I have really fallen in love with hockey. I wish it were more popular in the US. My kids play, I had never even skated before that, but my now 10 year old really wanted to play a sport the summer he turned 4. I wanted to sign him up for tee ball but it was 5 year old minimum. The local rink started a learn to play hockey class that summer for 4 year olds, we started it ,we both loved it and now we are a hockey family. My 6 year old plays and my 3 year wishes he played. I even took it up and started playing in the old mans league. We live in Oshkosh, a town of more than 60,000 with surrounding areas even more than that. We have something like 8-12 kids playing in the entire city per birth year. It is pathetic. And it has nothing to do with cost. My kids do all sorts of stuff (swim team, piano, theater...) and at the end of the year Hockey is one of the cheaper sports we do.