Modano
07-10-2008, 02:01 PM
While the off topic conversation is amusing - what with the slippery, unbannable member and such- I can't believe anyone is defending the above statement. B/c one lives in Italy and watches/reads the local sports coverage it's ok to state "Almost 80% of people" in 5+ countries "don't even know what hockey is."??? Really???
"42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot." - Steven Wright
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -Mark Twain
"Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures." - Evan Esar
Since we were going off topic in the other thread...
C'mon man!! I was clearly exagerating! It isn't a statistic that I found in a newspaper. I said "80%" just to show that the majority of people here in western europe don't care about hockey, since someone said that hockey is the third most popular sport in Europe (when it's only that popular in Sweden, Norway, Finland and eastern Europe).
You have the right to think that I'm lying, but I guarantee that I've never met an ice hockey fan in my life outside of internet. I was the only ice hockey fan in my high school (which had 1000 students) and I haven't met an hockey fan so far in my 4 years at university.
I also guarantee that the three major italian sports magazine (Gazzetta, Corriere dello Sport and Sports Week) don't cover ice hockey events at all. They just report who win the stanley cup.
Also, in the most important italian site (and forum) about american sports, only thirty members are hockey fans.
Italy is composed of 20 "regioni" which are like the american states. Only in three of them ice hockey is played. At least 15 of them don't even have a place to play hockey.
During the olimpic games in Torino the annoucers can't even explain when a player goes offside.
And you can find the same situation in France, Spain, Portugal etc.
So, I said 80% just to state that ice hockey is one of the less popular sports in Italy and some of the other western european countries.
P.S.: sorry for the grammar but I don't have the time to re-read the entire post.
"42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot." - Steven Wright
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -Mark Twain
"Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures." - Evan Esar
Since we were going off topic in the other thread...
C'mon man!! I was clearly exagerating! It isn't a statistic that I found in a newspaper. I said "80%" just to show that the majority of people here in western europe don't care about hockey, since someone said that hockey is the third most popular sport in Europe (when it's only that popular in Sweden, Norway, Finland and eastern Europe).
You have the right to think that I'm lying, but I guarantee that I've never met an ice hockey fan in my life outside of internet. I was the only ice hockey fan in my high school (which had 1000 students) and I haven't met an hockey fan so far in my 4 years at university.
I also guarantee that the three major italian sports magazine (Gazzetta, Corriere dello Sport and Sports Week) don't cover ice hockey events at all. They just report who win the stanley cup.
Also, in the most important italian site (and forum) about american sports, only thirty members are hockey fans.
Italy is composed of 20 "regioni" which are like the american states. Only in three of them ice hockey is played. At least 15 of them don't even have a place to play hockey.
During the olimpic games in Torino the annoucers can't even explain when a player goes offside.
And you can find the same situation in France, Spain, Portugal etc.
So, I said 80% just to state that ice hockey is one of the less popular sports in Italy and some of the other western european countries.
P.S.: sorry for the grammar but I don't have the time to re-read the entire post.