Expanding the Hockey World
It’s only been 24 hours since we created the NHL Hockey Fans Map and we’re amazed by the early response. Last night we were just one lonely little balloon on the west coast; now there are over 70 NHL fans and counting. Thank you to everyone who is participating - and we look forward to many more.
Here’s a screen shot of the map as of this afternoon:
A few surprising things are showing up on the map so far, including one thing really stands out: there’s a whole lot of Brazillian NHL hockey fans out there. Who knew?
Another thing we were thinking about: Many NHL fans in North America often feel marginalized by the media’s coverage (or lack-of-coverage) of their favourite sport. But just imagine the difficulties of being that Ducks fan in India? Or the Pittsburgh Penguins fan in Sao Paulo, Brazil? Heck, it’s probably hard enough just being one of those Canucks’ fans in California…!
It’s an education to see how fans of different teams are spread out around the world. Thanks for contributing to this worthwhile project. We’ll provide more updates as the map fills in.
Note:
If anyone is having problems adding themselves to the project, just email us your name and favourite team (and a photo if you like - but you’ll have to use our gmail address, noted below, to send pics) and we’ll be happy to do it for you.
tags: nhl, hockey, teams, fans, sports, map, nhl+hockey+fans, frappr, google+maps
March 17th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
[…] Expanding the Hockey World […]
March 18th, 2006 at 8:40 am
“there’s a whole lot of Brazillian NHL hockey fans out there. Who knew?”
There’s been an On The Wings:Brazil (http://onthewings.blogspot.com/br/) since August 2004. Those guys pretty serious fans!
March 18th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Ahhhhh. That’s really something. When going through the map yesterday, I realized that 10% of all the markers were in Brazil. 10%!!! That’s a big chunk of hockey fans.
P.S. It just figures that you Wings fans are trying to take over the world. You must be stopped!
March 20th, 2006 at 9:32 am
You shouldn’t complain about hockey coverage.
All we have here in Brazil is live streaming of local radios and of course the news in internet sites and blogs.
ESPN international used to show feel games (1 per month at 2am, never live), in the 2003-2004 season and (thanks God!) all the Stanley Cup live games. Bolts won that Cup and in that time I could actually see Andreychuk and the SC. It was great! But it’s over now.
In Olympics time we had another chance to see guys playing, but with a terrible brazilian announcer, who barely understood the rules.
Right now I only hear Tampa Bay Lightning playing, and imagine the amazing goals from Lecavalier, Prospal, etc.
I don’t complain. Of course I would love to have a TV transmission, but hockey isn’t a priority in soccer’s country. In fact I feel lucky to have David Mishkin and Phil Esposito announcing the game at WDAE. They make things much more fun than the guys on TV.
Sorry for my bad English!
March 20th, 2006 at 10:43 am
No Mary, we definitely can’t complain about coverage. Especially here in Canada. It must be so frustrating for you, trying to follow you team when all you can get online is highlights.
Hopefully, even without espn, some network will provide decent coverage of the playoffs.
And don’t worry - your English is excellent. Much better than our Portuguese will ever be, let me tell you…!
February 4th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
[…] Taking a page from VanCanOpEd’s book, I’m bringing back the Frappr map I created a while ago. I had it up but neglected to announce it so not many people joined and I took the link down. We’re interested in where you guys are geographically so, if you have a second, stick a pin in the map! […]