Part
01
of one
Part
01
For the olympic sports: international ice hockey -How many athletes are there? How many people watch it during the Olympics and after the Olympics? How many events are there per year?
Hello! Thanks for your question regarding various statistics about the Olympic sport, international ice hockey. We have provided with you several key figures pertaining to your request, namely: the estimated number of athletes across the world, recent viewership statistics for both Olympic and non-Olympic international events, and the number of international events per year. The short answer is that as of 2016, there are an estimated 1,749,976 ice hockey players in the world, up 6.7% since 2013. For Olympic viewership, the highest average viewership in the US was about 27.6 million for the 2010 Winter Olympics, dropping to 4.9 million for the 2014 Olympics. For major non-Olympic events, viewership remains high, with the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Ice Hockey World Championships averaging a cumulative TV viewership of over 1 billion across the world, up 5.8% from 2014. As for the average number of major international events per year, the approximate figure according to the IIHF calendar of events would be 10 major events, excluding congresses, inline hockey, the Olympics and other Olympic-related events such as the Olympic qualifications.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
As requested, we have isolated certain figures specifically mentioned in your request, such as the number of athletes, Olympic and non-Olympic event viewership and statistics. We have also included other data (qualitative as well) that might help in your decision to focus on a certain sport. All figures and data were extracted from accredited and legitimate sources such as the IIHF website, NHL and other sports-related platforms' articles, as well as reports such as the 2014 Sochi Marketing Committee report, which reports official information endorsed by the International Olympic Committee itself. Olympic viewership and statistics were confined to data on the 2010 and 2014 Winter events, and only major events such as the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships were focused on for non-Olympic events.
NUMBER OF ATHLETES
According to the IIHF 2016 Survey of Players, across the 72 surveyed countries, there are a total of 1,749,976 registered ice hockey athletes. In particular, the US and Canada stand out as overwhelmingly dominant in terms of number of athletes, with 543,239 and 639,500 ice hockey athletes respectively, making up approximately 36.5% and 31% of all ice hockey players in the world. The Czech Republic and Russia trail behind at 3rd and 4th place, contributing 6.2% and 5.8% to the total number of players across the globe. The full breakdown of players by country, as well as other categories such as gender and age, are provided in the 2016 IIHF Survey of Players, which is provided as a source below.
OLYMPIC VIEWERSHIP
According to NHL, ice hockey seems to have great potential as a sport, proving to be extremely popular among both US and Canadian viewers. In the 2010 Vancouver men's finals between the USA and Canada, average NBC viewership was estimated at 27.6 million, or 15.2% of all US homes, a record high for ice hockey Olympics since the 1980s. Significantly, the viewership for this Olympic finals outstripped that of many other major sporting events of the season, such as the 2010 Rose Bowl at 24.0 million viewers, the 2009 World Series (22.8 million viewers for the most-watched game), the 2009 NCAA men's basketball championship game at 17.6 million viewers, the 2009 NBA Finals (16.0 million viewers for the most-watched game) and the 2010 Daytona 500 at 16.0 million viewers. While 2014 viewership seems to have dropped greatly in comparison, with the most-watched ice hockey game in the US (the women’s gold medal ice hockey game between the United States and Canada) averaging just 4.9 million viewers on NBC, the outlook for ice hockey remains relatively bright. The “TV Everywhere” verified live stream of the Olympic men’s ice hockey semi-final between the US and Canada, which saw a victory to Team Canada with a score of 1-0, generated over 2.1 million unique users, estimated to be the largest “TV Everywhere” verified streaming audience in US history. Furthermore, this live stream ranked number one in unique users across all NBC Sports Digital streams, topping the previous record held by the Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012.
Olympic viewership is even higher in Canada than the US, with an average viewership of 50% of the population for the same 2010 Vancouver finals mentioned above, or 16.6 million people, constituting the largest television audience ever recorded in the nation's history. According to IIHF, about 80% of Canadians, or 26.5 million people, tuned in to watch at least some part of the game, highlighting the great potential for ice-hockey related products in the Canadian market. In the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, viewership seems to have dropped somewhat, similar to the situation in the US, with the most-watched game (the Canada-Sweden men's final) capturing an average of 8.5 million Canadian viewers. However, the outlook for ice hockey in Canada is still overwhelmingly positive; the Canada-Sweden finals broadcast was the highest performing broadcast from Sochi 2014, also outstripping any coverage of the 2013 Men’s Ice Hockey World Championships.
Overall, viewership across platforms such as digital, TV and even physical, on-location viewership remains very significant for ice hockey in the US and Canada, the two leading countries for the sport. In Sochi 2014, the International Olympic Committee reported ice hockey as one of the top 5 most in-demand events among ticket buyers, in addition to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, biathlon and figure skating events.
NON-OLYMPIC EVENTS VIEWERSHIP
For the purposes of this report, we have focused only on major international ice hockey events organized by the IIHF, namely the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, organized annually by the IIHF and considered to be the most important major international ice hockey event, excluding the Olympics. Global viewership for the World Championships is astonishingly high; InFront Sports and Media, the exclusive media and marketing partner of IIHF for the 2015 World Championships , estimated the cumulative TV audience for the year's event at over 1 billion, up 6.7% compared to 945 million in 2014. Furthermore, in terms of onsite attendance, the 2015 tournament also achieved a new record with 741,690 onsite viewers, over 100,000 more than the previous tournament held in Belarus. In addition, a further 250,000 dedicated supporters stationed themselves in the "fan villages" outside the arenas in Prague and Ostrava. In terms of social media and digital presence, the World Championships experienced a meteoric rise in 2015 as well, with a total of 11.6 million video views during the tournament. On YouTube, total accumulated watch time increased by "factor 41" up to 448,000 hours as compared to 2014.
The World Championships also have several subsets by categories such as age, for example the U18, U20 and World Junior Championships. The youth market in Canada has a strong positive outlook as well for ice hockey, with 40% of Canadians aged 2-17 tuning in to watch the 2016 World Junior Championship. Total Canadian viewership for the Junior tournament was estimated at 15.3 million, proving that when it comes to ice hockey, age is just a number as far as audiences are concerned.
NUMBER OF EVENTS
For this report, only major international events such as the World Championships have been included in the count. According to the 2016 and 2017 IIHF calendar of events, the number of events (broken down into segments e.g. U20, Junior) per year is around 10, with the list as follows:
1. IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
2. IIHF ICE HOCKEY U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
3. IIHF ICE HOCKEY U18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
4. IIHF ICE HOCKEY WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
5. IIHF ICE HOCKEY U18 WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
6. IIHF CHALLENGE CUP OF ASIA
7. 2016 - 2017 IIHF CONTINENTAL CUP (CC)
8. FISU Winter Games
9. Asian Winter Games
10. European Youth Olympic Winter Festival
The complete breakdown of events can be found in the respective IIHF calendar of events, provided as a source below. Not included in the above count are the annual and semi-annual congresses held by the IIHF, as well as inline hockey and Olympic-related events such as the Olympics themselves, qualification rounds, and team breaks, all of which may be found in the full calendar of events as provided below.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we have provided you with key figures and statistics about athlete numbers, viewership of Olympic and non-Olympic events and other data which you might find pertinent to your research causes. Thanks for using Wonder and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to direct them straight to us!