A Whole New Game: Economics, Politics, and the Transformation of the Business of Hockey in Canada

by Neil Longley

Hockey used to be Canada’s game. What happened? A renowned sports expert details the sellout of a sport Canada once dominated to big-money U.S. corporatization and enumerates the effects, including declining amateur participation and audience size. Hockey is still Canada’s most popular spectator sport. Yet, many fans question how organized hockey serves the country of its origin as they watch the NHL expand ever deeper into an indifferent American south, taking the best young Canadian talent and leaving major Canadian markets in Québec, the Maritimes and the Prairies in the cold. Minor hockey, once the pride of smaller communities, now serves as a brutal corporate feeder system for the NHL, treating underpaid teenagers like chattel, often shipping players as young as fourteen far away from their homes and families on short notice. Neil Longley contrasts the current state of the game with the way it was before the expansion era, when hockey teams were nurtured and supported at the community level, a system still practiced in much of Europe. In one of the most perceptive and authoritative analyses yet written on modern hockey history, Professor Longley finds no magic formula for putting heart and local pride back in Canada’s game, but makes a strong case for placing today’s corporate system “in a more realistic, less-Disneyfied, less sanitized, context.”

Genres: Hockey, Canada, Sports, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2024

Reviews

[Paul Sutter]

It is doubtful that when hockey was in its infancy and six teams were part of the National Hockey League, anyone could have envisioned that one day hockey would be a financial juggernaut for teams. Who would have thought that players would make millions per season, and hockey franchises would be worth staggering figures that were close to $1 billion?
Neil Longley, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, does a very deep dive into the business of hockey, and it is truly quite the business. And while hockey has been noted as Canada’s sport, it is no secret that American hockey club owners are the ones who are raking in the big bucks quite effortlessly.
The introduction looks at hockey the way it is, what I recall for example growing up in the 1960’s. The original six teams gave hockey its image and relevancy. The Stanley Cup of 1967 was most significant, because for one thing, it was the last time Toronto Maple Leafs would won the Stanley Cup. It was also the last time the league saw six teams form the league.
The start of the 1967-1968 season, gave hockey twelve teams, of which at the time none of them were Canadian. At the time the majority of players in the National Hockey League were Canadian. But as time advanced, slowly there was a change of personnel, with players trickling in from the United States, and then years later from Europe. Statistics show today that Canadian players are in the minority with barely over 40 percent of players Canadian.
The fact there are now 32 teams, means the influx of players must come from International means to facilitate the massive personnel needed per team.
Longley studies the sport from many angles, including the fact the Montreal Canadiens which was at one time as much a hockey dynasty as the Toronto Maple Leafs, lost its competitive edge, because they were no longer exclusively recruiting Francophone players. When the hockey draft was created, Montreal tried to draft Francophone players in later years. Longley mentions several who made the team, but failed to make any sort of impact for the Canadiens. They flamed out quickly. Longley covers many aspects of the game, such as Western Canada wanted to be part of the hockey pie. Teams were created from Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Edmonton, but the fact remained hockey saw more traditional cities usually American, who got the franchises. In fact, even locations who were not seen as hockey cities got franchises mainly because of the lure of the dollar.
Cities like Vegas and Seattle were the two newest franchises, making millions in traditionally non-hockey locales. Longley makes great arguments about how teams evolved, along with the past, present and future of the sport. It is definitely the thinking person’s hockey book covering so many aspects of the business of the sport.

[Matt Reitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some strong sections that are clearly worthy of 5 stars; yet there are also portions that can make a person cringe and question the rest of the book. This is very much a book about Canadian politics and hockey. The political aspects are extremely well-researched and make the book worth anyone's time (if this is a subject that intrigues them). Unfortunately, there are multiple instances within the book where a well-written historical recap is followed by the author's summation/opinion that takes a complete left-hand turn away from what they've built towards. More than once there are passages that are complete opinions that have been shoehorned into the book and should have been left out. Again, this is the problem: the book is a lead-up to a lot of these opinions, that are in fact, not supported by the very research put into the lead-up. There are also some very obvious circumstances that are clearly left out to strengthen the author's viewpoint.

A very good example is in the chapter regarding the major junior hockey system across greater Canada. The historical context is nothing short of spectacular. I learned more about the creation and evolution of the system in one place than I've ever known. But then he uses the build-up of an inherently unfair system as the reason why kids are forced to play in places where they don't want to go because of an unfair draft system. But then, he performs mental gymnastics as to how most Canadians that are drafted into the NHL come from major junior—somehow this is proof that they don't see college as a viable option. TLDR: Kids knowingly and willingly use the system and succeed; this means college isn't viable for any kid that would be forced to go the junior route. At the end of the day, the author bends over backwards to present solutions for which there are no problems.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a fairly insightful read, i personally learned a lot about the history of hockey in Canada. I will say that the chapters do feel extremely redundant at times and that the same notions are repeated on multiple occasions throughout the book, even when it does feel slightly unnecessary. the epilogue was just an overly long review of every chapter’s subject material and didn’t feel like it brought any new ideas or perspectives to close off the book. i wish it had contained a more lively opinionated conclusion. would not recommend this book to anyone who’s a casual hockey fan but if you’re interested in hockey’s political and sociological ties, this book does a pretty good job at digging into some political events and their links to hockey. a lot of historical information is thrown in in terms of names of political leaders at the time, which i wish was expanded upon a bit further, but nonetheless the material was fairly easy to grasp.

also a great read for any of the idiots who say hockey isn’t political

[Adrian Mazzarolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the intersection of hockey and various aspects of Canadian culture / politics over the last 50 years or so.

As someone who wasn’t aware of a lot of the history of hockey, this book provided some great insights. The arguments posed related to the economic exploitation of junior players was both thought provoking and infuriating.

The main fault I would pose for this book is that some areas, including the entire epilogue suffered from redundancy, having already been mentioned many times over in prior areas. With that being said, if I ever wanted a quick summary of the main topics discussed in the book, the epilogue would provide it all in a few pages. But maybe that says something about the rest of the book…

Either way, I would still recommend this easy read!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this the first academic book I've read in full since my PhD? No comment.


(Do need to add that this was my first ever non-fiction hockey book and I did not realize how much I appreciate the mostly detached and academic tone here until I experienced the off-putting, boys'-club, "obviously I know more than you (especially you women)" vibe of the next book I picked up...)

[Connor Fortin · Rating 1.75 out of 5]

I don’t agree with a lot of the points in the point and this made for a frustrating read. The long-winded historical recaps of Canadian politics were too much filler and really left little impact when the main agreements came to fruition. I sped through the back chapter of the book because I already knew the same points being repeating would come up. I understand the authors done a lot of research and is much more knowledgeable then me here, I just found the presentation of his findings to be unengaging, which lies as the main crime of the book.