Monday, 4th May 2020
Ice Hockey is a growing sport in the UK, and it needs more national coverage.
By Adam Holt
We all know the sports that are usually televised on national television, but there is another sport in the UK that could potentially upset the apple cart in terms of how much coverage (other than football) that these sports get on national and international television: ice hockey. Ice Hockey is a sport that is immensely popular in countries in the United States and in Canada.
The arenas that stage ice hockey across the country are not very large in capacity, but an average attendance of 6,610 by the Sheffield Steelers (which is by far the highest in the league) but is still not bad considering that ice hockey is still seen as a niche in the United Kingdom. This is one of the reasons why I think ice hockey should get more national television coverage as even though these attendances are dwarfed by most other sports played in the country, this is a significant increase in average attendance, as the highest average attendance last season was 4,391 by the Belfast Giants. This is an increase of 2,219 in just half a season which shows a spike in the popularity of the sport in the UK.
The arenas that stage ice hockey across the country are not very large in capacity, but an average attendance of 6,610 by the Sheffield Steelers (which is by far the highest in the league) but is still not bad considering that ice hockey is still seen as a niche in the United Kingdom. This is one of the reasons why I think ice hockey should get more national television coverage as even though these attendances are dwarfed by most other sports played in the country, this is a significant increase in average attendance, as the highest average attendance last season was 4,391 by the Belfast Giants. This is an increase of 2,219 in just half a season which shows a spike in the popularity of the sport in the UK.
source: link
Source: link
These statistics come from the Elite Ice Hockey League which is the top tier of ice hockey in the UK, a competition that has been running since 2003, so the domestic ice hockey game in the UK has only been existing for seventeen years so in comparison to other sports in the country, ice hockey is a new sport in this country, so to already have average attendances above six thousand considering the popularity of football, rugby and cricket, this certainly a promising statistic as it shows a definite growth in the sport’s popularity in this country. The league is already televised in this country by free sports (which will be elaborated on later), however if the sport continues to grow at the pace it currently is in this country then it could start featuring on the biggest sports channels in the country such as BT Sport and Sky Sports.
The British Ice Hockey League (the EIHL) is only currently broadcasted on one television channel in the UK, on a channel called FreeSports, a channel that broadcasts free to view sports fixtures across many sports. This season they are televising 14 rounds of fixtures across the season from October until the end of the season in March. The channel will also televise the playoff matches that follow the conclusion of the domestic season. The channel will also cover the Champions Hockey League (very similar to football’s Champions League) where two British teams, the Belfast Giants and the Cardiff Devils will participate against the best ice hockey teams from around the world.
In Britain’s top ice hockey division, the EIHL, particularly this season is clearly an exciting one, with the average goals across the division doesn’t go below 2.6, which is quite high, as across the division, there is expected to be at least two goals from each single team that participates in the season. The lowest average goals comes from the Belfast Giants who score, on average 2.6 goals per game, with the highest average goals coming from the Sheffield Steelers with them scoring, on average at this point in the season, 4.31 goals per game which is outstanding, and with many teams coming close to this average such as with the Coventry Blaze, who average an equally outstanding 3.71 goals per game.
The British Ice Hockey League (the EIHL) is only currently broadcasted on one television channel in the UK, on a channel called FreeSports, a channel that broadcasts free to view sports fixtures across many sports. This season they are televising 14 rounds of fixtures across the season from October until the end of the season in March. The channel will also televise the playoff matches that follow the conclusion of the domestic season. The channel will also cover the Champions Hockey League (very similar to football’s Champions League) where two British teams, the Belfast Giants and the Cardiff Devils will participate against the best ice hockey teams from around the world.
In Britain’s top ice hockey division, the EIHL, particularly this season is clearly an exciting one, with the average goals across the division doesn’t go below 2.6, which is quite high, as across the division, there is expected to be at least two goals from each single team that participates in the season. The lowest average goals comes from the Belfast Giants who score, on average 2.6 goals per game, with the highest average goals coming from the Sheffield Steelers with them scoring, on average at this point in the season, 4.31 goals per game which is outstanding, and with many teams coming close to this average such as with the Coventry Blaze, who average an equally outstanding 3.71 goals per game.
Source: link
The majority of the teams in this season in fact have averaged over 3 goals per game which shows, in my view an exciting division where there is always action and entertainment and having already attended ice hockey games myself, the atmosphere created before, during and after the games are almost second to none. Even though, in my opinion, the atmosphere created at football matches are better, I think British Ice Hockey already holds a great atmosphere for each of the games, and with more publicity and more national television coverage, I think that EIHL games will become more and more popular and the atmosphere will only get even better.
To conclude this piece with all the reasons and statistics that I have been laid out, I think this is justification which means that the British Ice Hockey League, the EIHL, should get more national coverage, maybe on ITV, BBC or even on the biggest sports channels in the country such as Sky Sports or BT Sport.
To conclude this piece with all the reasons and statistics that I have been laid out, I think this is justification which means that the British Ice Hockey League, the EIHL, should get more national coverage, maybe on ITV, BBC or even on the biggest sports channels in the country such as Sky Sports or BT Sport.