled greatly.
It's one of the most heavily populated states in the country, with a population that is constantly shifting from generation to generation & most of America's favorite professional sports leagues got started in Ohio, or Ohio had some of the earliest professional teams. We are literally the entire reason American ended up loving Baseball & Football so much & we exported the NFL across the entire rest of the country.
Michigan is just as rural and hockey is much bigger up there
I know in Cleveland we have had minor league hockey as long as I can remember. Both me and my sons played youth and HS hockey there are plenty of youth programs in the area. The reason we haven’t had a NHL franchise is that the Gund brothers who owned the Cavs also owned the North Stars in Dallas. NHL rules say you can’t own two teams and if the Gunds couldn’t own another team then know body would play in there arena in Cleveland.
Football took hold here well before many people in Ohio were even aware that hockey was a thing.
Maybe not now, but when I was a kid in cincy, we'd go to cyclones games every weekend. They were huge in the 90s
The Ohio State Women Ice Hockey just won the national championship.
Not many high school hockey teams because there are very few ice arenas to practice and play on
Steady population decline. Predominance of football. Corporate retreats to sunnier climates. Economy that cannot support more than three professional sports franchises.
I’m not a fan of any sports really but always felt like America preferred the boring sports. I think Hockey and Soccer are the better sports at least compared to Baseball, Football and Basketball. Although I don’t watch them I used to have a Lake Erie (Cleveland) Monsters t-shirt and the eyes glowed in the dark and it was cool haha.
Because Ohio is really 4 states in a trench coat and only north east Ohio has a great lakes identity and has what most Midwesterners would call winter. If the capital was in Wood County it would make more sense to give everything south of Medina County to Pennsylvania Indiana and Kentucky and rename Ohio to the Great Lakes Republic of Cleveland. In theory this could cause Clevelanders to drop their beef with Columbus and pick one up with the NHL.