Although an impressive one million Canadians tuned in to some part of the recent NHL draft, Bibby counters that this only represents about three per cent of the so-called "hockey-mad" population. Viewership of this year's Stanley Cup finals hovered between 1.6 and 1.9 million for the first five games, reached 2.6 million in Game 6, then peaked at 3.5 million for Game 7 — a healthy draw, but nonetheless, a fraction of the population. Previously, Stanley Cup games have garnered as many as 4.96 million viewers, as was the case in the 1994 faceoff between Vancouver and New York, and the 4.79 million Canadians who tuned into the Calgary-Montreal final 20 years ago.
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Another installment in academia and the media's incessant battle to belittle hockey and to hack away at the fabric of Canadian society.
Actually, it's an interesting read although the highlighted part gave me pause. Reginald Bibby looks at 3.5M for a Game 7 between two American teams and wonders why the ratings are not as good as when the finals featured the Canucks (1994) and an All-Canadian final in 1989. I look at it and wonder just how smart of a guy he can be if he doesn't question whether
the number of fans in Canada might be affected by whether
a team from Canada is in the final.
