Nascar Dad hates soccer: Strategic Isolationism or ignorant "cavemanism"?

Hatred for hockey is on the rise -- but so too is disdain for sport of varying professional stripe
ROY MacGREGOR

It's official. Americans don't like us.
Or, at the very least, do not like the Canadian game, though only 25.4 per cent of Americans actually hate, even loathe, the sport we think the rest of the world should adore.
The poll was conducted in mid-July and involved 1,020 American adults who were shown a list of 28 sports (NHL hockey included) and asked to give a reaction: "(1) love, (2) like a lot, (3) like a little, (4) no opinion, (5) dislike a little, (6) dislike a lot or (7) hate."
To no surprise, dog fighting turned out to be most despised of all, with 81 per cent of those interviewed loathing it and the other 19 per cent in need of psychiatric care.
Professional wrestling, which many would argue is not even remotely a sport, came in second, bullfighting third and pro boxing fourth.
None of this is particularly surprising, but just wait . . .
Weighing in it at No. 5 on the hate list is PGA golf, disliked by 30.4 per cent of Americans. No. 6 is the absurd PGA senior tour (29.9 per cent), the women's LPGA Tour (29.2 per cent), NASCAR racing (27.6 per cent), Major League Soccer (27.6 per cent) and the ATP men's tennis tour (26.5 per cent).
NHL hockey comes very close, with 25.4 per cent of Americans having only negative feelings toward the sport.
That is a considerable increase, by the way, from the 20 per cent NHL hockey registered on the hate meter in 1993, the last time the Sports Marketing Group carried out such a survey.
It is this 10-year comparison that has caused such interest, as people seem to be growing ever more resentful toward professional sports. The National Basketball Association now has nearly one in five Americans (19.7 per cent) hating the sport, whereas in 1993 only 11.9 per cent had such strong feelings -- worrisome for a league with such an increasing image problem.
As for Major League Baseball, 17.5 per cent of the United States is now strongly against "the great American pastime," well up from the 9.9 per cent of a decade ago.
"Baseball is on the decline," Lavalle told the American media, "and it could be dying if it doesn't change the way it's structured."
But what about hockey?
Lavalle says NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is actually doing a good job with the game, despite so much criticism.
"The No. 1 problem researched for the NHL," says Lavalle, "is that the average Joe can't get to the games." People can find a way to a football game, or to a couple of baseball games, but hockey tickets are now considered beyond the reach of the average sports fan.
Lavalle's studies have found that the NHL fan base is actually much older and richer than the beer ads would suggest.
"It's an affluent base," he says. "Much higher than even PGA golf. And that's both good and bad. If you create an elitist sport that is limited to the people who can afford to pay for it, you put off gaining a mass audience."