Are the Wings America’s hockey team?
A blogger, Robert Green, conducted his own poll of 700 individuals to determine America’s team in various sports. While the sample size is a decent size, this isn’t a survey that I’m claiming to be accurate because we know nothing of how he went about selecting these individuals, etc. But it’s still interesting to discuss his results.
According to his results, the Wings are America’s hockey team with 37% of the votes. The Red Wings actually held the highest percentage of any team out of their respective sport among the professional leagues. The NY Yankees received 33% for the MLB. The Dallas Cowboys “won” the NFL with 30% of the votes. For the NBA, the LA Lakers came in at 27%.
In college football, Notre Dame tops the popularity poll with 37% (Michigan came in second with 9% of the votes).
Lets Go Wings forum members have been discussing the results on this thread. One member, BlakChamber, noted this stat:
Since the 1989-90 season the Red Wings had 770 wins, 420 losses (including OTL) which equals a .647 winning percentage.
In that same time frame, New Jersey had 711 wins and 477 losses (including OTL) which equals a .594 winning percentage.
Now the Buffalo Sabres did sell the most merchandise this year, but the Wings did come in second without a logo or jersey change. Plus, the Wings have consistently been the top seller or the second top seller for more than a decade. Last year, the Wings dominated the market with 42.3% of the NHL merchandise sales.
If you look at The Sporting News’ NHL section, you will see a fan roster on the left side of the page. The team with the most registered fans? The Red Wings. They have 12,874 registered fans.
1. Detroit Red Wings - 12,874
2. Toronto Maple Leafs - 9,974
3. Boston Bruins - 7,888
4. New York Rangers - 7,462
5. Pittsburgh Penguins - 7,186
6. Philadelphia Flyers - 6,681
7. Colorado Avalanche - 6,389
According to ESPN’s attendance table, the Wings are second in home attendance as they sell out every game during the regular season. Montreal leads the league with the most people in attendance for the entire season and with the highest average per game.
I think the Wings have a pretty convincing argument for being called America’s hockey team. They may be the most loved, but they also are probably one of the more hated teams as well.
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July 18th, 2007 at 9:31 am
[…] Finally Christy over at Behind the Jersey has a nice article on a sports poll that suggests the Red Wings are the most popular NHL team in the U.S.. Not only that, they are tied with Notre Dame in football as the team in their given sport that had the largest percentage of fans claim that they are “America’s Team” [whatever that means]. […]