We play broomball fairly seriously around here.
I tried to start a thread about it over a year ago, but didn't get many posts:
http://chud.com/forums/showthread.ph...ight=broomball
For us, though, it isn't "rednecky" and "ice hockey without the fouls."
Our rules overlap almost completely with ice hockey rules (with a few minor exceptions), and we play in full-sized ice hockey rinks.
Most serious broomball in the U.S. takes place in Minnesota, although there are packets of it around the country with real leagues that are members of USA Broomball. It is also huge in Canada, and pretty big in Australia and Japan among other places.
If you start playing the National and World tournies, you start playing against lots of guys who played College hockey... and they kick your ass! I think there is even the occasional ex-NHL player who has made a foray into broomball... I remember seeing a video compilation of him making hits in hockey and then intersplicing his big broomball hits as well.
Checking, though, has typically been reserved for elite level play, and it is played more completely as a skill game at the mid-lower levels.
Alright, since probably nobody actually cares, I'll duck out now.
