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Creators: Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch
Status: Published

Following the Narrative of the United States vs. Soviet Union Hockey Game in the 1980 Winter Olympics

Description

The 1980 Winter Olympic semi-final hockey game between the United States and Soviet Union changed the history of sporting events. The outcome took everyone by surprise, and it reinvigorated patriotism in the United States. It was and forever will be known as a miracle. The hockey game has only grown in popularity due to movies, books, and articles reminiscing on one of the greatest sports upsets in history. The United States-Russia rivalry has been a strong one since the very beginning of sports. The United States has always tried to keep up with the Russian talent, but in 1980 they took the Soviets by surprise, at height of the cold war. Not only were they rivals in sports, but enemies at a profound political level. Over the years, the tensions between the two countries have diminished, but recently they have increased again. Although these tensions continue to rise, these countries are able to battle for the top seed through sports. This has been shown throughout the years with one of the main competitions being the 1980 Winter Olympics semi-final hockey game.

ContributorsPerkins, Jaclyn (Author) / Jackson, Victoria (Thesis director) / Simpson, Brooks (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2021-05

At Home Hockey: An Analysis of Subpar National TV Viewership for the NHL

Description

Ice hockey is widely recognized as one of the most exciting sports to watch and the NHL boasts very good in-game attendance figures when compared to similar professional sports leagues. In this study, we compare the NHL to the NBA, two leagues that share the same size stadiums and in-game attendance numbers but show huge disparities in national television viewership. The most watched NHL game of 2022/23, game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals totaled 2.72 million viewers nationally and the most watched NBA game of the 22/23 season was the final game of the NBA Finals totaled 17.88 million viewers nationwide. This is especially startling given the fact that on the local level, in cities with both NHL and NBA teams, the local rating are relatively even and oftentimes favor the NHL team. To investigate why this discrepancy exists, four cities that are home to both an NHL and NBA franchise were chosen as the focus of research. Youth participation and cost of both basketball and ice hockey were examined in each city and it was determined that they account for a large portion of the differences in national TV viewership. Marketing strategies of each league were also investigated, but it was found that these had little impact on the discrepancies in national TV viewership. The study concludes with possible solutions for the NHL to decrease costs and increase accessibility play, resulting in an increase in youth participation, especially in nontraditional hockey markets without NHL teams. In turn, this will bridge the gap in national viewership between themselves and the NBA.

ContributorsEckerle, Benjamin (Author) / Peca, Trevor (Co-author) / Pierce, John (Thesis director) / Palmer, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)

Created2024-05