This is what happens when you are awake early on a bank holiday Monday….
So, with Widnes looking at putting a team on the ice in the NIHL for next season (2013/14) and Blackburn winning the NIHL Div 1 North play offs, I got to wondering, would it be possible to put together a ‘Northern’ conference for the EPL in the near future? And if you were to do so, which teams would/should be involved with it? My reasoning for this is quite simple, really. A Northern Conference, with more games against local teams and fewer visits to the Southern teams could be of some financial benefit to ourselves. I shall expand upon this later, but lets start with the make up of my fantasy Northern Conference:
Manchester Phoenix
Sheffield Steeldogs
Telford Tigers
Blackburn Hawks
Widnes IHC
Hull Stingrays
Whitley Warriors
This would leave the remaining 7 teams to form the Souther Conference. The ideal schedule would be 2x Home, 2x Away against teams in your own conference, 2x home, 2x away against teams in the other for a schedule of 52 league games. Add in 3x home, 3x away cup games against your own conference to open the season (thus setting up who qualifies for the Semi Finals before a puck has dropped for the League), and the Play off Quarter Finals weekend, and you have a 30 week schedule excluding the Play Off weekend. Play off would be inter conference, with 1 Semi Final being the Northern Conference game, 1 being the Southern Conference game, leaving the Final as a ‘National’ Final.
To my mind, the benefit of this schedule is playing against more ‘local’ teams, which reduces the travelling involved, thus cutting costs. Also, from a marketing perspective you can build rivalries better, as you face each team less often (just 2 home games against each opponent as opposed to 3 currently), plus more local teams=more local derby matches.
Thoughts?
I don’t think the quality of the teams you mention would entice me to go to hockey every week. Although the southern teams can be a pain to get to, we get better quality of hockey than with the northern teams.
True, at the minute, these teams are distinctly ‘meh’ in terms of quality, but who is to say that will always be the case? A properly organised Northern League should improve the quality of these teams over time.
Not sure it would. I cannot see them having the money to compete over a full season. Add to that the dearth of northern hockey players to fill the rosters with the quality required.
A conference system would be a great idea but i just don’t think there is the depth oop north for it to work on a competitive basis that would keep the fans interested. By that I mean no disrespect to any other team, just hard economic facts.
Tambo
True. But I would counter argue that unless a system is set up which aims to improve the quality of hockey in the North of England, then we are doomed to have the status quo remain. I honestly believe that a Northern EPL would assist in improving the ability of northern based players more so than the current system. At the minute you either make it onto the Phoenix or Steeldogs rosters and play EPL, move down south to do likewise, or try and step straight from NIHL to EIHL. By bringing teams such as Blackburn into the EPL, it helps create more opportunities for players who are top end NIHL, but not EIHL ready just yet.