That championship league is a joke that no one cares about.They dont need to merge. I think the championship league quenches the European appetite to play teams outside their borders.
It would be hard to work it with supersonic flights and 18 NA games a season. The travel would be brutal!
That championship league is a joke that no one cares about.
It's not unfeasible idea in the future at all.
North Americans wants to keep the best hockey league in the world exclusive to them.
As soon as soon as Elon Musk builds a hyperloop to Europe, we can look into this. The travel would be impossible right now.
Truth hurts.
I'm not sure which cities you are thinking of, but most of the areas we think of as hockey hotbeds dont have huge populations. Helsinki has smaller population than Winnipeg.
uuuum thanks but no. this implies the leagues are equivalent.Just have a separate league and then a championship series between the two leagues
Contrary to what some people suggest, the logistical aspects (time zones, long trips, fatigue, etc...) aren't the main issue to getting hockey across the ocean. Money. This thing is going to happen when and if, and only when and if, an entity figures out it can make tons of bucks with it. And then it will/would happen.
So, if establishing a super league worldwide is about money, a European league is an incomplete idea. People are thinking in terms of hockey history, so they're thinking Fedorov, Salming, Forsberg, etc... they're thinking Europe. With the way the world looks right now, this thing needs Asia.
I can't see any project like that be a possibility within the next two decades. The NHL needs to continue developing interest in Asia and go from there.
Truth hurts.