Tier 1 junior hockey in california

[kij]

When he gets proven wrong over and over again and goes out to insult the people providing facts, this makes me laugh.

Circling back to the original discussion, starting a league takes a true madman and expanding into a league takes large amounts of capital and other teams in the area. Having come out of the junior hockey circuit I can say that moving away from home is 100% a good thing for these kids. Actually getting out of the nest is healthy and expedites the maturation process. Hell, I had offers to play junior hockey 3 minutes from my childhood home and I chose to go to a team that was a 20-hour drive away from home. Not all players want to stay close to home. If that is truly important to them, they can go play in the WSHL because as college coaches constantly say: it doesn't matter where the kid plays, it matters how he plays. Obviously the cream of the crop will be playing in a better league but show me an NAHL or USHL roster that has a large number of local players. You won't find them. Maybe 2-3 kids per team.

 

[tealhockey]

A lot can change in ten years. California is a massive market and the game does seem to continue to grow out there. That said the junior hockey landscape is oversaturated as it is and I can't imagine it's a business many people would want to get into right now other than those who are extremely passionate about hockey and willing to lose a great deal of money in the short term. Just my 2 cents

 

[BOS358]

Aside from the points that tealhockey just posted, travel would be a major issue for any team in California. There is no way that a single team could be pulling in enough money to stay in business that far out west. The best hope would be for a Pacific Division in the NAHL or a brand new league starting just in the region. And as we all saw with the USACHL fiasco, any competent person would already have a job with an established and credible league and not be likely to leave that.

 

[BOS358]

If there is no interest, then why did the ncaa just expand to arizona? California clearly is more of a hockey state than arizona will ever be.

The NCAA "expanded" to Arizona because a wealthy guy wrote a $30 million check to a university to start a hockey team. Until the same thing happens to a California school, it won't happen. The NCAA has zero input on "expansion." To imply that it does is laughable.

 

[PCSPounder]

Having come out of the junior hockey circuit I can say that moving away from home is 100% a good thing for these kids. Actually getting out of the nest is healthy and expedites the maturation process.

As a soccer fan, I believe this.

As someone watching parents give repeated snubs to smaller WHL markets, I think many people are trying to change the paradigm for several reasons, many of which are wrong, but the $$$ talks.

 

[PCSPounder]

The NCAA "expanded" to Arizona because a wealthy guy wrote a $30 million check to a university to start a hockey team. Until the same thing happens to a California school, it won't happen. The NCAA has zero input on "expansion." To imply that it does is laughable.

To back this up... the NCAA is not a professional league. It's an association of schools. The NCAA exists to give credibility to these schools insofar as recruiting and education goes (yes, I'm snickering while writing this, but "give credibility" is not equal to "keeping everyone above board"). Frankly, when it comes to conference affiliations and divisional qualifications, despite some nominal regulations, the NCAA tends to defer to conferences. The NCAA does not get into expansion of any specific sport; that's generally up to the schools.

Having said this, the Pac-12 has a TV network. Many of the basketball games are taken up by other networks. So some Saturday hockey content wouldn't hurt... though they're also not going gung-ho on ASU right now. So the door is a little bit open if someone wants to drop the cash.

 

[SemireliableSource]

The PAC12 Networks are such a boondoggle. I wouldn't cite them as a positive aspect that could be utilized by hockey. The lack of carriers and the way the whole conference is run right now is a huge negative that needs to be resolved before PAC12 hockey can even be sniffed.

 

[PCSPounder]

The PAC12 Networks are such a boondoggle. I wouldn't cite them as a positive aspect that could be utilized by hockey. The lack of carriers and the way the whole conference is run right now is a huge negative that needs to be resolved before PAC12 hockey can even be sniffed.

A comment worth agreement if it mattered for squat.

One suspects the conference is run by whomever has incriminating photos of whom.