GDT - Canucks vs. Predators (Mar 14/2013)

[sagebrush]

The Canadian mens team qualified for the FIFA World Cup only in 1996, but does have the same number of FIFA World Cup championships as.....Sweden.

True, but Sweden has qualified to play in 12 of the 19 tournaments that have been held and has reached the semifinals four times (compared to just once for England) resulting in one silver (1958), two bronzes (1950, 1994) and one fourth place (1938).

Similar to the Canucks saying they've been to the Cup finals three times. An accomplishment, & source of frustration at the same time.

[Strangelove]

Oh I get it: Hillbilly humour!

Ummm we don't do that here..... Todd.

Sorry if u are catholic or religious man. Didn't mean to put down your beliefs.

Seriously?

You “thot” the Great Strangelove could be offended by religious humour per se??

Ummm the only thing I find offensive… Todd… is laughably pathetic attempts at humour.

But enough of this sillyness....

*stamps FAIL on Todd’s forehead and moves on*

[Per]

Per, out of curiosity which is bigger in Sweden today, soccer or hockey? You seem to have had pretty big stars and success in both sports.

About equally big, I tend to say that soccer is bigger in southern Sweden and hockey in northern Sweden.

If you look at attendance at games in the top league, the average for soccer was 7210 last season and 5709 for hockey. But there are more hockey games than soccer games in a season, so total attendance was 1,883,192 for hockey compared to 1,730,357 for soccer.

Now, AIK of Stockholm have teams in various sports, and both their soccer and their hockey team play in the top league. Average attendance at their soccer games was 14,311 last season but a mere 4,998 at hockey games. Likewise, the top soccer team in Gothenburg (IFK Göteborg) draws an average crowd of 10,493 spectators while the best hockey team (Frölunda) averages 8,588.

On the other hand the two northernmost cities to have teams in Allsvenskan, Sweden's top soccer league also have hockey teams. In Gävle (where I live) the soccer team Gefle IF draws 3,387 spectators, whereas the hockey team Brynäs iF draws 6,227, and in Sundsvall the soccer team IFK Sundsvall draws 4,032 spectators but the hockey team Timrå draws 4,326. Add to this that Sundsvall, the northernmost place to have a soccer team in the top league, is roughly at the middle of Sweden, and that there are three SEL hockey teams further north than that (Modo, Skellefteå and Luleå).

Sweden is currently ranked 21st in the world out of 207 nations by FIFA (Brazil is in 18th, which shows what a joke these ratings are) and 4th by the IIHF (Canada is ranked 5th, which shows what a joke these ratings are).

Now, it's hard to compare, because competition is so much harder in soccer, which is the main team sport in most countries in the world, whereas hockey is more of a fringe sport that is barely heard of outside the vodka belt (Russia, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Canada).

I personally prefer hockey, but I guess soccer is my second favourite sport, albeit curling is not bad either.....

[Todd Bersnoozi]

??? uuhh.... okay. No one seemed to mind or didn't care about my humour. U are the only one to seem to get all uptight over it, thus I thot u were offended.

Meh, whatever man. This is getting pretty lame. I'm done with this thread/topic.

Oh I get it: Hillbilly humour!

Ummm we don't do that here..... Todd.

Sorry if u are catholic or religious man. Didn't mean to put down your beliefs.

Seriously?

You “thot” the Great Strangelove could be offended by religious humour per se??

Ummm the only thing I find offensive… Todd… is laughably pathetic attempts at humour.

But enough of this sillyness....

*stamps FAIL on Todd’s forehead and moves on*

[rockalt]

Per, out of curiosity which is bigger in Sweden today, soccer or hockey? You seem to have had pretty big stars and success in both sports.

About equally big, I tend to say that soccer is bigger in southern Sweden and hockey in northern Sweden.

If you look at attendance at games in the top league, the average for soccer was 7210 last season and 5709 for hockey. But there are more hockey games than soccer games in a season, so total attendance was 1,883,192 for hockey compared to 1,730,357 for soccer.

Now, AIK of Stockholm have teams in various sports, and both their soccer and their hockey team play in the top league. Average attendance at their soccer games was 14,311 last season but a mere 4,998 at hockey games. Likewise, the top soccer team in Gothenburg (IFK Göteborg) draws an average crowd of 10,493 spectators while the best hockey team (Frölunda) averages 8,588.

On the other hand the two northernmost cities to have teams in Allsvenskan, Sweden's top soccer league also have hockey teams. In Gävle (where I live) the soccer team Gefle IF draws 3,387 spectators, whereas the hockey team Brynäs iF draws 6,227, and in Sundsvall the soccer team IFK Sundsvall draws 4,032 spectators but the hockey team Timrå draws 4,326. Add to this that Sundsvall, the northernmost place to have a soccer team in the top league, is roughly at the middle of Sweden, and that there are three SEL hockey teams further north than that (Modo, Skellefteå and Luleå).

Sweden is currently ranked 21st in the world out of 207 nations by FIFA (Brazil is in 18th, which shows what a joke these ratings are) and 4th by the IIHF (Canada is ranked 5th, which shows what a joke these ratings are).

Now, it's hard to compare, because competition is so much harder in soccer, which is the main team sport in most countries in the world, whereas hockey is more of a fringe sport that is barely heard of outside the vodka belt (Russia, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Canada).

I personally prefer hockey, but I guess soccer is my second favourite sport, albeit curling is not bad either.....

Thanks for the synopsis Per. Interesting to see the geographic spread in popularity of the two sports.

Sweden has definitely punched above its weight in soccer when you consider the size of the country. I've enjoyed watching them in recent World Cups and Euros.

As you mentioned though, there's no comparison in terms of competition. Like that 'Vodka Belt' expression. Trying to find fellow hockey fans abroad really puts things in perspective!