Europe should put a division in NHL

[FinnishSniper]

The Super League talks have been as old as the Champions League itself. And as a separate competition it's fine. Fans will riot if their teams leave their respective domestic leagues especially teams like Liverpool.

Well, the same pretty much happened with Jokerit in Finland. Left Liiga to play in the KHL.

 

[rfournier103]

Europe already has its own leagues.

 

[IamNotADancer]

Well, the same pretty much happened with Jokerit in Finland. Left Liiga to play in the KHL.

And they should return. Their silly little stunt isn't doing anything for them. 7 different nations is stretching it. The KHL doesn't know what it is. A Russian league? International league? Alternative to the NHL? I know I it's a very unpopular opinion among Europeans such as myself, but European hockey leagues in general just aren't attractive to watch in my humble opinion. If you enjoy it, great.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Two words for you
Jet leg

 

[IamNotADancer]

Two words for you
Jet leg

Pavel Bure coming out of retirement?

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Pavel Bure coming out of retirement?

It's 3am....forgive my typo

 

[NoMessi]

Never going to happen. The flight time is insane and the gamehours will never fit anywhere near the prime hours.

Also hockey is a minor sport outside Finland, Sweden and Russia. Nobody in Finland has money to pay 100 bucks for a game or 10 grand for the season ticket.

But I Moscow, or in Stockholm - the money wouldn't be an issue.

 

[Khomutov]

Terrible idea

 

[Whaleafs]

TSN = Tim Sid Network ?

 

[Tomas W]

I doubt the financial muscles are there, the millionairs of sports investors focus on Soccer in Europe.

I guess the ticket sales success of the NHL games thats been played, tells another story, but it one thing to hype ONE game per year, another to hype 82.

 

[sandysan]

Would be cool to see the Stanley Cup champion face the Gagarin Cup champion in a real meaningful game. Maybe all the champions of every world division, the one rule is they have to have rosters SET.

The khl winners could face the Winners of the Calder first.

There is zero incentive for the nhl to play a team from the khl.

 

[sandysan]

North Americans wants to keep the best hockey league in the world exclusive to them.

Yeah our player's nationaliy quotas are world renowned.

North Americans want the best players to play. That ( not where they were born) is the salient metric.

 

[PatrikBerglund]

Yeah our player's nationaliy quotas are world renowned.

North Americans want the best players to play. That ( not where they were born) is the salient metric.

Nationality is irrelevant, I never said anything about that.

I was talking about the fact that you want the teams to be exclusive to NA.

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

All of the Jokerit fans I've spoken too miss the rivalries in Liiga especially IFK so I doubt an NHL division would generate much interest either in Finland and other hockey nations. Just look to this year's edition of CHL and how many big teams appeared not bothered about being eliminated early.

Also, it would be an arrogant move to assume an NHL division would trump local and and national league rivalries and traditions, as well as financial disaster so it's no-go IMO.

 

[KingJoffrey]

Problem is that the most appealing market (England/London) don't care about hockey. Sure they could put a team in Berlin, Moscow (lol), Prague and maybe even Paris. But hockey is only #1-2 sport in Sweden and Finland which are two very minor markets.

 

[sandysan]

Nationality is irrelevant, I never said anything about that.

I was talking about the fact that you want the teams to be exclusive to NA.

Where the market is ? Makes sense to me. And the nhl isn't alone in this respect. It's not an anti non-NA bias, its that teams outside of North America would be a financial dumpster fire and there are STILL huge swaths of NA that are literal hockey deserts.

If Seattle gets a team or karkow gets one makes zero difference to me, because montreal has one but Seattle just makes a ton more sense.

 

[FinnishSniper]

Problem is that the most appealing market (England/London) don't care about hockey. Sure they could put a team in Berlin, Moscow (lol), Prague and maybe even Paris. But hockey is only #1-2 sport in Sweden and Finland which are two very minor markets.

Finland and Sweden are not minor markets though. Not saying the expansion to Europe should happen, but there are usually around 30-40% of finnish people watching every Finland world champs game which is around 2 million people.

 

[sandysan]

Finland and Sweden are not minor markets though. Not saying the expansion to Europe should happen, but there are usually around 30-40% of finnish people watching every Finland world champs game which is around 2 million people.

And Ariana grande sells out arenas. She plays 41 nights at the same spot, what do you think happens?

 

[Chimpradamus]

Doesn't sound doable. Europeans would never pay $200 for a game ticket, when there's 41 home games. Hockey is a fringe sport in most of Europe. Neither Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic nor Germany could sustain an NHL team economically. Only Russia with its oligarchs could.

Also, real, competitive sports leagues are more popular in Europe, instead of the entertainment industry concept.

Problem is that the most appealing market (England/London) don't care about hockey. Sure they could put a team in Berlin, Moscow (lol), Prague and maybe even Paris. But hockey is only #1-2 sport in Sweden and Finland which are two very minor markets.

Hockey is like #5 in popularity in Sweden in number of participants. Sure,"a lot" of people watch it, but not many play it.

 

[gwh]

But I Moscow, or in Stockholm - the money wouldn't be an issue.

Russia is absolutely the last place you'd see NHL. NLA ticket prices (20th row, goal line side seat) were 30bucks when I went to Switzerland.

Here are average prices for soccer tickets in different leagues, the richest sport in Europe. 1.3 USD per british pound.

Team	Most expensive season ticket, £	Cheapest season ticket, £	Most expensive match-day ticket, £	Cheapest match-day ticket, £
La Liga	800.73	232.80	121.87	24.68
Bundesliga	549.44	207.22	47.39	10.33
Serie A	1654.78	164.89	93.20	14.15
Premier League	865.42	467.95	57.95	28.30

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[gwh]

Problem is that the most appealing market (England/London) don't care about hockey. Sure they could put a team in Berlin, Moscow (lol), Prague and maybe even Paris. But hockey is only #1-2 sport in Sweden and Finland which are two very minor markets.

The most appealing market in Europe is the "blue banana", Amsterdam/Belgium/Ruhr/Bavaria/Switzerland/North Italy.

Only switzerland has decent hockey.

 

[IamNotADancer]

Finland and Sweden are not minor markets though. Not saying the expansion to Europe should happen, but there are usually around 30-40% of finnish people watching every Finland world champs game which is around 2 million people.

Population wise sure they are very minor markets.

 

[gwh]

Population wise sure they are very minor markets.

Jokerit can't even finance the KHL salary cap without cash aid from Russia. Financing the NHL season with intercontinental flying is hilarious.

 

[IamNotADancer]

Jokerit can't even finance the KHL salary cap without cash aid from Russia. Financing the NHL season with intercontinental flying is hilarious.

I really wonder if people understand the difference in financial worlds between the NHL and anything outside of the NHL in hockey.

Going by the latest numbers (2017) the "least valuable" franchise in the NHL has a market value of $300 Million. I doubt that any single team in Europe comes even close to a 3rd of that value. The European market, and that includes Russia, Sweden and Finland is just not a good area to sustain a big, global hockey brand, regardless of how much passion fans show for their team. This takes nothing away from their fandom. But hockey, globally is a niche sport and it pains me to say this but outside of the NHL and Olympic hockey, nothing else makes a blip on the radar.

 

[glovesave_35]

The first major NA sport to make the Euro connection is going to be the NFL. It is looking more and more like London will have an NFL team. That sport makes so much sense - one game a week, can stay over in NA for a few weeks at a time on a road trip, etc. Fewer games to worry about selling out in a foreign market.

Until travel becomes significantly quicker I just can't see it working in a sport with an 82 game schedule. The time difference would also be a problem for most viewers looking to watch their team's road games.