The "Biggest Game" Debate, part I...

Morning all-another day-another few posts...I'm using a break in job hunting to reply to my first comment (and comments from readers, ideas for new features, etc are of course welcomed at any time, cause apart from anything else they give me ideas for future posts, and hopefully build up some sort of head of steam)...



Anyway-the first comment to come in takes issue with my little pop at the Steelers/Panthers hype machine in this week's Round the Rinks, and reads thus...

"Surely, the fact that this Saturdays Panthers Steelers game will sell 6000 tickets, at the same time of the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final, makes it the biggest game in UK hockey?"

Fair point. It can't be denied that fans in both Notts and Shuff always look for the games against "them up t'road" first when the fixture list comes out. And based purely on attendance, you could make the same argument. And the rivalry was huge once-as shown by this little disagreement between the two teams. Rumour has it it was started not just by the cross-check, but when someone mentioned that Scott Allison wasn't the greatest use of a week's wages...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioyQi-rb1DM

When this happened, there was no debate. Notts/Shuff was the "one game everyone in British hockey had to see once"

However, (to break a rule of mine and bring football into the argument), the Merseyside derby (Liverpool-Everton) will attract 45,000 this weekend, also at the same time as the WC semi-yet no-one outside of Liverpool is calling it "the biggest game in British football". The hype machine (well, Dave Simms, who is the closest thing to one in British hockey) always seems to give the impression that thousands of British hockey fans will be hanging on the edge of their seats waiting for the updates from the NIC or Hallam Arena, and that the team that loses will suffer some huge heartbreak, or lose bragging rights for the year-and that there is no other game in the UK hockey scene which excites such passion. This just isn't the case. I remember going to a Steelers/Panthers game in the old ISL at the Hallam, being all excited on the way up to finally see the "biggest rivalry in British hockey" and then spending sixty minutes sitting in a echoing half-silent arena watching a game which, although good, just didn't have that life-or-death fire which you get in truly great rivalry games. For example (and keeping Nottingham as one of the teams) the Challenge Cup semi-final of the 04/05 season, particularly the NIC leg, with Coventry as the other team, FELT like a rivalry game-both sets of fans were well and truly yelling themselves hoarse, the teams were playing like the losers would be killed and eaten by the winners, and the banter was flying back and forth. Every goal meant something, every hit was cheered, and so on.

And then you have Coventry-Cardiff. If you'd ever gone to the old and much-missed Wales National Ice Rink for a Devils-Blaze game and NOT been swept up by the atmosphere, even as a neutral, then you're clinically dead. Ask any Coventry or Cardiff fan about the games they look forward to the most, and it's a safe bet that Blaze/Devils, especially in Cardiff, will come top of the list. And Coventry/Belfast and Sheffield/Manchester have seen some pretty intense games in the past too-moving down to the EPL the rivalry between Chelmsford and Romford has half the numbers of most EIHL rivalries yet at least as much intensity...yet still people are told that Steelers/Panthers is the big one......

It seems to me that, while it's still a HUGE game for both sets of fans, the Steelers/Panthers rivalry is living somewhat on past glories-and every year, particularly as the teams play each other three or four times a season, the hype machine grinds into action a little more slowly and a little less convincingly...the fact is, there are newer rivalries that are just as intense as this one, and the sooner the leagues realise this and starts marketing them as well, instead of relying on this fading giant of a rivalry, the better.

Feel free to comment, either way-this is a debate that can run and run.

Check back later today for the running diary of Blaze's first game in this year's Conti Cup....and keep your eye on the puck. :)