"An NHL Touch": Transnationalizing Ice Hockey in Sweden, 1994-2013
[Article]
Björk, Ulf Jonas
During the 1994-95 ice hockey season in Sweden, one of the teams in the highest division, Luleå, treated fans to an innovation: instead of merely entering the ice as in years past, players flew out of a gigantic bear maw, to the accompaniment of a pounding rock beat. The idea was not original, however; as a newspaper columnist noted, it had been copied directly from the National Hockey league in North America. Luleå's new entrance concept was part of a concerted effort by teams in Sweden's highest ice hockey division, Elitserien, to emulate the NHL to make the sport more popular with young fans. This paper examines how and why that attempt was made and why it was ultimately unsuccessful.