Realignment Idea Proposal!

[Hammer9001]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the Bulldogs stated that they were happy in their current division

I think it's less so happy, more so indifferent to it. Realistically, Hamilton has the 3rd lowest overall average travel distance in the league, meaning if you totalled the distances to every other team in the league, Hamilton has the 3rd lowest, with only Mississauga and Guelph being superior. Thus the team is a bit more open to playing in any division except the west (which I would think is never going to change so long as there are teams in Michigan) because at the end of the day, except for the Soo and Ottawa, Hamilton doesn't any road trips over 500km, and games vs Kitchener, Guelph, Niagara and Mississauga don't even break 100km. You are there within the hour, so you can put them on a weekday and still have the boys back to school for the next day.

Realistically, except for Ottawa, the rest of the drives Hamilton has in its division aren't anywhere near as bad as the hauls the Soo, Erie or Sudbury have to endure within their own division.

 

[Hammer9001]

Better for Niagara (Erie should probably be in their division); but much worse for OS. OS (Barrie would be nice) belongs in a division with Guelph & Kitchener.

Yeah, everyone kinda thinks because Owen Sound is further north that somehow they have an easier time getting to Sudbury and North Bay, when in truth, because they have to detour around Georgian Bay through Collingwood. As far as distance is concerned, Hamilton is only 46km further from North Bay then Owen Sound, and Hamilton benefits from the 400 series being much closer, making the travel time fairly close on paper.

Quite possibly said for public consumption. They would have to want Niagara in their division, natural close rival that would add to their gate. The closest teams to them are at the very least in another division, or even Kitchener and Guelph, another conference. I have no recollection if it was a statement or not, but logically I am sure they would rather have Niagara as a division rival compared to most of the Eastern Ontario teams they now travel to.

Speaking from the perspective of a Bulldogs fan, if you wanted to be absurd and try to maximize Hamilton's gate, they you would want Niagara, Kitchener, London and surprisingly Oshawa. They usually send the largest away contingents. Oddly enough, every time the Storm come to town I don't usually see a major uptick, and while there are always very identifiable Mississauga fans who make the trip down consistently, they're just aren't a lot of them as whole.

 

[battfan888]

Guelph just doesnt have a lot of traveling fans I find. I usually do about 10-12 Storm road games per season on average and outside of Kitchener i barely ever see other fans on the road wearing Storm colours that arent family of players.

A few sundays ago my girlfriend and I went to North Bay and I didnt see a single Storm jersey.

I'm going to Oshawa this Sunday and I dont expect to see enough to count on two hands.

 

[HockeyPops]

First, I want to know what we are trying to fix with realignment? I don't really have a problem with the current alignment as it seems fair.

However, I did a quick study of the distances from each city. According to google maps, if each team drove one way to all 19 other cities, the travel from most to least is as follows (in total minutes traveled):

SSM 7636
OTT 6559
SAG 5846
SBY 5754
ER 5541
KGN 5538
NB 5288
WSR 4971
FLT 4865
OS 4376
SAR 4159
PBO 4079
OSH 3705
LDN 3640
NIA 3624
BAR 3523
KIT 3344
GUE 3204
HAM 3163
MIS 3082

Note: Keep in mind I didn't use the rink address, I just used the city center according to google maps. ie. directions from Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Ottawa, ON yields 519 minutes. Also, I used St. Catherines, ON for Niagara.

All this talk about Owen Sound travel, but they are nowhere near the most traveled team. I would assume any realignment would focus on minimizing the travel for the top traveling teams.

For each of the top 7 travel teams, lets see who their closest neighbors are. You would probably need an iterative process to get the optimal solution, but I have gone ahead and grouped teams as it made sense to me:

Sault Ste. Marie ------> Sudbury, Saginaw, Flint, North Bay, Windsor, Sarnia

Ottawa ------> Kingston, Peterborough, Oshawa, North Bay, Mississauga, Barrie, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara, Sudbury (All the teams listed from Mississauga to Sudbury are nearly equidistant from Ottawa)

Saginaw ------> Flint, Sarnia, Windsor, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Erie, Kitchener, Hamilton, Guelph (Teams Sault Ste. Marie to Guelph are nearly equidistant)

Sudbury ------> North Bay, Barrie, Sault Ste. Marie, Mississauga, Oshawa, Owen Sound, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Oshawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Erie ------> Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Guelph, Saginaw, Kitchener, Flint, London, Barrie, Oshawa, Windsor, Owen Sound

Kingston ------> Oshawa, Ottawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton

North Bay ------> Sudbury, Barrie, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph, Owen Sound, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Ottawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Conclusion:
The divisions are really close to being optimized now as far as I can tell. Mississauga is slightly closer to the East than Hamilton (but it's also slightly closer to the Central). Owen Sound is slightly closer to the Central than Niagara. Niagara is closer to the Midwest than Owen Sound. It would probably make sense to put Guelph with Owen Sound in the Central and keep Hamilton in the MidWest. Swapping these 5 teams is the most optimal solution I could find. That being said, you would probably only shave off a few minutes of travel from the schedule so is it really worth it?

East: OTT, KGN, PBO, OSH, MISS
Central: SBY, NB, BAR, OS, GUE
MidWest: ER, NIA, HAM, KIT, LDN
West: SSM, SAG, FLNT, WSR, SAR

 

[ohloutsider]

First, I want to know what we are trying to fix with realignment? I don't really have a problem with the current alignment as it seems fair.

However, I did a quick study of the distances from each city. According to google maps, if each team drove one way to all 19 other cities, the travel from most to least is as follows (in total minutes traveled):

SSM 7636
OTT 6559
SAG 5846
SBY 5754
ER 5541
KGN 5538
NB 5288
WSR 4971
FLT 4865
OS 4376
SAR 4159
PBO 4079
OSH 3705
LDN 3640
NIA 3624
BAR 3523
KIT 3344
GUE 3204
HAM 3163
MIS 3082

Note: Keep in mind I didn't use the rink address, I just used the city center according to google maps. ie. directions from Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Ottawa, ON yields 519 minutes. Also, I used St. Catherines, ON for Niagara.

All this talk about Owen Sound travel, but they are nowhere near the most traveled team. I would assume any realignment would focus on minimizing the travel for the top traveling teams.

For each of the top 7 travel teams, lets see who their closest neighbors are. You would probably need an iterative process to get the optimal solution, but I have gone ahead and grouped teams as it made sense to me:

Sault Ste. Marie ------> Sudbury, Saginaw, Flint, North Bay, Windsor, Sarnia

Ottawa ------> Kingston, Peterborough, Oshawa, North Bay, Mississauga, Barrie, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara, Sudbury (All the teams listed from Mississauga to Sudbury are nearly equidistant from Ottawa)

Saginaw ------> Flint, Sarnia, Windsor, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Erie, Kitchener, Hamilton, Guelph (Teams Sault Ste. Marie to Guelph are nearly equidistant)

Sudbury ------> North Bay, Barrie, Sault Ste. Marie, Mississauga, Oshawa, Owen Sound, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Oshawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Erie ------> Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Guelph, Saginaw, Kitchener, Flint, London, Barrie, Oshawa, Windsor, Owen Sound

Kingston ------> Oshawa, Ottawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton

North Bay ------> Sudbury, Barrie, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph, Owen Sound, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Ottawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Conclusion:
The divisions are really close to being optimized now as far as I can tell. Mississauga is slightly closer to the East than Hamilton (but it's also slightly closer to the Central). Owen Sound is slightly closer to the Central than Niagara. Niagara is closer to the Midwest than Owen Sound. It would probably make sense to put Guelph with Owen Sound in the Central and keep Hamilton in the MidWest. Swapping these 5 teams is the most optimal solution I could find. That being said, you would probably only shave off a few minutes of travel from the schedule so is it really worth it?

East: OTT, KGN, PBO, OSH, MISS
Central: SBY, NB, BAR, OS, GUE
MidWest: ER, NIA, HAM, KIT, LDN
West: SSM, SAG, FLNT, WSR, SAR

I agree there is no real need for realignment but your numbers are way off. This is not how teams actually travel. Soo for example would drive to Guelph for game 1, Guelph to Kitchener for Game 2 and Kitchener to Sarnia for game 3. They do not travel directly from the Soo to each game so you would have to mile it per their actual game/travel schedule. No need to do this as I agree with you - leave it be.

 

[HockeyPops]

I agree there is no real need for realignment but your numbers are way off. This is not how teams actually travel. Soo for example would drive to Guelph for game 1, Guelph to Kitchener for Game 2 and Kitchener to Sarnia for game 3. They do not travel directly from the Soo to each game so you would have to mile it per their actual game/travel schedule. No need to do this as I agree with you - leave it be.

Yep I completely agree - I was not trying to imply that teams traveled like this, rather I was using it as a quick method of ranking the teams from most travel to least based on location. Your method would be more accurate to determine current travel, but 1) I had no way of pulling that info and 2) it would be based on the current schedule which may or may not be optimized.

Also, the focus of my post was to minimize travel for the most traveled teams. The article linked by the original poster would have a North division created that would increase travel for 3 of the most traveled teams (SSM, SAG, SBY). I do not believe that article would be a wise realignment.

Edit: added 2nd paragraph.

 

[Marj44]

I’ll add some numbers to this realignment discussion. I’ve entered every team’s trips from Arena to Arena in a spreadsheet. This includes 1 off trips (1 game) and road trips (2-3 games). When you add up the one off trips and road trips you get the following kilometres for each team for 2018;

Barrie: 13,284km
Erie: 16,566km
Flint: 14,525km
Guelph: 13,963km
Hamilton: 12,456km
Kingston: 14,568km
Kitchener: 11,090km
London: 13,705km
Mississauga: 13,427km
Niagara: 14,523km
North Bay: 16,771km
Oshawa: 13,981km
Ottawa: 16,570km
Owen Sound: 12,730km
Peterborough: 14,607km
Saginaw: 16,282km
Sarnia: 14,463km
Sault Ste Marie: 19,498km
Sudbury: 17,277km
Windsor: 16,061km

Most Travelled (in order);
SSM, Sudbury, North Bay, Ottawa

Least Travelled (in order);
Kitchener, Hamilton, Owen Sound, Barrie

Ottawa also plays a home and home with Gatineau. There’s uneven travel amounts between Hamilton/Ottawa/Peterborough.

Anyone is more than welcomed to go through directions for their team to and from arenas for single game travels and road trips if they disagree with me but trust me when I say I spent 4 days on this stuff to make sure it was all accurate.

Ps. As an SSM fan, I’m a tad salty that most teams have others teams less than 100km away (Kit-Gue being 27km). Our shortest one way travel is Sudbury at 306km...

 

[jamemcca]

Here is a novel concept: Leave the game alone.

 

[HockeyPops]

I’ll add some numbers to this realignment discussion. I’ve entered every team’s trips from Arena to Arena in a spreadsheet. This includes 1 off trips (1 game) and road trips (2-3 games). When you add up the one off trips and road trips you get the following kilometres for each team for 2018;

Fantastic work sir. I can not thank you enough for harvesting and sharing this information. Did you know "fan" is short for "fanatic"?

Interesting how Ottawa drops down the list and the northern teams move up when factoring in divisional play and road trips. Also shocked that Owen Sound is actually one of the least traveled teams! I guess we don't need to fix the divisions on account of it not being fair to them...

My conclusion still stands in my mind; shuffling those 5 teams is the most optimal realignment solution, but do the minor benefits outweigh the inconveniences of a re-org?

 

[Marj44]

Fantastic work sir. I can not thank you enough for harvesting and sharing this information. Did you know "fan" is short for "fanatic"?

Interesting how Ottawa drops down the list and the northern teams move up when factoring in divisional play and road trips. Also shocked that Owen Sound is actually one of the least traveled teams! I guess we don't need to fix the divisions on account of it not being fair to them...

My conclusion still stands in my mind; shuffling those 5 teams is the most optimal realignment solution, but do the minor benefits outweigh the inconveniences of a re-org?

Thank you very much. For Owen Sound’s case they play the far teams on road trips and their one off trips are very short for the most part.

For a realignment that’s basically the goal; to get an even balanced schedule with very quick one off games so that the season doesn’t extend all year. Basically the OHL could move a few teams and help itself but I don’t think the league cares at all. Seems the “good enough” approach is what’s going on here.

It’s a shame the league doesn’t care more about reducing travel. Teams/Fans would benefit from a balanced schedule. Teams spend a ton of money travelling, kids miss out on school and most importantly every km driven increases the risk of an accident.

 

[AttackSound]

Thank you very much. For Owen Sound’s case they play the far teams on road trips and their one off trips are very short for the most part.

For a realignment that’s basically the goal; to get an even balanced schedule with very quick one off games so that the season doesn’t extend all year. Basically the OHL could move a few teams and help itself but I don’t think the league cares at all. Seems the “good enough” approach is what’s going on here.

It’s a shame the league doesn’t care more about reducing travel. Teams/Fans would benefit from a balanced schedule. Teams spend a ton of money travelling, kids miss out on school and most importantly every km driven increases the risk of an accident.

Good point however the flaw in that philosophy is that no matter which way you slice it there's some simple points that will never change.

1 every team has to travel and play everyone at least twice in a season

2 unless you realign the divisions in a better way this is how league is for now

3 If you could align the divisions differently how would they be which is the big question

Beyond those questions travel is the furthest thing from the league's mind

 

[Marj44]

Good point however the flaw in that philosophy is that no matter which way you slice it there's some simple points that will never change.

1 every team has to travel and play everyone at least twice in a season

2 unless you realign the divisions in a better way this is how league is for now

3 If you could align the divisions differently how would they be which is the big question

Beyond those questions travel is the furthest thing from the league's mind

Each team travels to play each team at least *once*. Home and home for out of conference teams.

For points 2 and 3 there’s not much you can do. Couple minor moves to smooth out the travel more even but that’s based on a balanced schedule.

I’ll comment on Owen Sound’s, here’s the closest 9 teams (so Owen Sound’s perfect conference) in order;
Barrie
Guelph
Kitchener
Missy
Hamilton
London
Oshawa
Sarnia
Niagara

Purely travel wise they only want to travel to these team’s once;
SSM
Ottawa
Erie
Kingston
Saginaw
Windsor
Sudbury
Flint
NB
Peterborough

While Owen Sound hates the trek to SSM, it’s not bad if you play Sudbury and NB in the trip. Or if you do SSM-SAG-FLNT. Problem is that you can’t keep doing 3 game trips. Having Barrie in the same division and travelling there at least twice is OS’ dream. You could play that game on a Wednesday night or whenever and the kids wouldn’t miss much school since you could bus there and back on the day of.

There is no solution in the OHL that will benefit everyone perfectly. If you’re asking me what realignment I would do? I’d have to look at my data and put teams in divisions and conferences with the goal of reducing overall travel. I haven’t looked into that cause I got busy since making the spreadsheet.
+ even if I did make a better solution then what’s currently being done it’s not like the league is gonna change because a stranger on the Internet says to.

 

[Fischhaber]

Each team travels to play each team at least *once*. Home and home for out of conference teams.

For points 2 and 3 there’s not much you can do. Couple minor moves to smooth out the travel more even but that’s based on a balanced schedule.

I’ll comment on Owen Sound’s, here’s the closest 9 teams (so Owen Sound’s perfect conference) in order;
Barrie
Guelph
Kitchener
Missy
Hamilton
London
Oshawa
Sarnia
Niagara

Purely travel wise they only want to travel to these team’s once;
SSM
Ottawa
Erie
Kingston
Saginaw
Windsor
Sudbury
Flint
NB
Peterborough

While Owen Sound hates the trek to SSM, it’s not bad if you play Sudbury and NB in the trip. Or if you do SSM-SAG-FLNT. Problem is that you can’t keep doing 3 game trips. Having Barrie in the same division and travelling there at least twice is OS’ dream. You could play that game on a Wednesday night or whenever and the kids wouldn’t miss much school since you could bus there and back on the day of.

There is no solution in the OHL that will benefit everyone perfectly. If you’re asking me what realignment I would do? I’d have to look at my data and put teams in divisions and conferences with the goal of reducing overall travel. I haven’t looked into that cause I got busy since making the spreadsheet.
+ even if I did make a better solution then what’s currently being done it’s not like the league is gonna change because a stranger on the Internet says to.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why can't a team do 3 game road trips? The Greyhounds do it almost every other weekend.

 

[Hammer9001]

First, I want to know what we are trying to fix with realignment? I don't really have a problem with the current alignment as it seems fair.

However, I did a quick study of the distances from each city. According to google maps, if each team drove one way to all 19 other cities, the travel from most to least is as follows (in total minutes traveled):

SSM 7636
OTT 6559
SAG 5846
SBY 5754
ER 5541
KGN 5538
NB 5288
WSR 4971
FLT 4865
OS 4376
SAR 4159
PBO 4079
OSH 3705
LDN 3640
NIA 3624
BAR 3523
KIT 3344
GUE 3204
HAM 3163
MIS 3082

Note: Keep in mind I didn't use the rink address, I just used the city center according to google maps. ie. directions from Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Ottawa, ON yields 519 minutes. Also, I used St. Catherines, ON for Niagara.

All this talk about Owen Sound travel, but they are nowhere near the most traveled team. I would assume any realignment would focus on minimizing the travel for the top traveling teams.

For each of the top 7 travel teams, lets see who their closest neighbors are. You would probably need an iterative process to get the optimal solution, but I have gone ahead and grouped teams as it made sense to me:

Sault Ste. Marie ------> Sudbury, Saginaw, Flint, North Bay, Windsor, Sarnia

Ottawa ------> Kingston, Peterborough, Oshawa, North Bay, Mississauga, Barrie, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara, Sudbury (All the teams listed from Mississauga to Sudbury are nearly equidistant from Ottawa)

Saginaw ------> Flint, Sarnia, Windsor, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Erie, Kitchener, Hamilton, Guelph (Teams Sault Ste. Marie to Guelph are nearly equidistant)

Sudbury ------> North Bay, Barrie, Sault Ste. Marie, Mississauga, Oshawa, Owen Sound, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Oshawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Erie ------> Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Guelph, Saginaw, Kitchener, Flint, London, Barrie, Oshawa, Windsor, Owen Sound

Kingston ------> Oshawa, Ottawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton

North Bay ------> Sudbury, Barrie, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph, Owen Sound, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Ottawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)

Conclusion:
The divisions are really close to being optimized now as far as I can tell. Mississauga is slightly closer to the East than Hamilton (but it's also slightly closer to the Central). Owen Sound is slightly closer to the Central than Niagara. Niagara is closer to the Midwest than Owen Sound. It would probably make sense to put Guelph with Owen Sound in the Central and keep Hamilton in the MidWest. Swapping these 5 teams is the most optimal solution I could find. That being said, you would probably only shave off a few minutes of travel from the schedule so is it really worth it?

East: OTT, KGN, PBO, OSH, MISS
Central: SBY, NB, BAR, OS, GUE
MidWest: ER, NIA, HAM, KIT, LDN
West: SSM, SAG, FLNT, WSR, SAR

A posted a spreadsheet a while back regarding this, from rink to rink and I believe using the shortest KM option available



As far as a realignment, I think it just strikes many (myself included) that Hamilton is in the east, Erie, Niagara and Hamilton aren't in the same division. The conversation of doing everything possible to minimize travel to the net benefit of league finances and players.

When I did the math, I believe I came out with similar numbers as far what alignment would be the most optimised. However, I suspect you would have great difficulty convincing the league to separate Guelph and Kitchener, which is why I'm more inclined to see Hamilton and Mississauga just switch spots.

 

[Marj44]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why can't a team do 3 game road trips? The Greyhounds do it almost every other weekend.

SSM actually has 7 three game road trips and 5 two game road trips. 3 games is super hard because you don’t want 3 games in 3 days. If you extend to 4 days the kids are missing more school.

Ideally you want 2 game road trips and sometimes 3 in 3 days if need be, SSM is one of the teams that kind of has to have some 3 game road trips cause they’re so far from everyone.

 

[Marj44]

Delete

 

[Marj44]

A posted a spreadsheet a while back regarding this, from rink to rink and I believe using the shortest KM option available



As far as a realignment, I think it just strikes many (myself included) that Hamilton is in the east, Erie, Niagara and Hamilton aren't in the same division. The conversation of doing everything possible to minimize travel to the net benefit of league finances and players.

When I did the math, I believe I came out with similar numbers as far what alignment would be the most optimised. However, I suspect you would have great difficulty convincing the league to separate Guelph and Kitchener, which is why I'm more inclined to see Hamilton and Mississauga just switch spots.

The issue with that spreadsheet is that it totals the distances between the cities but doesn't account for single game trips or grouped up road trips, which affect the total kms a team drives. For exmaple, Sudbury and North Bay actually travel more than Ottawa but the spreadsheet above has Ottawa with the second highest total because it's far away from other teams. If someone knows how to post a google spreadsheet on here I'll attach the one I made. The link is publicly shared but for some reason it keeps coming up an error when i try to post it on hfboards.

The spreadsheet is for 2018 travel and will have;
- Distances (rink to rink) for each team
- Colour coded 4 nearest, next 4 and 4 farthest teams
- Every team's single game trips and the total kms (4 least and 4 most coloured)
- Every team's 2-3 game road trips and the total kms (4 least and 4 most coloured)
- The total kms driven of both road trips and one off trips combined (4 least and 4 most coloured)

Edit: You can also find my spreadsheet on google sheets by searching "OHL 2018 Travel" if anyone wants to take a look or share it here.

 

[HockeyPops]

You can also find my spreadsheet on google sheets by searching "OHL 2018 Travel" if anyone wants to take a look or share it here.

I tried searching for that but came up empty. Maybe your permissions are wrong. I am able to find "OHL Draft Pick Database" through the same search so I know the search is working.

 

[HockeyPops]

When I did the math, I believe I came out with similar numbers as far what alignment would be the most optimised. However, I suspect you would have great difficulty convincing the league to separate Guelph and Kitchener, which is why I'm more inclined to see Hamilton and Mississauga just switch spots.

Yes, I realize there are rivalries at play here, but if the league can put Sudbury and SSM in different Conferences then anything is on the table. Besides, they still schedule extra games in those situations (eg. this season we play Sudbury 6 times and Windsor 6 times).

 

[Otto]

Thank you very much. For Owen Sound’s case they play the far teams on road trips and their one off trips are very short for the most part.

For a realignment that’s basically the goal; to get an even balanced schedule with very quick one off games so that the season doesn’t extend all year. Basically the OHL could move a few teams and help itself but I don’t think the league cares at all. Seems the “good enough” approach is what’s going on here.

It’s a shame the league doesn’t care more about reducing travel. Teams/Fans would benefit from a balanced schedule. Teams spend a ton of money travelling, kids miss out on school and most importantly every km driven increases the risk of an accident.

You make it sound like it's Dave Branch's fault... in the case of re-alignment it's up to the owners/Board of Governors to address it if they feel it's an issue. They obviously don't.

 

[Marj44]

I tried searching for that but came up empty. Maybe your permissions are wrong. I am able to find "OHL Draft Pick Database" through the same search so I know the search is working.

Link sharing is on, it’s available public on the web to view and when I copy the link here it goes into error. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it cause as far as I know I did everything to make it public. Shame
I’ll tinker with it later but it is called “OHL 2018 Travel”.

You make it sound like it's Dave Branch's fault... in the case of re-alignment it's up to the owners/Board of Governors to address it if they feel it's an issue. They obviously don't.

Odd...I thought I said “the league” doesn’t care instead of singling out Dave Branch...

 

[Hammer9001]

Yes, I realize there are rivalries at play here, but if the league can put Sudbury and SSM in different Conferences then anything is on the table. Besides, they still schedule extra games in those situations (eg. this season we play Sudbury 6 times and Windsor 6 times).

The thing you have to keep in mind when putting Subury with SSM is what other 3 teams you put in that conference? North Bay and Sudbury are pretty much locked at the hip, so you can't really put them in the current west, as every other trip except SSM becomes a 7+ hour trek for the two of them.

So what does that leave? SSM, Sudbury, North Bay, Barrie and one team who will without a doubt getting the short end of the stick, with a 7+ hour travel time to SSM. That's something that no team currently bears within their division. The current west division has no one making more then a 5 hour trip inside it, and even the long 4-5 hour drives from Owen Sound/Erie, Hamilton/Ottawa and Sudbury/Niagara pale in comparison to 7+ hours.

The only way I see Sudbury getting moved into the same division as SSM is if the OHL suddenly has to abandon the US teams or if the Muskoka region somehow bands together and gets a team, but those scenarios would set off a completely different round of discussions.

 

[HockeyPops]

The thing you have to keep in mind when putting Subury with SSM is what other 3 teams you put in that conference? North Bay and Sudbury are pretty much locked at the hip, so you can't really put them in the current west, as every other trip except SSM becomes a 7+ hour trek for the two of them.

This is precisely my point, and I believe we agree on this. Putting SSM and Sudbury in the same division, while good for SSM/Sudbury rivalry, makes league travel worse overall. The league keeps this rivalry alive by scheduling extra games between the two (6 times a season), even though they are in different conferences. It is important to note that my realignment proposal from a few posts back keeps Sudbury and SSM in separate conferences.

I am simply extending the same argument to Guelph/Kitchener. See my realignment proposal a few posts back. Splitting Guelph and Kitchener up would improve league travel overall. And the rivalry can still be kept alive by scheduling extra games between them.

If the goal of any realignment proposal is to minimize travel league-wide, as well as for the most traveled teams, it may mean a few of the least traveled teams have a slight increase in travel. This may be the case for teams like Guelph, Kitchener, Owen Sound, but that is to be expected with any realignment proposal and does not - in and of itself - mean the proposal is poorly designed.

 

[From Up Top]

I think the whole re-alignment issue comes down to league stability.

With all the unknowns surrounding Mississauga last season and arena questions in Hamilton, I wouldn't be surprised if they make the fix once both those issues are solved.

The Steelheads have their new lease, just need the Bulldogs to iron out their situation.

 

[HockeyPops]

I think the whole re-alignment issue comes down to league stability.

With all the unknowns surrounding Mississauga last season and arena questions in Hamilton, I wouldn't be surprised if they make the fix once both those issues are solved.

The Steelheads have their new lease, just need the Bulldogs to iron out their situation.

Isn't it the nature of this league that there will always be questions surrounding a few franchises? eg. Fix Missy and Hamilton, and the focus turns to problems in North Bay or Flint, real or imagined.