Tiger's comments on Hockey

[Thrash13]

you are aware that Canada is in NA right? so I'd say yeah more people watch Hockey even over The Masters or Players........

That last time I checked, people in Canada watch golf. It seems there was some kind of team competition played there last year as a matter of fact. Oh yeah, it was The Presidents Cup.

Seriously, if you are going to throw it out there that hockey is watched more than golf, show me some numbers. The numbers don't lie!! And like I said earlier, I really don't know what the numbers say. Hockey may be watched by twice as many people, but it may not be. And hey, I enjoy the farm life down here in Oklahoma.

[T.J.K.]

No....No....No....I was just joking around also. That's what the smileys are for :)

[Cizzle]

Tiger's comments were dumb. But what can ya do?

Ratings wise, it's hard to compare. Outside of the Majors (and the Players, maybe the Fedex Cup I don't know if anyone watches that thing) nobody and their grandma watches golf. But the same could be said for Hockey outside of the playoffs, so who knows. I watched every game of the Stanley Cup and enjoyed it, and this was the first year I really ever watched hockey..

The average rating for The Masters is around an 8

This year on Friday the Masters set a record of 3.1, while Thursday still is never watched.

Game 5 for the Stanley Cup got a 3.8, which is extremely high for hockey. This was also an elimination game, so it's kind of equal to a Sunday in golf.

And in the '05 Masters on Sunday, CBS crushed getting a 10.3.

I don't know where I'm going with all this info.... It's kind of hard to determine who has more viewers, golf or hockey. No one cares about the AT&T; Classic and Americans really don't care about hockey regular season. Meh.

[golf_junkie27]

The NHL averaged a 1.8 on NBC, this year. This represented a 26% jump over 2007.

On Versus, the ratings were up 30%. I don't know what that figure represents, though, as sports business did not provide it.

Golf grew 8% over 2007. However, the last five PGA Tour events drew less than a 1.5.

[QWKDTSN]

I live in a small town right across the water from Victoria, which is the capitol of British Columbia, Canada.

We only have one or two radio stations of our own (AM and PBS) so most of our stations that we pick up come from BC.

It amazes me that there is just 12 miles of water separating us, but we don't care about hockey at all, and they care about it very much. It's a culture thing. They're always giving hockey game updates on the radio in Canada.

Hockey is a regional sport; It's so popular in so much of Canada that it's popular all over Canada. In the USA it's only really popular in a few areas, and the rest of the country couldn't care less, myself included.

[Ben]

I doubt anyone's upset that

Right, at the country club where I work in LA, which is an extremely sports conscious environment, I'll hear a discussion about hockey maybe once a month, maybe. We have more Formula 1 and UEFA league football/soccer fans than hockey fans there. And who the heck watches either of those two sports in the US?

Anyway, like Craig Mack said, he could have been "PC" but he wasn't. As if any of us don't make snide remarks about this or that. Everyone else is always perfect, sure. Why make a big deal, or any deal really.

That quote was pretty amusing. He knocks hockey but he wants to talk about the Dodgers? The Dodgers? This ain't 1988.

HEY! easy with the Dodgers bashing! hahaha. I thought that was the best part of his comment that he mentions them. Go Dodgers.

[Ruckus]

I didn't want to say it, but the reason I started this thread was I was upset to learn that Tiger was a Dodger fan. bums.

[HotBite]

I don't think anybody really watches the dodgers anymore.

[JackieTreehorn]

I grew up in a hockeytown and my neighbor was in the NHL in the 80s. Back then, hockey was awesome....but not anymore. Probably due to the goalies getting so good and how they don't allow the same level of hitting/fighting. I still consider hockey as one of my favorite sports but I don't pay attention to the NHL one bit anymore. College hockey is where you have to go to watch a meaningful game. I think Tiger was just speaking the truth.

[Garthmo]

No....No....No....I was just joking around also. That's what the smileys are for :)

Did anyone acually see this comment from Tiger LIVE? this quote can prove how things can be taken out of context and maybe he was joking around. I watch him and man does he have some dry boring humour sometimes that I think he is the only one who really knew he was joking. But on the other hand if he wasnt I dont care what he says It's his opinion and that's that. Did I see somewhee earlier someone says NASCAR is a sport? oh my god are you serious?

[iacas]

Did anyone acually see this comment from Tiger LIVE? this quote can prove how things can be taken out of context and maybe he was joking around. I watch him and man does he have some dry boring humour sometimes that I think he is the only one who really knew he was joking. But on the other hand if he wasnt I dont care what he says It's his opinion and that's that.

Yes, someone saw it live. This is what he had to say:

Source: Friend Tiger was in mood. He seemed pissed that he had to do the conference. But rather than play off the stupider questions in his usual bland, politically correct way, he was very blunt and upfront with his disdain. He laughed at one really bad question about whether his knee surgery would improve his putting by giving him more power on the greens, and basically called the guy an idiot (which was true) and only gave "good" answers to a couple questions. He also had an interesting quote about how he hasn't watched much golf because he only watches when "his friends" are in contention. Like you said, it's weird for an athlete to criticize another sport – weirder still coming from Tiger. I'm afraid his attitude is pretty close to what many think about the NHL, though.

So yeah.

[TheNextBen]

Check out this thread at HFBoards: http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=521403

People are making sick comments about golf as a sport and the thread ends up getting locked. What have you done Tiger? There's now a war between hockey fans and golf fans.

[JKilgore44]

With all due respect to the NHL, Tiger is completely right. He didn't "knock" hockey. He suggested changing the subject to something else. If he would have said, "You know what, **** the stanley cup and all those figure skating *******, I'm going to buy the whole organization just to shut them down", that would have been offensive.

Instead, he suggested that not many people watch the sport anymore, which is a statement of fact. Ever since the NHL went on strike back in '04, they lost a huge majority of their already slim fan base. And furthermore, I don't understand why any reporter would ask Tiger anything about hockey to begin with. Had it been one of the "big 3" (football, basketball, or baseball) I would fully understand, but asking him about hockey is completely random. Why not just ask him who won the National Badminton Championship? (Rajiv Ouseph - just for those of you who didn't know )

Honestly though, he didn't answer in a blatently rude way. He expressed his opinion in a blunt fashion. People are all worked up because it wasn't the typical "Tiger" response that's politically correct in every sense of the word.

[hurley9192]

and we wonder why he gives short pc answers...because people blow out his honest answers and try to bring them down. This is why he is so guarded is that he's constantly scrutinized for not caring about everything else in the world.

Truth be told...millions more people want to be like Tiger than any other hockey player. Hockey is a legit sport, but that doesn't mean that Tiger has to care about it. I would love to see the annual ratings for the hockey finals vs. the Masters.

[JKilgore44]

EXACTLY!

If he expresses his opinions in even the most minutely negative connotation, he is scrutinized by everyone in the media.

It's not fair to him.

God, I sound a Tiger Woods hippie defender or something

[Wisco-Kid]

I think he was fine until he said "Nobody really watches hockey anymore"
He probably could have left that out, it ended up sounding pretty arrogant.

[teal]

I watch both. Enjoy both but seriously, why is this even discussed? Tiger can say what he can because if it wasn't for him, golf on TV would be less than hockey. Someone in this thread said hockey averaged a 1.8 share while the last 5 tournaments were less than 1.5 so golf - Tiger is more irrelevant to the average joe than your average hockey game is.

War between fans? Not really - lets get some perspective here. the internet does not = reality. Hocky has their fans and golf has her's. Some/many are fans of both and can appreciate both. Some aren't/can't. Let it go.

[Lemay427]

ya its not that big of deal .


I like how hockey is a second class sport compare to the big suck 3 (baseball, football, basketball). Its kind of nice to discuss hockey with other people because the only ones that watch have some knowledge of the game. They are not some puppet that follows a sport or team because everyone else is.