some good points about the prohibitive cost but i'd also mention it's a really regional sport for the most part for regular people. Ice hockey isn't something a chunk of the country can do in the winter cause we don't have ice, at least not enough to play hockey, and ice rinks are also not super common in a lot of places either. plus it's quite expensive to upkeep a ice rink compared to an indoor gym or outside field. I knew a few kids growing up that did roller hockey with like 2 or 3 friends but it never really had any school teams here in the bay area (as far as i know) and i'd imagine it's kinda similar in other places. A lot of people stick with sports because they may go professional or get a scholarship but i feel like hocky has much less, definitely much less money put into like say high school/college football. Personally I wish we had more hockey, it was always a more interesting sport to me than most ball sports.