Great Britain: Northern European League

[nadera78]

Hi folks, first post on here. Long time hockey fan, hoping to one day see a London club return to serious competition and GB ice hockey progress.

As I see it, one of the things holding back the development of the game in GB is the scarcity of resources, epitomised by the EIHL. Even including the imports we've realistically only got enough playing and financial resources for 4-5 top class clubs, which is not nearly enough for a full competition. The other teams are making up the numbers and in all reality would be better off in a league with the top EPL clubs.

You could make a similar argument for hockey in neighbouring countries like France, Denmark and Norway. So I was thinking, what would people's views be on a possible Northern European League?

20 clubs, drawn from those 4 countries, and split into 4 conferences. Play twice home and away versus teams in your own conference and once home and away versus teams from the other three. That would give everyone 23 home games and a 46 game regular season. Top two from each conference enter the play offs.

Instead of spreading the talent across 10 uneven teams you'd be concentrating it into 5. The players would be exposed to a higher standard of play, undoubtedly benefiting the GB team, and both fans and sponsors would be enticed by higher standards.

This sort of structure is already in place in other sports where there is not enough depth for full domestic leagues - both rugby codes for example - so it's not an alien concept.

Any thoughts?

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[Siamese Dream]

I've always dreamed of Belfast, Nottingham and Sheffield joining some sort of Super League with French clubs and maybe a team from the Netherlands. Basingstoke and Manchester could then go back up to the EIHL and maybe Guildford would go with them. Then teams like Chelmsford and Wightlink can come back up to the EPL and maybe Solway could join if travel would not be too much of a problem.

 

[Garethw87]

I've always dreamed of Belfast, Nottingham and Sheffield joining some sort of Super League with French clubs and maybe a team from the Netherlands. Basingstoke and Manchester could then go back up to the EIHL and maybe Guildford would go with them. Then teams like Chelmsford and Wightlink can come back up to the EPL and maybe Solway could join if travel would not be too much of a problem.

Manchester need a new owner before we move back to the EIHL. I've met Mr Morris twice, he's a nice guy and we all appreciate his efforts with the Phoenix but we won't see them in the EIHL for a while, which is a shame!

As for the 'Northern League' idea I think it's something that really should happen. I don't think we could instantly sell a league that has say Belfast/Nottingham/Sheffield vs Ejsberg, Grenoble, The Hague for example. Most people won't ever think hockey exists in places like Netherlands, Norway ect.

My plan if I was ever given the opportunity would be this..

Let's call it the 'Northern European League' as you titled it. Then we'd have members - GB, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark. From these take the Playoff winner + League winner and enter them into the Northern League so 12 teams fight it out to be the champ, like a mini champions league. Then when everybody else realises there is hockey else where turn it into a full fledged league.