DMelt36
Bolland > You
- Joined:
- May 27, 2010
- Posts:
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Cause were all bandwagon fans
Still going with that, eh? Everyone was a bandwagon fan at some point.
Bears forum is a beast.... one which feeds on internet rage....
I'm kind of torn here. I'd love to have as many people in here talking Hawks hockey as are raging about Bears football. But I also enjoy the fact that we can have, for the most part, intelligent and civil discussions about what's going on each game. I've had tons of good chats in here since the playoffs began.
As much as I love the Bears, they will never be a dominating force like the Hawks. With Stan Bowman making all of the Hawks' prospect decisions, this team will make playoffs for the next 20 years. And who the hell would rather watch baseball (regular season Cubs baseball) over playoff hockey? I dont understand how watching/playing hockey can be so generally unpopular as it is in Chicago. Im out here in Cali and hockey players are almost as common to see as soccer and baseball players. Maybe there will be a Toews effect like Gretzky in L.A.
I think the generation that I grew up in completely missed out on hockey due to the Hawks fading into relative anonymity in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were so goddam bad during that time and, to make matters even worse, the NHL as a whole suffered from limited exposure in the media. Then the 2005 lockout only made things worse.
But I think you're going to see that change heavily in the next 10-15 years. Kids tend to be a fairweather fan base and you can bet that the Hawks bandwagon is only going to get bigger with each deep postseason run they have. I also think that having John McDonough on board in the front office means the Hawks popularity will only continue. He got people to go to Cubs games for years when that team wasn't winning a thing. Imagine what he can do with the budding dynasty he's working for now.
I don't think the Hawks will ever surpass the Bears because of the NFL's stranglehold on the sports scene in America. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks were the 2nd most popular team in town by 2020.