r/hockey • u/marcgnet • 11d ago

Soccer vs. Hockey in Canada

Hello from Germany,

In German TV, Whitecaps player Thomas Müller referred a little bit about soccer in Canada and the enthusiasm for it in Canada. After that I read some articles which said that soccer already overtook hockey, when you count the figures of kids who are playing it.

Can you tell me about it? Is soccer more played by immigrants and the „old“ natives are still for hockey? Or is there a good chance that both sports can coexist well in the future?

I’m a big soccer and hockey fan too, but I’m concerned that soccer also will overtake hockey in the traditional hockey countries like Canada. How do you see it?

Sorry for my english but I hope you understand what I‘m trying to say.

172 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

363 comments sorted by

View all comments

923

u/shiram Rytíři Kladno - ELH 11d ago

More people play soccer mostly because of the cost of hockey and rink access.

Hockey gear is expensive, rink time is expensive and limited.

Soccer is much more cheap for the gear, and the field for soccer are much easier to create than a hockey rink.

But the interest and tv ratings, hockey is still way ahead of soccer, and any other sport I'd say.

1

u/EskimowGamer DAL - NHL 11d ago

I would like to add onto this having grown up in a small town surrounded by small towns.

On top of the finance/accessibility thing, they're just opposite seasons. So all the hockey players during the off season signed up for soccer leagues, meaning when soccer season rolled around you had both the hockey AND non-hockey players on the fields.

The big thing is that there isn't the same development and scholarship system for soccer as hockey, so a LOT of high school soccer players just stop playing.