Explore the vast range of titles available.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on professional sports, notably, forcing the National Hockey League to hold its 2020 playoffs in empty arenas. This provided an unprecedented opportunity to study how crowds may influence penalties awarded by referees in an ecological context. Using data from playoff games played during the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous 5 years ( n = 547), we estimate the number of penalties called by referees depending on whether or not spectators were present. The results show an interaction between a team’s status (home; away) and the presence or absence of crowds. Post-hoc analyses reveal that referees awarded significantly more penalties to the away team compared to the home team when there is a crowd present. However, when there are no spectators, the number of penalties awarded to the away and home teams are not significantly different. In order to generalize these results, we took advantage of the extension of the pandemic and the unusual game setting it provided to observe the behavior of referees during the 2020–2021 regular season. Again, using data from the National Hockey League ( n = 1639), but also expanding our sample to include Canadian Hockey League games ( n = 1709), we also find that the advantage given to the home team by referees when in front of a crowd fades in the absence of spectators. These findings provide new evidence suggesting that social pressure does have an impact on referees’ decision-making, thus contributing to explain the phenomenon of home advantage in professional ice hockey.

Background Effective approaches that engage men in weight loss and lifestyle change are important because of worldwide increases, including in Canada, in obesity and chronic diseases. Football Fans in Training (FFIT), developed in Scotland, successfully tackled these problems by engaging overweight/obese male football fans in sustained weight loss and positive health behaviours, through program deliveries at professional football stadia. Methods Aims: 1) Adapt FFIT to hockey within the Canadian context and integrate with Health e Steps™ (evidence-based lifestyle program) to develop Hockey Fans in Training (Hockey FIT); 2) Explore potential for Hockey FIT to help overweight/obese men lose weight and improve other outcomes by 12 weeks, and retain these improvements to 12 months; 3) Evaluate feasibility of recruiting and retaining overweight/obese men; 4) Evaluate acceptability of Hockey FIT; and 5) Conduct program optimization via a process evaluation. We conducted a two-arm pilot pragmatic randomized controlled trial (pRCT) whereby 80 overweight/obese male hockey fans (35–65 years; body-mass index ≥28 kg/m 2 ) were recruited through their connection to two junior A hockey teams (London and Sarnia, ON) and randomized to Intervention (Hockey FIT) or Comparator (Wait-List Control). Hockey FIT includes a 12-week Active Phase (classroom instruction and exercise sessions delivered weekly by trained coaches) and a 40-week Maintenance Phase. Data collected at baseline and 12 weeks (both groups), and 12 months (Intervention only), will inform evaluation of the potential of Hockey FIT to help men lose weight and improve other health outcomes. Feasibility and acceptability will be assessed using data from self-reports at screening and baseline, program fidelity (program observations and coach reflections), participant focus group discussions, coach interviews, as well as program questionnaires and interviews with participants. This information will be analyzed to inform program optimization. Discussion Hockey FIT is a gender-sensitive program designed to engage overweight/obese male hockey fans to improve physical activity and healthy eating choices, thereby leading to weight loss and other positive changes in health outcomes. We expect this study to provide evidence for a full-scale confirmatory pRCT. Trial registration NCT02396524 (Clinicaltrials.gov). Date of registration: Feb 26, 2015.

Previous sport consumer behavior research has found it common for fans to cheer for the closest teams (Warm et ah, 1996; Warm & James, 2019). However, little is known about how fans living equidistant between two teams in the same league would pick one over the other to support. To address this question, National Hockey League (NHL) fans in the city of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada were studied, as Red Deer is equidistant between the NHL cities of Edmonton and Calgary. Twelve fans of either the Edmonton Oilers or Calgary Flames were interviewed to ascertain how they became fans of one team and not the other. Four main antecedents to their team fandom were discovered: family and friends, team success, underdog status, and place attachment. While the first three antecedents reinforced findings from previous studies, finding place attachment as an antecedent to Oilers and Flames fandom proved interesting, as previous studies list place attachment as a reason to support a team if the fan lives in the city or region that is home to their favorite team. In Red Deer, none of the 12 fans had ever lived in either Edmonton or Calgary, but many of them described how place attachment to those cities led to fandom formation to that city's team. The findings of this study add to the body of sport consumer behavior knowledge by helping academics better understand some of the nuances of fandom formation in an atypical context.

Little did he know he was about to experience a night that would change his life. The only time he missed a significant stretch was when he served two years in the Navy in the late 1960s. A bunch of us hopped on our bikes and rode down to the War Memorial the next morning to buy tickets - and this is no exaggeration - the streets were already filled with people waiting in lines on all sides of the arena.

Played on frozen ponds in cold northern lands, hockey seemed an especially unlikely game to gain a global following. But from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, the sport has drawn from different cultures and crossed boundaries--between Canada and the United States, across the Atlantic, and among different regions of Europe. It has been a political flashpoint within countries and internationally. And it has given rise to far-reaching cultural changes and firmly held traditions. The Fastest Game in the World is a global history of a global sport, drawing upon research conducted around the world in a variety of languages. From Canadian prairies to Swiss mountain resorts, Soviet housing blocks to American suburbs, Bruce Berglund takes readers on an international tour, seamlessly weaving in hockey's local, national, and international trends. Written in a lively style with wide-ranging breadth and attention to telling detail, The Fastest Game in the World will thrill both the lifelong fan and anyone who is curious about how games intertwine with politics, economics, and culture.

Due to recent deaths of known enforcers in professional hockey, the role of fighting in the sport has come under increased scrutiny. This study examines the role of fighting, along with other factors, as it relates to attendance in the top developmental minor league for the NHL, the American Hockey League (AHL). AHL fans are shown to respond favorably to fighting, with more fans attending games when the home team fights more often. Fans are also shown to respond to the opponent and to a wide range of promotions, which were tabulated from team websites and included in the model.