WCJL 24-25 (inaugural season)

[Artorius Horus T]

West Coast Junior League

Founding members and advisors (so far)

Teemu Selänne
Luc Robitaille
Ben Robert
Taylor Burke
John Moreland
Sam Simon
Peter Simon

+ Capistrano Fund

The league is been founded to fill the void in US junior hockey,
which is the entire West Coast.

Click to read more...

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

West Coast Junior League

Founding members and advisors (so far)

Teemu Selänne
Luc Robitaille
Ben Robert
Taylor Burke
John Moreland
Sam Simon
Peter Simon

+ Capistrano Fund

The league is been founded to fill the void in US junior hockey,
which is the entire West Coast.

It was pushed back another year from their earlier announced start date of 2023-24 to 2024-25. No markets announced yet. No teams announced yet. All they've said is they have people supporting it.

The USHL and USA Hockey has said they don't want to expand because they don't want to further dilute the talent pool. The USPHL-NCDC is expanding into the few markets that were open on the West Coast. The NAHL has been looking to get back into that territory for a while as well.

Put that all together and you've got a recipe for failure. I can't think of any markets this league could be looking at where they would be successful. It requires open markets. It requires open markets with arenas. It requires open markets with arenas that can support junior hockey (1k-3k butts in seats per night, every night to be in the black). And if there were more than 2-3 of those just laying around then the NAHL would have opened up their Pacific Division already.

This whole league is going to fall on its face i.e. the fun of watching the WPHL fall flat on its face.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

It was pushed back another year from their earlier announced start date of 2023-24 to 2024-25. No markets announced yet. No teams announced yet. All they've said is they have people supporting it.

The USHL and USA Hockey has said they don't want to expand because they don't want to further dilute the talent pool. The USPHL-NCDC is expanding into the few markets that were open on the West Coast. The NAHL has been looking to get back into that territory for a while as well.

Put that all together and you've got a recipe for failure. I can't think of any markets this league could be looking at where they would be successful. It requires open markets. It requires open markets with arenas. It requires open markets with arenas that can support junior hockey (1k-3k butts in seats per night, every night to be in the black). And if there were more than 2-3 of those just laying around then the NAHL would have opened up their Pacific Division already.

This whole league is going to fall on its face i.e. the fun of watching the WPHL fall flat on its face.

Hmm... in a finnish article it said that every Californian based NHL teams are going to be in.
- they will start with 6 teams

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

Hmm... in a finnish article it said that every Californian based NHL teams are going to be in.
- they will start with 6 teams

Six team junior team? With no connection with USA Hockey or any legitimate governing body. With no named markets, arenas, locations, or any other important details. Meant to fill a void that supposedly exists but realistically can't be filled by any conventional means? Folks, this might be the USACHL 2.0....

In all seriousness, no six team league is going to be taken seriously. There still aren't any named markets, cities, facilities. I can't even think of six places on the West Coast that could both host and support junior hockey. And like I said before, if there were any the NAHL would have been all over them. Look at the rumors between the NAHL and Bend, OR and that was just based on the rumor that someone was looking into buying an empty mall and renovating it into a hockey facility with several sheets of ice and a few thousand seat arena...

 

[mk80]

Basically right now a few hockey people meet to talk about it. I'll hold my breath until there is something more concrete, but I think if it does materialize it will be short lived. Especially with the new USPHL/NCDC West division taking up a lot of the real estate available for this league. And the NAHL still desires to gain a foothold in the pacific northwest

 

[JMCx4]

Basically right now a few hockey people meet to talk about it. I'll hold my breath until there is something more concrete, but I think if it does materialize it will be short lived. Especially with the new USPHL/NCDC West division taking up a lot of the real estate available for this league. And the NAHL still desires to gain a foothold in the pacific northwest

I suggest you hold your tongue rather than your breath on this one. Just don't bite down too hard.

 

[GindyDraws]

Basically right now a few hockey people meet to talk about it. I'll hold my breath until there is something more concrete, but I think if it does materialize it will be short lived. Especially with the new USPHL/NCDC West division taking up a lot of the real estate available for this league. And the NAHL still desires to gain a foothold in the pacific northwest

I think that's because the NAHL would rather have people travel to Alaska from Washington and Oregon than Minnesota and Wisconsin. And better to utilize an established league with a known brand and support than trying to build something from scratch, because you'll run into the Struggle Bus quickly.

 

[mk80]

I think that's because the NAHL would rather have people travel to Alaska from Washington and Oregon than Minnesota and Wisconsin. And better to utilize an established league with a known brand and support than trying to build something from scratch, because you'll run into the Struggle Bus quickly.

You've hit the nail on the head. It's much easier to pair the pacific northwest with the 3 Alaska teams than the Midwest Division teams in Wisconsin & Minnesota.