NHL Targeting Europe

[MacK_Attack 108]

The Globe and Mail reports that the National Hockey League is aiming to have teams based in Europe within the next 10 years. "As time goes on, you'll see us making increasing movement into Europe," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the newspaper. "Certainly, it's a possibility that within 10 years time we will be playing games there."

"(European) cities do a good job for international hockey tournaments, but can those cities afford NHL prices for 42 regular-season games plus playoffs?" Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford told the Globe. "I don't know the answer, but if they can, then at some point there will be expansion in Europe. But first we have to expand a couple more teams back into Canada, get back into Winnipeg and put another team in Ontario before we see expansion to Europe."

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=249235&lid...os=secStory_nhl

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

This is a terrible idea that will hopefully never come to fruition.

how about focusing on the popularity of the game in the giant american market first??

[vangvace 12]

did they not learn from nfl europe or the World League?

[MacK_Attack 108]

did they not learn from nfl europe or the World League?

Hockey is infinitely more popular in Europe than American football.

[Swede40 0]

did they not learn from nfl europe or the World League?

They are the same league.

[Doc Holiday 0]

Away games are going to be brutal for Western Conference teams if this happens.

[thedisappearer 291]

Great. They'll stick Detroit in the European Conference...

[ashenhigh 9]

Its so stupid. How can these high ranking officials even have a job when they are speaking about some absolutely ridiculous proposal to play in Europe. We have no hockey teams in Hamilton, Regina, Quebec City, or Hartford, yet we have teams in Nashville, Phoenix, and Ft. Lauderdale that are horrible, have always been horrible, and should move back up north. Yet for some reason, making a European division and having teams travel 8 hour flights to play is a good idea? Ludicrous. NHL is the NA haven for hockey and it better stay that way.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

No, no, and no. I'm not going to get in the whole hockey doesn't belong in the south endless debate, but there are already plenty of professional leagues in Europe. Leave it that way.

[Jwo 7]

Partner up with the top 4 popular football teams in each European country you put a team in and I can see some success. Steven Gerrard and Kaka will draw in the crowds.

[Z and D for the C 712]

They're not really that stupid...are they?

[vangvace 12]

Hockey is infinitely more popular in Europe than American football.

Can't argue that, by the point still remains that trans-Atlantic leagues are a big ball of fail.

Plus the NHL can barely keep it together on one continent.

They are the same league.

Technically, though World League was in the states as well and all renditions of the league have failed.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Never. At least based on the travel alone.

[55fan 5,133]

If they did it- and that's a very big "if", they would have to have the champs from the Eastern Hemisphere play the champs from the Western Hemisphere for the SCF, and not during the season. There's no way they could put up any kind of a fair schedule with that kind of travel without players being gone for a month at a time to play each team in the other hemisphere.

Even if they did that, they'd have to put a tonne of teams in Europe to balance out the two hemispheres for playoff berths.

Exhibition games, sure. League expantion, no.

[Seraph 240]

Are they banking on teleportation to be invented in the next ten years or what? That's gonna be such an awful flight for almost all the teams. Not to mention there will be severe jet lag going on there and back. Sure, you could have road trips to Europe but what happens when the playoffs come around?

[55fan 5,133]

Are they banking on teleportation to be invented in the next ten years or what? That's gonna be such an awful flight for almost all the teams. Not to mention there will be severe jet lag going on there and back. Sure, you could have road trips to Europe but what happens when the playoffs come around?

Even with teleportation, the time zone difference is an issue.

Imagine a European city (we'll call it "E") that is 8 hours off from a city in North America (which we'll call "NA").

If games are traditionally played at 7 pm local time, then games played in "E" are being played by "NA" players who are playing as though it was 11 am; and when games are held in "NA", the players from "E" are playing as though it was 3 am the next morning.

I think. I could be backwards. I'm sure Bettman has people looking into this.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Its so stupid. How can these high ranking officials even have a job when they are speaking about some absolutely ridiculous proposal to play in Europe. We have no hockey teams in Hamilton, Regina, Quebec City, or Hartford...

And with good reason. I mean, seriously? Regina??

Technically, though World League was in the states as well and all renditions of the league have failed.

There were two "World Leagues", neither of which had anything to do with each other. The World Football League was a clownshow of a competing league to the NFL and never had any teams outside the US. The World League of American Football is the one people are thinking of here, which was an offshoot of the NFL and changed its name to NFL Europe.

In any case, it's not an applicable lesson. The NFL was trying to spread popularity of an entirely new sport. Hockey would obviously be a familiar sport, but it's still not a good idea.

[Dabura 12,207]

Terrible idea.

[Echolalia 2,961]

I'm all for getting fans across the world, however extending the league into Europe is full of mess. If they were to do a sister-league EHL that worked under the same rules and regulations as the nhl, so long as there are no inter-league games played besides maybe an interleague rivalry game or all star game or whatever, I think it could work, but then you're essentially saying goodbye to all the prospects in Europe/Asia that normally would die to play in America. They'd rather stay closer to home than come here, which consequently will make ratings suffer in America.

Bad idea all around.

[VM1138 1,921]

This is ridiculous. The league can barely handle US and Canadian markets. And can you imagine how expensive travel would be? Not to mention it would dilute rivalries. What American is going to care if their team plays Gandooben Leipzig Gorssenkuber Razor Tire Company United H.C.?

Edited September 13, 2008 by VM1138

[ozzie4life 0]

This is one of the DUMBEST ideas I've ever heard of! How could you expect players from like California, Vancouver or Colorado to fly all the way to Europe for a hockey game then have to come back to home and play again, all the while being extremely tired from the jet lag. And how would they decide how big to make the ice rinks? In Europe they are bigger than the rinks here. Plus they would have to play less games because of the long flights, and I prefer to watch as many hockey games as I possibly can.

[HadThomasVokounOnFortSt 878]

This is very stupid move. Players are going to be dead from the travailing.

[eva unit zero 271]

The only reasonable way it could work is if the league started with a large European division of no fewer than 20 teams, and ran it akin to Major League baseball. The two leagues would play no interleague games, or a few interleague games in a single extended trip followed by a homestand (or the reverse) and the playoffs would see the league champions play for the Cup.

[Guest Shoreline]

This makes no sense to me at all. There should be more focus on the teams now and development of them and solidifying hockey in the U.S. and expanding in profitable areas in North America before going the route of moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney abroad. There was a big problem with talent spread too thin during the crazy expansion decade and thus poor ratings and attendance, and now with it finally making a rebound, throwing the league to share with (expand to) Europe is a risk that just doesn't seem worth it to me quite yet.

Edited September 14, 2008 by Shoreline

[eva unit zero 271]

This makes no sense to me at all. There should be more focus on the teams now and development of them and solidifying hockey in the U.S. and expanding in profitable areas in North America before going the route of moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney abroad. There was a big problem with talent spread too thin during the crazy expansion decade and thus poor ratings and attendance, and now with it finally making a rebound, throwing the league to share with (expand to) Europe is a risk that just doesn't seem worth it to me quite yet.

The 'Talent spread too thin' argument doesn't hold water when referencing the 90s, Shoreline, In 1989, 95% of NHLers were Canadian in a 21-team NHL. By 2000, only 55% of NHLers were Canadian in a 30-team NHL. Assuming the same number of Canadian players, it should have been closer to 67%. If the talent was diluted by expansion, we'd have seen more than that. But we see fewer. Significantly fewer. Meaning the influx of Europeans and rise of Americans made the talent pool more than large enough to handle it.

Now, the 70s and 80s are another story; from 1972 to 1991 there were at least 21 Major Pro hockey teams at all times that were filled almost exclusively with Canadians. Most diluted era in NHL history.