Before I comment, I believe teams in the OHL have the best travel arrangements of the three major junior leagues (LHJMQ, WHL). Anyone who complains about having to travel North for a three game set this year, they can take the time to examine the other two leagues travel schedules.
While in theory I like the idea of a Northern division, in my opinion, I think this format penalizes Sudbury, North Bay, Barrie & Owen Sound.
This format takes away three very short divisional road trips (Guelph, Kitchener, London) away from Owen Sound and giving them back one (Barrie). This also takes away regular exposure of the league's smallest market in two of the markets with the highest fan support. I'm not certain how you sell this to the fans & the ownership of l'Attaque.
Sudbury & North Bay would be deprived relatively modest trips in Eastern Ontario in exchange for extremely long trips in Southwestern Ontario & in Michigan (which requires having to cross the border more often).
No matter the division, Sault-Ste-Marie will be isolated (relatively in perspective) from the rest of the OHL's markets (excluding Sudbury, Saginaw & North Bay to a degree).
In my opinion though, Barrie is by far penalized the worst in terms of travel costs associated with this proposed format. They would go from having a relatively close driving distances for road games in Mississauga, Niagara, Peterborough, Belleville, Guelph & Kitchener to having next to none under this format.
From my perspective, the league would be best to adopt this format:
- Belleville
- Kingston
- Oshawa
- Ottawa
- Peterborough
- Barrie
- Mississauga
- North Bay
- Owen Sound
- Sudbury
- Erie
- Guelph
- Kitchener
- London
- Niagara
- Plymouth
- Saginaw
- Sarnia
- Sault-Ste-Marie
- Windsor
Again though, how you would sell this to Owen Sound is beyond me...