What if the richest step out from NHL to create their own league?

alko

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Oct 20, 2004
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From time to time there are rumors here in Europe, that the richest soccer teams from Spain, England, Italy ... want to create their own Europe league. Aside from UEFA. They dont want to play anymore with teams from "second and third class leagues". Still they are in Champions league. But it is true, if they will go their own route, it will be have an enormous popularity between fans and sponsors.

What about NHL richest club from Toronto, New York, Chicago.... They will say, we dont want to send money to Arizona desert, Florida swamps ... And we want our own league.
 

SotasicA

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Aug 25, 2014
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I think things would get hostile.

The NHL will immediately start new franchises in those cities to try and put those teams out of business. And also not allow any current NHL player to bolt while still under NHL SPC. Roster players of those rich teams would be re-drafted by those new NHL teams in the same locations.

It would be a huge risk to try and compete with the NHL. They could sign UFAs and try and get their own TV deal, but how big?
 

Tawnos

A guy with a bass
Sep 10, 2004
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From time to time there are rumors here in Europe, that the richest soccer teams from Spain, England, Italy ... want to create their own Europe league. Aside from UEFA. They dont want to play anymore with teams from "second and third class leagues". Still they are in Champions league. But it is true, if they will go their own route, it will be have an enormous popularity between fans and sponsors.

What about NHL richest club from Toronto, New York, Chicago.... They will say, we dont want to send money to Arizona desert, Florida swamps ... And we want our own league.

Unlike those soccer teams in Europe, the rich teams in the NHL see significant benefit to playing in a league with those small market teams. Yes, some money might flow for rich to poor, but because they’re in the NHL, they also get to benefit from the cap structure where the low revenue teams bring down payrolls. The amount they come down is more than the revenue sharing that goes on. Even if they managed to get a 50/50 split with a PA in this hypothetical league, they’d still be paying millions more (probably tens of millions more) in payroll.
 

robertmac43

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Mar 31, 2015
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I don't like the "Super League" as an idea for football, I really don't like it for hockey. There just is not the numbers of players to do it. There would need to be 10ish teams and all the good players would need to jump ship.
 

kgboomer

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Nov 12, 2014
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Those richest teams started the NHL, it's their baby. They just did the opposite, they expanded with 2 more teams in their country club. And the owner in Boston is Chairman of the Board, probably the hawkish of them all to control players cost.
 

Nino33

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Jul 5, 2015
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From time to time there are rumors here in Europe, that the richest soccer teams from Spain, England, Italy ... want to create their own Europe league. Aside from UEFA. They dont want to play anymore with teams from "second and third class leagues". Still they are in Champions league. But it is true, if they will go their own route, it will be have an enormous popularity between fans and sponsors.
Soccer leagues are all "top heavy" and the talent is spread over multiple leagues...the NHL already has 99% of the world's best talent, and they don't have the majority of the league's teams paying 400-1000 percent less than the top like soccer does

Her's the Bundesliga Average Bundesliga salary by team 2018/19 | Statista and here's the EPL English Premier League salary 2018/19 | Statista - look at the MASSIVE difference in team salaries


If the KHL, SHL and Liiga all had stars/superstars making top dollar & the NHL was filled with teams paying their players less than 20 million (some less than 10 million!) for the whole team then maybe it's be comparable

The NHL already is the "super league" that some talk about wanting for soccer
 

82Ninety42011

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Jul 2, 2011
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Do the NHL owners even have an option to leave the NHL? Serious question. Is there some sort of contract keeping them in league if they wanted to leave?
 

Hoek

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May 12, 2003
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Not enough rich teams for it to work. It'd be like 6 teams and everyone would just roll their eyes at it after a while. It's not like European soccer where you can draw a "big four" from several leagues and combine it into something plausible.
 
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SotasicA

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Aug 25, 2014
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In a franchise model what good is an individual franchise without the league/top business?

You don't own your players, you don't own your TV deal. Some own their arena (or vice versa), but the product is essentially tied to the league itself. To start another league means starting from scratch. Also, it means suddenly the insividual teams will spend a lot more on salaries, right? So, less profit too.

In the current salary cap model, the richest teams are making filthy amounts of money each year. They wouldn't if salaries were free.
 
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Mightygoose

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Nov 5, 2012
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I don't see the rich teams taking enough corporate and media dollars away to make it viable. Even at 32 team, a breakaway league will at maximum 16 IMO and they wouldn't have the reach of the other major league's to make it work.

Vince McMahon has a better chance of launching the XHL than a sizable split happening.
 

82Ninety42011

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Jul 2, 2011
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They could in theory leave, but they can't take their players with them. The league would redistribute the contracts among the other teams in some way.
Interesting I'd like to add if they did go I don't think the NHL could replace the teams so easily as where would they play? Assuming owners wouldn't lease out their own building to NHL when starting up another league to compete with them.
 

sh724

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Jun 2, 2009
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The owners dont actually own the team they own a contract to operate a team. If a team(s) were to attempt to leave it would just be the owner(s) creating something entirely new. They would not be able to use the same team names/arenas/players/etc. all of those are contractually tied to the NHL team which is authorized to exist by the NHL.
 

madhi19

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Jun 2, 2012
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I think things would get hostile.

The NHL will immediately start new franchises in those cities to try and put those teams out of business. And also not allow any current NHL player to bolt while still under NHL SPC. Roster players of those rich teams would be re-drafted by those new NHL teams in the same locations.

It would be a huge risk to try and compete with the NHL. They could sign UFAs and try and get their own TV deal, but how big?
Were talking about the richest teams in the league. They all own their own arena, and their fanbase are definitively way too loyal for that. The big issue is trademark. Since the spat between the league and the Rangers over who allowed to run the official teams website, it been established that the league own all the relevant trademarks. At least in the US... Good luck fighting the Habs or the Leafs over it in Canada. The cup is the other sticking point it actually does not belong to the NHL. There was serious talk during the last lockout that maybe the HHOF should be legally forced to seek another tournament for the Stanley Cup.
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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The two major partners the new league would need own the Toronto Maple Leafs, and both have long-term contracts with the league.
 

LeHab

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Aug 31, 2005
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From time to time there are rumors here in Europe, that the richest soccer teams from Spain, England, Italy ... want to create their own Europe league. Aside from UEFA. They dont want to play anymore with teams from "second and third class leagues". Still they are in Champions league. But it is true, if they will go their own route, it will be have an enormous popularity between fans and sponsors.

What about NHL richest club from Toronto, New York, Chicago.... They will say, we dont want to send money to Arizona desert, Florida swamps ... And we want our own league.

NHL does not have the same parity issues and there is fairly little revenue sharing. Arizona was for a while an issue but has since somehow stabilized plus got a new owner on board. Don't forget teams benefit from expansion fees. Sure the new league could consider expanding but who would want to buy in considering how those teams treated the not haves? Also low revenue teams keep the cap lower which means rich teams spend less on players.

Don't see how anyone would benefit from a fragmented product. Especially when NHL is far from being the most popular league in NA.
 
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Ted Hoffman

The other Rick Zombo
Dec 15, 2002
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Interesting I'd like to add if they did go I don't think the NHL could replace the teams so easily as where would they play? Assuming owners wouldn't lease out their own building to NHL when starting up another league to compete with them.
Let's put aside the fact that NHL would view it as "folding the franchise without the league's consent" and that would kick off a series of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits involving the league, the breakaway owners, and arena owners [who aren't also the breakaway owners] / municipalities / advertisers / etc. that would keep any breakaway league off the ice until all of that was settled.

A breakaway league would clearly have whatever arenas the owners have. [Leases would be involved in the legal fight, so you can safely assume they'd be off limits.] The NHL would steer clear of those in attempting to get any deserted teams re-launched. The question is where the owners who don't own their arenas would play.

Suffice it to say that like in any high-profile legal fight, the lawyers would be the big winners.
 

Legionnaire11

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Jul 12, 2007
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The media coverage is already lagging way behind in a league with a footprint across two nations. A much smaller breakaway league, even with 8-10 or whatever most popular teams would take a massive hit in the media. For any casual observers it would cement hockey as a non-factor if it isn't already for them.

I'm not saying it would kill those teams, but it would destroy any sense of what they are today as far as the product they are able to put on the ice and marketing and such. In fact, I will always maintain that one of the reasons the NHL lagged behind the other major leagues was their reluctance to expansion earlier. Cities wanted in but the revered O-6 (namely Norris) rejected it every time and they've paid for it with a tremendous uphill battle ever since.

The richest teams in the league now are making more money than they ever have and it's in their best interest to continue to nurture a large footprint and grow the game at the local level. Finding ways to get more fans watching and playing at a younger ages to become lifelong dollar spenders.

The only benefit to a smaller league is that those teams would win Championships more often, but what meaning would that really have?
 
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mouser

Business of Hockey
Jul 13, 2006
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The owners dont actually own the team they own a contract to operate a team. If a team(s) were to attempt to leave it would just be the owner(s) creating something entirely new. They would not be able to use the same team names/arenas/players/etc. all of those are contractually tied to the NHL team which is authorized to exist by the NHL.

No, the NHL owners actually own their teams. The NHL is a joint cooperative venture of owners.
 

Henkka

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
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Not enough rich teams for it to work. It'd be like 6 teams and everyone would just roll their eyes at it after a while. It's not like European soccer where you can draw a "big four" from several leagues and combine it into something plausible.

I would love that kind of league, where you face the same opponent 16 times at regular season.

6 team league.
5 opponents x 16 times = 80 games.

Then add the playoff series against same teams... :facepalm:
 
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