NHL re-alignment - North and South Conferences

[stevkrause 1,247]

I don't know why the NHL hasn't done this...

You change the conferences to North and South, no preferential treatment, EVERYONE travels

This way all teams have to equally travel and you get better Scheduling -

North Conference:

NorthWest Division:

Vancouver

Calgary

Edmonton

Minnesota

Ottawa

NorthCentral Division:

Detroit

Chicago

Columbus

Toronto

Montreal

NorthEast Division:

NY Rangers

NY Islanders

New Jersey

Buffalo

Boston

South Conference:

SouthWest Division:

San Jose

Anaheim

Los Angeles

Phoenix

Colorado

SouthCentral Division:

St Louis

Pittsburgh

Dallas

Nashville

Philadelphia

SouthEast Division

Atlanta

Tampa Bay

Florida

Carolina

Washinton

Everyone plays an unbalanced schedule -

6 games against everyone in your division (24), 4 or 3 against everyone else in your conference -this is the unbalanced part (38), 2 (one home, one away) out of conference - for a total of 82 games a year

Everyone travels, more original six matchups and EVERY city still gets to see all the other marquee teams for close to half of their season...

I guess it just makes too much sense for Bettman...

edited for geography purposes

Edited October 9, 2007 by stevkrause

[toby91_ca 620]

Maybe not a bad idea, but I think travel costs for a league as a whole would increase significantly, which probably isn't a good idea.

Also, why is Montreal in the West division?? I think Montreal is further East than pretty much every team in the NHL.

[stevkrause 1,247]

Maybe not a bad idea, but I think travel costs for a league as a whole would increase significantly, which probably isn't a good idea.

Also, why is Montreal in the West division?? I think Montreal is further East than pretty much every team in the NHL.

straight answer... becuase my geography is bad, haha, ok swap Ottawa and Montreal

Edited October 9, 2007 by stevkrause

[betterREDthandead 58]

straight answer... becuase my geography is bad, haha, ok swap Ottawa and Montreal

Ottawa also is further east than any of those teams in the Central. You might be better off moving Columbus south, replacing them with Colorado, placing Colorado in the West, and rejiggering the divisions accordingly.

But honestly - North and South conferences don't make much sense due to the increased travel costs. You'd never get the owners to agree to that.

[One4TheWings 11]

My friend thinks your a genius! He has been preaching this for a really long time. I wouldn't be suprised at all if this brings him out of the lurker shadows and he tries to get your address to hand deliver a big hug. Yes, he's that happy. ... and a little ***.

PS. That last comment is a Mike Birbiglia joke, who my friend is also a big fan of. So no citing hate speech or anything ridiculous like that.

[stevkrause 1,247]

Ottawa also is further east than any of those teams in the Central. You might be better off moving Columbus south, replacing them with Colorado, placing Colorado in the West, and rejiggering the divisions accordingly.

But honestly - North and South conferences don't make much sense due to the increased travel costs. You'd never get the owners to agree to that.

the travel cost for the current West Conf teams would decrease dramatically... the only ones it would go up for would be the current East Coast teams... but they wanted "parity" so, they should eat some travel cost as well... I think overall, it would actually work itself out to be close to the same league-wide

think about the cost associated with travel between Ottawa and Florida... Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Columbus and Nashville to ALL of the CA teams, not to mention Edmonton, Calgary, etc and vice versa... these would shift in essence and the out of conference would balance it as well... I really don't see this causing any LEAGUE wide increase, maybe just for a few owners (NY, cough) who got it MADE right now

My friend thinks your a genius! He has been preaching this for a really long time. I wouldn't be suprised at all if this brings him out of the lurker shadows and he tries to get your address to hand deliver a big hug. Yes, he's that happy. ... and a little ***.

PS. That last comment is a Mike Birbiglia joke, who my friend is also a big fan of. So no citing hate speech or anything ridiculous like that.

haha, it's ok, I'm not a homophobe

I think if more people really thought about this, it would really open some eyes...

Edited October 9, 2007 by stevkrause

[Sepster 0]

I've been talking about this strategy with anyone who'd listen for years.

It only increases travle costs for Eastern Conference teams and you know what? f*** them, you think LA, Anahiem, Vancouver, Pheonix Dallas and others in the West think its fair to have travel costs multiple times higher than East Teams?

How fair is it for the Pacific Division to play something like 40 games in the Pacific Time Zone, 20 games in the Mountain Time Zone 10 in the Central and 10 in the Eastern, when teams in the Southeast Division play 3 in the Central Time Zone and 79 in the Eastern Time Zone.

This decision shouldn't be based on whether half the league wants to cheap out on their budget at the expense of the other half of the league. The NHL needs to base its scheduling decisions on what woudl be the fairest and most bablanced for the ENTIRE league as a whole.

I agree whole heartedly, go to North and South and allow all teams to travel the same amount during the season AND playoffs.

[stevkrause 1,247]

I've been talking about this strategy with anyone who'd listen for years.

It only increases travle costs for Eastern Conference teams and you know what? f*** them, you think LA, Anahiem, Vancouver, Pheonix Dallas and others in the West think its fair to have travel costs multiple times higher than East Teams?

How fair is it for the Pacific Division to play something like 40 games in the Pacific Time Zone, 20 games in the Mountain Time Zone 10 in the Central and 10 in the Eastern, when teams in the Southeast Division play 3 in the Central Time Zone and 79 in the Eastern Time Zone.

This decision shouldn't be based on whether half the league wants to cheap out on their budget at the expense of the other half of the league. The NHL needs to base its scheduling decisions on what woudl be the fairest and most bablanced for the ENTIRE league as a whole.

I agree whole heartedly, go to North and South and allow all teams to travel the same amount during the season AND playoffs.

",when teams in the Southeast Division play 3 in the Central Time Zone and 79 in the Eastern Time Zone."

EXACTLY.

[Hank 0]

I think Ron MacLean brought this up to Bettman last season and Bettman told him it will never happen.

I don't know why as I like how each team has to travel the same amount. Screw Lou Lamourello!

[Legionnaire11 0]

don't know about north and south. But it is a lot closer to the NFL/MLB type of allignment.

Basically, teams should have to pay into an NHL travel fund. And then have a central league travel office that books flights and hotels.

[stevkrause 1,247]

don't know about north and south. But it is a lot closer to the NFL/MLB type of allignment.

Basically, teams should have to pay into an NHL travel fund. And then have a central league travel office that books flights and hotels.

good idea... this would work perfectly, if they just sat down and made it happen

[Grittzkey 1]

id love to play toranto alot more then we do now.

[betterREDthandead 58]

the travel cost for the current West Conf teams would decrease dramatically... the only ones it would go up for would be the current East Coast teams... but they wanted "parity" so, they should eat some travel cost as well... I think overall, it would actually work itself out to be close to the same league-wide

think about the cost associated with travel between Ottawa and Florida... Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Columbus and Nashville to ALL of the CA teams, not to mention Edmonton, Calgary, etc and vice versa... these would shift in essence and the out of conference would balance it as well... I really don't see this causing any LEAGUE wide increase, maybe just for a few owners (NY, cough) who got it MADE right now

haha, it's ok, I'm not a homophobe

I think if more people really thought about this, it would really open some eyes...

No, the cost for Western Conference teams would go way up. Not decrease. How would costs go down if teams like Vancouver and San Jose have to visit Boston and New York and Atlanta more often every year? The only teams for whom travel would drop is the current Central Division. Everyone else would see a big jump.

It only increases travle costs for Eastern Conference teams and you know what? f*** them, you think LA, Anahiem, Vancouver, Pheonix Dallas and others in the West think its fair to have travel costs multiple times higher than East Teams?

Unfortunately for you, the Eastern Conference teams get a say in this too. "f*** them" is a poor campaign strategy when you're trying to gather votes to approve this. Bettman cannot simply raise his scepter and call it done. He works for the owners and they can fire his ass if he pulls something they don't like.

Basically, teams should have to pay into an NHL travel fund. And then have a central league travel office that books flights and hotels.

No, I think teams would rebel very strongly at that too. The Wings kind of like having a charter jet that allows them to set their own travel schedule. We all know how much fun it is trying to book airline tickets - imagine the conspiracy theories flying about when some team has a red-eye flight when they don't have to have one.

The best answer to distributing travel costs more equitably, IMO, is to expand the league to 32 and shrink the divisions to four teams each. Smaller divisions mean closer geographic relationships.

[Guest jaytan]

Decent idea. I'd switch Chicago with Ottawa, though. Ottawa is nowhere near any of the other teams in the Northwest, and while Chicago's a good distance from Vancouver and the Alberta teams, they at least have a historical somewhat regional rivalry with Minnesota. Meanwhile in the Northcentral, you would have Columbus, Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa and Monteal in the same division, which is a winner for all involved. Good geographic distance, plus every team has at least one and as many as four natural or historic rivals.

There are a couple other teams that would have to do a pretty crazy amount of travel, but overall I think it's a good idea.

Another thing I don't like about this is that it would mean there would be an increased chance that a team from a poor hockey market would be in the Stanley Cup finals each year.

Edited October 9, 2007 by jaytan

[Yc172 3]

They would NEVER have all original 6 teams in the eastern conference. Thats one of the many reasons the wings aren't in the east. Sure the west is full of teams that have their respective fan bases, but every time an original 6 team comes to town in a western city (except maybe chicago), people go out and watch. If all the original 6 teams were in the north, no one would even know there was a south conference, not to mention the southeast division, the average attendance for those places combined on any given night isnt enough to generate anything (the capitals would have a chance for attendance because of ovechkin)

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Can't really see myself opening up to the north/south idea. West-East just makes mroe sense.

And, while I would love for Detroit to be in the EC obviously to see teams like Toronto, Philly, and New York more, I can deal with them being in the WC.

Just re-arrange the damn schedule to play every team at least once. No more of this 8 games against divisional opponents, it's just too much, I don't care how much of a rival teams might be.

Trim those to 6, that's 24 games.

4 games against the 10 non-divisional conference opponents, 40 games.

1 game against each team in the other conerence, that's 15 games.

79 games in all, no problems.

[Donaldjr2448 43]

Well, as much as I would like to see the Wings play the Original 6 teams more often, I think the way the league is set up now is probably geographically correct. I think we can forget about Detroit moving East because if the NHL takes any team east it will be Columbus. I think the Wings have good rivalries with St. Louis, Chicago, and Nashville. I like the idea of the North/ South arrangement, but I just know that the East teams would pitch a ***** and the whole thing would get voted down!!

[Hockeytown Red Wings 245]

I like it, but dont count on it happening.

[auxlepli 17]

The idea of coast-to-coast conferences is appealing, but the NHL and NBA can't work like MLB and NFL. In the NFL only one game a week, usually. In MLB there's usually at least two games per stop when traveling.

[06TJSport 0]

I was talking to my dad about this earlier today, but my division names were a little less politically correct

[Jwo 7]

don't know about north and south. But it is a lot closer to the NFL/MLB type of allignment.

Basically, teams should have to pay into an NHL travel fund. And then have a central league travel office that books flights and hotels.

I don't like that idea because some teams will be paying twice when it shells out its money to the teams on welfare.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Jwo

[eva unit zero 271]

There are two logical optionsas I see it. Add two teams to the Western conference, and divide into four-team divisions. This would cut down on travel and allow for better scheduling.

The other option is the non-expansion option; three conferences with two five-team divisions each.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Anaheim, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose

Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Minnesota, Vancouver

CENTRAL CONFERENCE

Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Ottawa, Toronto

Columbus, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St.Louis

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Boston, Montreal, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers

Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Washington

Set up the schedule so each team plays the following:

6 vs Division (24)

4 vs Conference (20)

2 vs Non-Conference (40)

Total 84 games.

Division winners get automatic playoff berths...remaining ten teams are selected based on overall points...teams are seeded 1-16 based on points.

[Barrie 900]

Decent idea, but if the League switches to North and South Conferences, the South would go bankrupt. Seriously attendance would be horrible when the Southern teams play each other.

[Echolalia 2,961]

I really don't get how this would save money. Plus every other game would be in a different time zone, which as we're from the western conference we're used to it, but to put the entire league through that seemed a little odd.

I don't think the benefits outweigh the costs for this one.

[wingsfan93 0]

Decent idea, but if the League switches to North and South Conferences, the South would go bankrupt. Seriously attendance would be horrible when the Southern teams play each other.

good point

and i like the 3 conference idea