Canada vs U.S.A.

It's been a while since my last blog entry due to the holidays, and during that time off I didn't have access to as many NBA games as I usually do.  Spending some time in the U.S., I learned first hand that there are more high school and college basketball games televised than there are NBA games.  There was no doubt marque NBA games televised nationally, but there was always a high school or college game available to watch, 24/7, on one of many local and nation wide stations.

There is a channel dedicated to the high school level athlete, covering wrestling, hockey, football and basketball in both the boys and girls divisions.  While watching the varsity teams run up and down the court, I couldn't help but notice the amount of support in the stands.  Not only were the stands filled out, the enthusiasm was nothing I have ever seen before.  Memories of my high school teams playing to no more than 30 people, if that, made me start to wonder how come Canadian high schools don't draw in the same type of crowd.  Not only are the games televised with color commentators, but the channel also has a recap of the days events in the world of all high school sports every night.

When it came to men's college basketball, the well known ESPN broadcast games daily.  There were a great deal of NCAA Football games aired as well, but with ESPN2 also available, neither was out done by the other.  Similar to the high school sports channel, ESPN and ESPN2 would replay earlier aired games throughout the night.

Now its clear that the U.S. population exceeds ours in Canada by nearly 300 million, and that number alone can account for the attention their school sports programs receive nationally.  The NCAA also has nearly 300 more teams than the CIS does, which again when you consider country size and population, it makes sense.  However, when you see all the attention that school athletics get from basic cable television, sports talk radio and magazines specializing in school athletics, its no wonder young aspiring Canadian athletes don't hesitate to flock south of the border.  I can only wonder if Canadian athletics received as much attention as it's U.S. counter part, would more interest and support be the result?  It's a natural progression from the couch to the stands for fans of any sport, and although there are many sports media outlets, radio stations and websites that play a huge part in getting the word out, I continue to ask myself; what, if anything can bring Canadian athletics, in this case basketball, to where it should be?