Hockey may be more popular in the North than in the South

However, there are places in the South where hockey is thriving relatively speaking. Even though AL-Huntsville is the only program in the South to compete at the DI level, there are a good number of southern programs that compete in DI, DII, or DIII club hockey. Also, if you look at the 2015-2016 attendance of NHL in the South, then you could say there are pockets in the South where hockey has taken root and may even be thriving as a sport.

Tampa Bay - 19,092
Dallas - 18,377
Los Angeles - 18,274
Nashville - 16,971
Anaheim - 16,874
Washington - 18,511

Only Carolina, Florida, and Phoenix were below 16K for the the 2015-2016 season. For comparison here are the figures for a few US teams that are located in the North and considered to be hockey cities.

Boston - 18,777
Chicago - 21,860
Detroit - 20,027
NY Rangers - 18,006
Philadelphia - 19,227
Pittsburgh - 18,551

Now I don't think collegiate hockey will ever get as popular as basketball or football. I do think in time it could end up being in the Top 5. One thing that is holding hockey back is it is a lot cheaper for a school to throw down a baseball and softball diamond than it is to modify a basketball arena to play hockey in or build a new arena for hockey.

(In response to this post by HOO86)

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Posted: 10/21/2016 at 10:50AM

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Hockey may be more popular in the North than in the South

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