European championship?

[Schalkenullvier*]

I love the annual hockey world championships, as do lots of fellow european hockey fans. Emphasis is on "european", because it seems to me that the WC doesn't have near the same popularity on the northamerican continent. Therefore, my suggestion is to make the WC a european championship. There will be only few cons imo:

- Of course, with Canada and the USA out, 2 of the biggest hockey countries in the world and perennial title contenders (at least they should be) will be missed

- Less starpower

But now my pros:

- The tournament is restricted to countries from the continent where it's loved, which makes it much more meaningfull to the fans. The european title would be considered more of a succes among the european fans than it is now among the fans in north america.

-Due to the higher meaning of the WC in europe, the rosters will be closer to the best possible (of course, the stanley cup playoffs will always cut the rosters). I believe that european NHLers will care more about playing for their countries. That's also a point that weakens the first contra argument a bit: Of course USA and Canada will contend, but why allow them to play in a tournament when they don't even bother icing the best available team?

- Even with the USA and Canada gone, the tournament would still boast a high level of skill and be extremely competetive, with the likes of sweden, russia, czech republic, finland, and upcoming nations like germany, norway and switzerland going at it

- Last but surely not least: Cancelling an annual WC and replacing it with the EC would actually improve the worth of a "real WC", with that "real WC" being the olympic winter games. I think a 4-year time span between a WC (Olympics) would make a gold medal much more valuable and unique than it is now. Also, at the Olypmics every country (probably) would have their big guns going. This concept of a WC would be just as the one in soccer, and for me, the huge succes of the soccer world cup, and the fact that the soccer WC title is widely considered the biggest of 'em, all proves that that concept is the one to go with


So what do you think?

Click to read more...

 

[JVR]

I should have subscribed to the same thread from last year...

 

[cheerupmurray]

I would like a schedule with one important tournament every year:

European championship
World championship (with more prestige, hopefully NA teams will send better players if it's not held every year)
European championship
Olympics

The only good reason for this change is the world championships where hold one time every fourth year and had more prestige (better players)
Calling it European championship would shut out asian teams (like Japan and former Sovjet republics like Kazhakstan, which is not cool)

 

[NMF78]

keep it as it is

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I'm not sure what would be gained from that at all.

 

[QnebO]

Or would it just destroy the interest.. Canada and US are still big part of it. Maybe they dont watch it so much or follow, but they allways bring good teams.

 

[Drij]

Do it.
Canada and USA could just do a Summit Series instead.

 

[Sanderson]

I don't see how your pros work.

-Canada and USA do care about the tournament. Maybe it's not much of a big thing with all of the fans, but at least the federations care, and the last thing Canada wants is to see Russia topping the list of most World Championship titles slightly ahead of Canada without any chances of a change.

-The IIHF consists of 70 nations, quite a few of them are not from Europe, thus creating a European championship makes no sense.

-I don't see how turning it into a European championship is supposed to make the rosters closer to the best possible. Europeans playing in Europe already participate, Europeans in the NHL will mostly play for their country as well, if anything taking out Canada and USA would lead to more Europeans ignoring the tournament after their NHL-season is over, as the value is much lower than before.

-Lowering the level and then claiming it's still quite good is not a pro-argument.

-The olympic tournament is already as big as it can be, calling the World Championship European Championship is not going to change anything about the Olympics, nor would better players participate in the Olympics, as the best already play. The Olympic gold medal already fits what you want to accomplish, declaring the Olympic champion to be World Champion adds nothing.

Comparing it to soccer is useless, as the Olympic soccer tournament holds absolutely no value at all.


Simply put, there is no reason for it.

 

[mattihp]

Keep it as it is. It wouldn't be the same if no small country can get close to a tie against an all NHL Canada.

 

[Swipes]

There did used to be a european championship in ice hockey, but it got scrapped. I can't remember why. Here we go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Hockey_European_Championships

EDIT: wow, Belgium got gold one year!

 

[jakzed]

I say no! There's no real reason for it other than not all the fans are enthusiastic about it in Canada. But then people around here are fond of saying things like "We can send 3 teams to the olympics & win Gold, Silver & Bronze.", well then why not want to back it up?

 

[Theokritos]

wow, Belgium got gold one year!

Only three other countries took part. And in 1911 Bohemia (which was not even an independent country) won. Prehistory...

 

[MMANumminen]

I'd like to have a good european cup for teams, like in football. European championship for nations wouldn't interest that much, even there is only 2 teams missing.

Maybe they should include more countries to euro hockey tour

 

[Turku Caps]

My rhythm would be:

1) WC every other year
2) Olympics every four years
3) World Cup every four years

It would be nice to see a best against best tournament every other year. Changing World Championship to European Championship wouldn't be a good idea. I like to see the North American countries in WC, even though they didn't do well in this year's tournament and Team USA's roster missed lots of high profile players.

 

[IIHFjerseycollector]

the lower division countries make lots of money for their federations for participating and hosting . having a world championship every couple of years would eventually destroy hockey outside of the top 20..

 

[PhillyPhinn]

You also have to remember that the WC is a great place for North American players to get international experience at the mens level and with the bigger ice. It would be a serious disadvantage for them at the Olympics if most of their players had never played on international ice before. If you look at esp. Canadian rosters in the WC's, you see a lot of young players who went on to make Canadian olympic teams in the upcoming years.

 

[Ciccarelli]

It's compeletely irrelevant what the american/canadian fans think, atleast Canada is icing a team better than any of the NHL teams, every year. Keep it as it is.

 

[Youreallygotme]

A north American summit series played between Canada and the US, played in cities like Winnipeg, Kansas City, Portland, Hamilton Quebec, etc.

Winner goes on to play the winner of the european championship in a summit series or 7 game series. Would create more interest in north america anyways. Thoughts?

 

[mattihp]

A north American summit series played between Canada and the US, played in cities like Winnipeg, Kansas City, Portland, Hamilton Quebec, etc.

Winner goes on to play the winner of the european championship in a summit series or 7 game series. Would create more interest in north america anyways. Thoughts?

Sounds like a dirty way for Canada to getting to the final when they can't be sure to beat smaller european countries.

 

[Drake1588]

One pro is that if the North Americans were not involved in (even though many top players regularly skip) the World Championships every year, there would be more impetus for the NHL to schedule regular — and possibly renamed — World Cup of Hockey invitational tournaments. The tourneys would be held every four years, hosted in the US and Canada, and staggered with the Olympics so that there would be a best-on-best tournament every two years. The NHL always scheduled these tournaments in August/September, before league play starts everywhere, so there isn't even any overlap with the World/European Championships.

 

[jekoh]

One pro is that if the North Americans were not involved in (even though many top players regularly skip) the World Championships every year, there would be more impetus for the NHL to schedule regular — and possibly renamed — World Cup of Hockey invitational tournaments.

That's hardly a "pro".

International tournaments should be organised by international federations, not national pro leagues, otherwise you end up with tournaments like :

The tourneys would be held every four years, hosted in the US and Canada,

The World Cup sucks, its sole purpose these days seems to be to undermine the Olympics and WCh.

 

[FinnswissX]

I don't think it's a good idea. Without Canada and USA the tournament would be much less interesting.

What in my opinion is possible to think about is to cancel the WC in an Olympic year. If the IIHF could convince the NHL to interrupt for 1 month the season for the Olympic tournament the interest grew a lot for the tournament I'm sure. Then all teams could play with the best of the best players. I think the NHL could afford it as the Olympic games are held only all 4 years.

The only problem is the time difference between Europe resp. Asia and North America if the games are not held somewhere in North America.

 

[xerox]

There is already the euro hockey tour...

 

[Mara]

It's not a good idea. No matter what the NAmericans say even the Z team of Canada is so good on paper that higher level small nations have a hard time beating them. This makes the tournament more interesting, even if we have to listen to the broken record of "WC blah" every year.

 

[Slimmy]

It's compeletely irrelevant what the american/canadian fans think, atleast Canada is icing a team better than any of the NHL teams, every year. Keep it as it is.

I think the real problem here is that the IIHF and the NHL are on bad terms. The NHL don't want international tournaments that would draw attention away from the NHL playoffs. Even though a strong international tournament would be in their best interest in the long run too boost the hockey interest around the world, they'd rather be protectionistic and keep their NA fans in the fold. They belittle and condescend the WC every chance they get and make it into some NA - Europe rivalry thing when all it really is about is making money.

On another note, the EHT could be converted into a European championship. But unless the WC was played every other year, I don't see how it could be anyhting but a huge failure.