Why 82 games?

[Cloned]

For both the NHL and the NBA, the regular season schedule is set at 82 games. Is that just a coincidence, or is there a reason why that happens to be the case for both leagues?

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[Dr Jan Itor]

There’s no real reason for the NBA. Not sure about NHL.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Because if it was only 60 Tom Wilson would barely get to play any.

 

[The Panther]

Don't know, but Bettman worked in the NBA for years.

82 games... same as NBA.

Disappearance of neutral zone to be a two-zone sport... same as NBA.

Pretty soon the nets will be 10 feet off the ice!

 

[613Leafer]

Probably had something to do with the number of teams/divisions at the time 82 games was introduced.

You tend to play divisional opponents X times per season, non-divisional conference opponents Y times per season, and other conference opponents Z times per season. So it was unlikely to land on a nice round number.

 

[Super Hans]

From what I just read, the NBA went to 82 games in '67-68 when they got their 11th and 12th teams. This allowed them to play every team in their conference 8 times and the other conference 7 times. NHL went to 82 games for the '95-96 season a few years after Bettman came over from the NBA, so it probably came from that like dude said above.

 

[sansabri]

It used to be 80, no? They probably added the extra 2 games for more revenue.

 

[ESH]

Don't know, but Bettman worked in the NBA for years.

82 games... same as NBA.

Disappearance of neutral zone to be a two-zone sport... same as NBA.

Pretty soon the nets will be 10 feet off the ice!

There is very clearly still 3 distinct zones in hockey

 

[Marky9er]

They used to play 80 games. Enter expansion and more teams miss the playoffs, and well.... playing an extra home game made the existing grumpy owners feel better about possibly missing 2 guaranteed home gates.

That's my theory.

 

[izzy]

i feel like nba is the most comparable of the big sports to hockey (soccer in terms of skills involved) so it really does make sense to match them in games played

 

[Del Preston]

When the regular season was 84 games for two seasons (1992-93 & 1993-94) each team played two neutral site games. After the 1994-95 lockout those two games were eliminated and the schedule was reduced to 82 games.

I don't know how they arrived at 80 games before that, or why it went from 80 to 84 instead of 80 to 82 in 1992-93. Expansion?

 

[TheAngryHank]

83 is way to many.

 

[Fire Benning]

$$$

 

[TooManyHumans]

83 is way to many.

And 81 is not nearly enough.

 

[Cloned]

And 81 is not nearly enough.

Goldilocks would be proud.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Would love to see 80 games with the addition of a MLB-style, one-game wildcard game between #4 and #5 in each division for the #4 playoff seed in that division.

That would literally be the perfect system.

 

[Pyrophorus]

At this point, pure HRR.

I love hockey and the few 84game seasons they had, but for the players 65-70 is better.

 

[Big Ed]

Pretty soon the nets will be 10 feet off the ice!

The goalies too? Cause I would watch the h*ck out of that.

 

[The Head Crusher]

Money money money money

 

[The Panther]

80 was better, frankly. It's mathematically simple. Every quarter is 20 games. 40 at the half. Nice and easy.

 

[The Head Crusher]

The goalies too? Cause I would watch the h*ck out of that.

They will have to jump off trampolines like Slam ball

 

[SharksCyclops]

Because it would be hard to have 41 home games and 41 away if it wasn't

 

[King Weber]

The goalies too? Cause I would watch the h*ck out of that.

They'll be strapped to the goalie posts like Milhouse in the Simpsons.

 

[Canada4Gold]

The year they switched there was a switch up of divisions(7-7-6-6 to 6-7-6-7 evening out the conferences). The numbers still didn't work out perfectly(in division games were either 5 or 6). But I guess it was something to do with that.

 

[seancolorado]

As a hockey fan I love 82 games, but cutting it back to something like 74 games would be nice, reducing back to backs and allowing players a better chance at staying fresh