Comments on: HockeyGPS Aims to Locate Cool Spots Nearby

By: The Team at Hockey Science & Technology

The Team at Hockey Science & Technology — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:22:27 +0000

Hi Nick,

Thanks for taking the time to write about our App. This is great feedback from you and your readers.

HockeyGPS originated from the number of arenas that the owner of Hockey Science & Technology had to take his kids to around North America. Collecting coordinates and loading them into his GPS device made navigating back to the same arenas easy over and over again. Using today’s technology, we made this into an application that can be used by the entire hockey community on-line or from their iPhone and iPod Touch. So hockey fans, rep/travel team parents, tournament teams, referees and re-located hockey families can use the service to search and navigate to arenas and more.

As you know, we did not want to stop at just arenas. The heart of the company is based on hockey skill development (see http://www.80hours.ca). We’ve opened up free contributions for skill centers and even hockey retailers to add to the database.

As for U.S. arenas, the database is growing each day and we will have it completed soon. So thanks to our hockey friends all over for adding locations and to the real passionate ones in CO and CA in particular.

Please keep the feedback coming or contact us directly with your ideas and thoughts to make this an even better experience for the hockey community.

By: ian

ian — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:43:10 +0000

as a avid hockey fan (go kings!) and player this sounded like an awesome app, alas after a little playing around i found it near useless since there arnt any locations near me in the database yet and i dont feel like taking the time to add them. this would be especially useful for say someone who frequently plays out of town tournaments and wants to know where local shops are rather than pro shops at rinks since pro shops usually have a lighter selection and higher prices.

By: Nick Santilli

Nick Santilli — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:36:29 +0000

@Gazoobee
Yes, it was a [lame] attempt at a pun, nothing more.

And yes, for the traveling team players/parents, this could [eventually] be a useful thing, but outside that, most probably know where their major NHL or AHL arenas are already.

By: Gazoobee

Gazoobee — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:28:01 +0000

I’m with Ferbie.

I would go further and argue that the whole concept of putting “cool” and “sports arena” in the same sentence is flawed (unless your just talking about the temperature of the ice. ) :)

I’ll admit the app would be useful if you were a rabid hockey fan though and does seem to be well thought out. I think the niche for the app is very small though, in that you would have to be a hockey *player* that *travels* a lot for this to be truly useful. I guess if your kids in a league and travels around it makes sense?

By: Nick Santilli

Nick Santilli — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:15:51 +0000

@Ferbie
True, the niche may be somewhat limited, but I could see the usefulness if my son were looking to further his skills, and I wanted to find some available camps and such nearby. Granted, if he’s playing in a league locally, chances are I already know of these options – but if I just moved to a location and wanted to see what the lay of the land was (from a hockey perspective), it may prove useful…that is, if there were useful information available!

By: Ferbie

Ferbie — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:06:58 +0000

Do people really walk around wondering where the nearest hockey arena and hockey shops are?? Seems like it would be a reeeally small niche audience. Who cares?