Official 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Thread

Originally posted by Legbreaker:
Oh, and one more thing, Sid...talking sh*t about Herb Brooks to a board of American sports fans is pretty f*cking stupid, imo.

First off, the guy is dead. Show a little respect.

Second, he's a hero to the hockey watching public in the states. Lay off.

That is all.

Originally posted by King49er:

Originally posted by Legbreaker:
Oh, and one more thing, Sid...talking sh*t about Herb Brooks to a board of American sports fans is pretty f*cking stupid, imo.

First off, the guy is dead. Show a little respect.

Second, he's a hero to the hockey watching public in the states. Lay off.

That is all.

Grazie, amigo. And congrats. Seriously. Your guys played a helluva game.

Now that that's all done with I can get back to screaming my @ss off for Joe, Patty, Heater and Boyle instead of praying that they'd have a bad game

I am not a huge hockey fan but watched and rooted for the American team. When it was over I was sad yet happy for the Canadians. It means so much to them. Americans will get over this loss much easier than the Canadians would have - especially considering the end of regulation.

Good game. Congratulations. Enough of the nationalistic BS and to quote Rodney King "cant we all be friends"

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:
I am not a huge hockey fan but watched and rooted for the American team. When it was over I was sad yet happy for the Canadians. It means so much to them. Americans will get over this loss much easier than the Canadians would have - especially considering the end of regulation.

Good game. Congratulations. Enough of the nationalistic BS and to quote Rodney King "cant we all be friends"

Agreed. And when you consider that MAYBE four guys on Team USA would have even made the Canadian team, and still almost shocked the World, the U.S. has nothing to complain about. It's all good.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by NineFourNiner:

No s**t.

And for the record...no, we don't care about hockey, as a general rule. We really don't. And the ratings for hockey in this country reflect that.

I think a lot of the ratings for hockey have to do with ESPN-NHL contract dispute that sent the NHL into the dark corner known as Versus. When NHL returns to ESPN, I think ratings will improve.

US-Canada game drew a 15.2 rating, which is roughly on par with American Idol (which is the most popular TV show at the moment.) But ofcourse the 27.6 million that tuned in is only half that tune in for the Superbowl. Yet the ratings scored above 30 in traditionally "hockey" markets like Pittsburgh.

So to say Americans don't care isn't very accurate. Using that defination, Americans apparently don't care about 95% of TV shows are most other sports games that arent' epic playoff clashes.

NBA Finals ratings haven't topped 10 in the last 5 years BTW.

I think you’re comparing apples to oranges, SunDevil.

The USA-Canada final was a singular/winner-take-all event, as is the Super Bowl. The NBA Finals are a series. Then you add in the element of national pride and you’re going to get ratings. I don’t give a crap about swimming, but will I watch Michael Phelps swim for Team USA? Of course. I’d bet that got good ratings as well.

The Olympics don’t completely fall within the category of sport, as there’s nationalistic & social significance involved. I don’t have any empirical study to reference on this, but I’d imagine that women watch the Olympics to a much greater degree than sports under normal circumstances.

I’d argue that the ratings of an Olympic event doesn’t reflect a sport’s popularity.

To some degree yes. Usually hockey games (NHL) are in the single digits, below 5 in the ratings.

But I still don't see how you can say Americans don't care when there are millions that play the game and millions of fans.

More accurately, mainstream Americans don't care. But Canada is a country of about 30 million. And I would say probably 10 million Americans are regular fans, and 20 million are very casual fans. Now fractionally thats not very significant compared to other major sports, but its still a sport of significant interest in the US.

I wouldn't call anything that is followed by millions as a sport no one cares about. And comparatively, Americans fan numbers are somewhat close to Canadian numbers.

Not to mention Finland (Bronze) has a population of 5 million, Sweden (past Gold) 9 million, and Czech (past Gold) 10 million.

So compared to the heavyweights, we either have a few million less fans (Canada/Russia) or far more fans.

So it is a sport a significant amount of Americans care about, and US can't use the lack of mainstream interest as an excuse when you look at the fan/talent pool of other countries.

Now I can keep going to explain about hockey, but I doubt you care. 2010 Silver Medal is actually a major achievement for USA hockey. It was validation of the new model USA Hockey has employed to develop and groom top tier talent (US National Development Team). USA hockey has been bad because US hockey lacked development programs that Canada is extremely deep in (Canadian Junior Leagues). Most US players had to go to Canada to even have a shot (Modano, Roenick, Chelios).

And only in the last decade has USA hockey (with some NHL funding as has been pointed out) taken it serious to find way to develop top tier talent in the absence of comparative Junior Leagues (although our Junior Leagues now are a whole lot better then a decade ago, but still no where close to CA Juniors).

The NDT program developed 8 of the young players on the Olympic Team (roughly 1/3) and was a major factor in developing competitive depth among American players And next Olympics 2/3 of the team will probably be from the NDT program.

[ Edited by SunDevilNiner79 on Mar 1, 2010 at 19:06:56 ]

Originally posted by King49er:

this is inciting

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by King49er:

this is inciting

Let them have their moment, val. It's all they have.

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by King49er:

this is inciting

Let them have their moment, val. It's all they have.

Yeah, no matter how many medals they win... at the end of the day they're still Canada.

Originally posted by Riot:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by King49er:

this is inciting

Let them have their moment, val. It's all they have.

Yeah, no matter how many medals they win... at the end of the day they're still Canada.

lol

Originally posted by fortyninerglory:
Canada won the 2010 winter olympics with more golds than any other country. Who cares about the past.

It sickens me that they list USA at the top of the medal tracker like they won the event with their silvers and tons of bronzes LMAO.

Watching the American flag being lifted during the medal ceremony is representation enough. And to beat out 79 other countries to the podium is victory.

Only if you could watch all the medal ceremonies in succession, just the lifting of the flag, you will see the true power of America. I don't know what country you're from, but it appears you are jealous of us Yankees. Don't tread on me boy!

Originally posted by NattoNiner:

Originally posted by fortyninerglory:
Canada won the 2010 winter olympics with more golds than any other country. Who cares about the past.

It sickens me that they list USA at the top of the medal tracker like they won the event with their silvers and tons of bronzes LMAO.

Watching the American flag being lifted during the medal ceremony is representation enough. And to beat out 79 other countries to the podium is victory.

Only if you could watch all the medal ceremonies in succession, just the lifting of the flag, you will see the true power of America. I don't know what country you're from, but it appears you are jealous of us Yankees. Don't tread on me boy!

Someone leaps from the shadows!

You fall before the onslaught of Someone’s rampage.

Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
You are driven to the ground as Someone crushes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
You are driven to the ground as Someone crushes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
Your flesh splatters to the ground as Someone pulverizes you.
Your Unholy Shield absorbs an enormous amount of the damage.
You are driven to the ground as Someone crushes you.

Someone deals you the final blow, and the world fades...
A rider wearing a black hooded robe gallops in on a pale horse carrying a
large Scythe.
I am Death, one of the Four Horsemen. You have summoned me here through bad
judgement or ill fate, in either case .... your soul now belongs to me!

The robed figure tosses his head back and cackles evilly.

At least we can all agree that we Americans and Canadians both dislike those French Quebecers....

Originally posted by VaBeachNiner:
At least we can all agree that we Americans and Canadians both dislike those French Quebecers....