Nordic Soccer and Desert Hockey: The Changing Geography of Sports
Two significant, and seemingly unrelated events from the sports world in the last week:
- Tiny Iceland, with a population of just over 300,000, finished second in their group at the European Cup. This is the first tournament the country has ever qualified for. After two draws and a win in the group stage, they followed that up by upsetting England in the Round of 16.
- A record 12 Americans were chosen in the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday. Among this group is Auston Matthews of Scottsdale, Arizona, the first player raised and trained in the Sun Belt to go first. Another 5 amongst this group — including two sons of NHLers — spent time in the St. Louis development system, a city with a 50 year NHL history but not thought of as a youth hockey hotbed.
The common thread between the two events is the growth of sports in non-traditional places. Not just in terms of interest, but as a place where you can develop and produce elite prospects and professional players.
In the case of hockey, the NHL’s expansion into the Sun Belt, and the settling of many former players is a key part. Regarding the latter, look at the Los Angeles Junior Kings’ coaching staff. Long-time NHL fans will recognize names like Rob Blake, Jamie Storr, Glen Murray, and Jaroslav Modry — a handful of the former pros on staff. The St. Louis kids benefitted from the exposure to NHL players, as well as additional practice time, as the amount of game time they could get was more limited compared to traditional markets.
In the case of both, the globalization of sports and entertainment has made a difference. With the expanded TV universe and the emergence of the internet, you can follow sports from anywhere in the world. Millions of people root for European soccer clubs whose home cities they probably couldn’t place on a map. A generation ago, when I was growing up in Canada, we got one soccer game a week and highlights of some others on Soccer Saturday. Today, even a basic cable package will give you several English and European games most weeks. With the right channels, you can follow the German, Spanish, Italian, and French leagues too. Whether it’s soccer, hockey, or otherwise, you don’t need a strong local team or league to become engaged as a fan in a sport.
Simon Kuper’s excellent piece on Iceland’s team points out how the presence of the English league on TV in the 1970s helped foster soccer fandom in that country. He makes a second, more critical point, about the building boom beginning in the late ’90s that saw a plethora of indoor fields, mini and full, built around the country. For a country with a long winter, this expanded the playing opportunities significantly. The growth of hockey in the Sun Belt has seen a similar increase in new rinks. There are more opportunities to play. And hockey has become, even in traditional markets like Canada and the US’ Hockey Belt (from New England west through Minnnesota), a largely indoor sport. The notion of kids learning to play on frozen ponds and backyard rinks becomes more and more removed from the present reality every year. It is, as far as development goes, a weather neutral sport. Kids play on indoor ice sheets, and they practice skills in their driveways, streets, or basements — no matter the season.
There’s one story that’s important to know about Auston Matthews and the globalization of sport. It shows how non-traditional markets can lead to unusual results. James Mirtle’s excellent profile of Matthews talks about the time he spent at a facility called Ozzie Ice playing 3-on-3 games on tiny ice surfaces. It helped him learn to stickhandle and play in close spaces, which made it that much easier for him to do on a full ice surface. It’s far fetched to image this happening in a traditional hockey market.
The globalization of sport, and the development of players in non-traditional markets, is all wonderful. It leads to marvellous stories like Iceland’s Euro run, a deeper player pool, and players who can do things that a traditional development curve wouldn’t have encouraged. It also makes me wonder what other markets could do for sports. With our long winter in Canada, why haven’t we seen a growth curve in soccer like Iceland’s? Why can’t players develop exceptional dribbling and passing skills on a small, indoor surface, akin to what Auston Matthews did playing hockey? Who will be the next success story from a non-traditional place, and what will they do?
