In parts of the country where your urine doesn’t freeze in your bladder during the winter, it also helps when your parents don’t have to cough up an kidney for the combined equipment and ice rink rental costs and they don’t mind waking up at 4 AM because 5 AM is the only time Spritle or Trixie get to practice . .. Not to say playing the sport is a pre-requiste to enjoy it but typically those who played the game as kids will be the sport’s fanbase anchor. Is it any wonder why, other than imperialism, soccer is the world’s game….all you need is a ball, a flat area and means to mark a boundry for the goals. Even kids in the poorest of countries can find a way to play. Not only that, the game doesn’t lose alot of quality if you don’t have proper playing conditions or equipment. Now that soccer is a popular sport for kids in the US, I think in the next decade soccer will become a more prominent sport in the US. Until hockey isn’t such a logistical nightmare in parts of the country where bodies of water don’t remain reliably frozen during the winter or the local NHL team hasn’t developed a consistent renewable fanbase (yes Capitals fans I’m talking to you…I lived their for quite awhile….and except for a handful of hockey diehards, 85% of your are just pissed off Redskins fans), then I think hockey popularity remains where it is right now Olympics or not. I also think any Olympic TV ratings increase owes something to the minor Ice Age the eastern part of the US has weathered . Nothing like record snow falls, networks showing re-runs, school closings and alcohol to contribute to the recent fascination with curling and an unusual spike in the birth rate nine months from now.