Рopularity of hockey in Germany
 

Ok....
How big is the popularity of ice hockey in Germany?
Is the game in top 5 among the others sports?

Difficult to say as you can't count the TV ratings because the DEL is only broadcasted on Pay-TV. Just out of my head I would think Hockey is behind Football (of course), Handball, Formula 1, Ski Jump, Biathlon and maybe other racing events like the DTM popular wise. Don't know about Basketball though. Boxing has quite good TV ratings as well.

in team sports, it could be as follows:

Football
Handball
Basketball
Ice Hockey

I'm still wondering how that 78'000 were sold out in this short time.

In team sports, yes. Behind soccer by a large margin, but I would put it equal to handball and basketball. Big problem in Germany is that games are only shown on Pay-TV and there is no bigger coverage in any of the major networks in Germany. Only the olympics are shown on the majors. Hockey has a solid group of fans but outside cities with a team, the interest is not very big.

For a European wide league in the future it is paramount that the sport is big in Germany.

If I had some say about this I would target the German market in order to make the sport grow there. That being said, I would love a European league.

I would say:

soccer
.
.
.
.
.
.
hockey
basketball
handball

just the team sports ;)

When I went to Germany (South west), Handball was a pretty big thing. After football of course

Top5 team sports:
Football







Handball
Basketball
Hockey




American Football

Soccer
.
.
.
.
Hockey
Handball
Basketball

This are the main team sports. As far as interest goes, I'd say that Formula 1, DTM and tennis are between soccer and hockey. Hockey has more spectators than any other sports besides soccer. (It's hard to judge Formula 1 and other car races) The problem is that only very few people actually play hockey. There are so many people who play handball, basketball, volleyball, .... but very few people who play hockey. Germans usually love the sports they're good at (several winter sports, Formula 1, Handball) and unfortunately our hockey team hasn't much success.

Here are the average spectators for each league (1st division)

1st league soccer (1. Bundesliga): 42,490 (18 teams) - all teams above 20,084
2nd league soccer (2. Bundesliga): 15,113 (18 teams) - 12 teams above 10,000
Hockey (DEL): 5,774 (15 teams) - 3 teams above 10,000
Handball (Toyota HBL): 4,543 (18 teams) - 2 teams above 10,000
Basketball (Beko BBL): 3,775 (18 teams) - 1 team above 10,000

Thank you!
Interesting stats...

I'd say it's definitely more popular than basketball and in cities with both handball and hockey teams the hockey teams always outdraw the handball teams but the perception among "non-fans" is still that hockey is not a German sport because we suck at it.

The German hockey team is known as the "least successful German sports team", they are basically perceived as losers and not sexy.

So hockey outdraws basketball and handball but a lot more people would watch handball on TV, it's an easy sport to "get" and the Germans are good at it.

Maybe if RTL gave the world hockey championship as much coverage as they did to the last handball WM those people would watch hockey as well.

Handball? Really? Handball!? The childen's game that we used to play against the exterior of the school wall back in elementary school? People would prefer watching that over bar none the fastest, most physical, exciting team sport on the planet? Do we need to liberate the Germans again?

While I love hockey, I don´t understand why some people need to offend an another sport when defending hockey? Handball is a great sport to watch/play and it is a tough sport just like hockey, it is no children´s game. Maybe you have not seen real handball in your life yet considering that outside Europe almost everyone sucks at it, which can be seen at the handball WC as well. There are 32 teams and the last time out of the 16 that made it to the next round just one was non-European (ROK).

Team Handball is actually a really fun sport. The one I played in gym was a mix between hockey and soccer. I can see why it's popular, and would love to play if there were leagues around here.

I think he was talking about this sport:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball

I have to wonder whether Americans can´t think about their own names for sports? Makes for so much confusion. Like with football....:sarcasm:

Yes, this is American handball as played by children in schools and in prisons.

And this is the real handball. France vs. Croatia,in recent years I believe they have been in pretty much all major tournaments final games.

My apologies for my ignorance (it wasn't meant to be intentionally provocative) but I wasn't aware of the video images and clips that several posters showed me. I was under the mistaken impression that it was similar to the game where you hit a ball against the wall (which we used to play at recess) and the international version was akin to something like squash. Sorry if I offended anybody, but it just struck me as ridiculous that anyone would prefer handball to hockey.

It´s okay. it was just a misunderstandment, I had no idea this American sport was called American handball. It´s just that handball is my No. 2 favourite sport to watch in international play after hockey. :nod:

It's football and then nothing for a long time. Hockey, basketball and handball are similarly popular and it depends on the area which one is more visible. I wouldn't even bring up sports like ski jumping or biathlon because those events occupy public consciousness only for special events like the Vierschanzentournee or the Olympics but otherwise are irrelevant. During Olympics anything can get ratings provided Germans are contending for medals, it says nothing about the sport's popularity in general.

The only sports that really exist as professional leagues with solid spectator numbers outside football are handball, basketball and hockey. Hockey I believe is the most attractive sport out of the lot but it faces an uphill struggle as even if you enjoy watching it, it's a struggle to play it. Rinks aren't very common and equipment is pricey. Basketball and handball on the other hand are popular sports at the school level, don't require special equipment or a special surface. Not surprisingly Germany is more competitive in those other sports than in hockey and thus viewership and media attention for international tournaments is much bigger. It has to be pointed out though that the leagues in all three sports had to fight for their TV presence as really only football is guaranteed a spot, so hockey's lot is shared by basketball and handball in that regard.

I've often wondered just how popular American football actually was/is in Germany. I saw some of those NFL Europa games on TV and the fans looked pretty into it.

I think hockey has gotten more popular in Germany due to the Olympics.