From: f31922c@kaira.hut.fi (Asko Tapani Huumonen)
Subject: Re: A Proposal For a European Hockey League
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:07:26 GMT

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In article <1992Nov4.130120.1191@abo.fi> MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF) writes:
>In <1992Nov3.164449.11428@nntp.hut.fi> f31922c@kaira.hut.fi writes:
>
>> In article <1992Nov3.102034.10326@abo.fi> MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF) writes:
>> >In <1992Nov2.175413.17030@ericsson.se> etxonss@ufsa.ericsson.se writes:
>> >
>> >> In article <tervio.1@katk.Helsinki.FI> tervio@katk.Helsinki.FI (TERVI| MARKO J) writes:
>> 


>> The existing European hockey culture happens to be located mostly in these
>> smallish towns. Launching a number of teams in major European cities without
>> hockey tradition would be very risky. Almost certainly some of these teams 
>> would fail. If too many of them would the league would be ruined.
>
>Really? There's Stockholm, Moscow, St.Petersburg, Prague, Dusseldorf - not to
>mention good old Helsingfors as the Finnish representatives. Any team in
>Switzerland, Milan and Vienna would be expected to draw well. Only Paris and
>London have questionable fan support.

True, but in Stockholm and other hockey cities there are existing teams with
existing fans who are more or less devoted to current teams. You can't be sure
that these fans would change their favourites overnight. I sure would not. Both
in Stockholm and in Helsinki (not to mention Prague and Moscow) there are two
teams with intense local rivalry.The team in the new league probably could be
neither of these.  

>The French national team (which admittedly is as much a French foreign legion
>as the real thing) didn't do that badly in Albertville. Have Montreal and
>Quebec send some Francophone minor leaguers there, and finding fans should not
>be difficult. As for England, teams in Northern England or Scotland would
>be available if London fails to support its team. For example, the Sheffield
>Steelers (currently a Div.2 team) is averaging 8,000 fans for its home games!

The games in Albertville had Olympic Status. That kind of helps promoting some
sports the big crowds wouldn't otherwise notice. Anyway, I suppose hockey in
France is played mostly in the mountain regions, not in big cities. 

Every now and then I see numbers indicating incredible fan support for British
hockey teams. If any of our British friends happens to be reading this I would
be interested for some more specific data. With average of 8,000 it would be
possible to hire good enough pros to get some success in games against teams
from other countries.


>> Does anybody know what happened to that league of American Football with teams
>> in major European cities like  Barcelona, Frankfurt, London etc? 
>
>The European teams usually had crowds of 30,000 or more at their home games.
>Low TV ratings and poor fan support in the States forced them to suspend
>operations after only two years. But the National Football League is determined
>to launch the WLAF again in 1994, this time with more European teams than
>American.

How were the European crowds of the second year compared to those of the first?
During the first season there is a novelty effect that can be reached by clever
marketing and giving away lots of free tickets.


>There *is* a market for "American" sports such as hockey! One of the reasons
>that soccer (association football) has lost fans to hockey in Sweden is that
>watching hockey is much more comfortable and fun. In both Finland and
>Sweden, going to a hockey game is no different from going to the movies while
>mostly dedicated (if not outright fanatical) fans attend soccer games. More
>women and children watch hockey as well. My point is, and the World League of
>American Football seems to support it, that Europeans are fed up with the mess
>professional soccer has got itself into and want more entertainment. Hockey
>would seem to be better suited to fill that need (=simple soccer-like rules, 
>European star players) than baseball, American Football or even basketball. 

Soccer is more difficult game to play enjoyably than hockey. In Sweden (as well
as here in our beloved country) the end of soccer season is sometimes played in
blizzard. I don't think that the attitude towards sports varies that much
between sports inside each coutry. I regard Finnish hockey fans every bit as
dedicated and fanatical as soccer fans in most European countries. In America
people seem to regard sports more like an entertainment that they are paying 
for than something like a religion. Which is in most ways more sensible way to
think, no doubt. I would still rather more attend a game with dedicated and
fanatical die-hard fans than a game where the crowd comes just to show
themselves. In the only Major League Baseball game I ever attended (and 
probably the only one I ever will) half of the crowd never seemed to pay any 
attention to what was happening on the field. The crowd attitude in the NHL 
games I have seen has not been as bad, but somethig similar anyway. 


>Well, you may have to get used to the idea sooner rather than later. The NHL
>reportedly would like to have a team in Helsinki - if our local
>KIEKKOLEHTI magazine is to be believed! Your first demand (that local players
>be used as much as possible) is not unreasonable. Some people have suggested
>that American-based teams should carry a certain number of American players
>on their rosters before signing Canadians and Europeans. Trying to come up with
>a format that does not favor Canadian teams is not that easy, however.
>Promoting and relegating teams based on performances in the league is NOT 
>realistic. What would happen to the TV ratings if the Rangers were relegated 
>to the AHL, for example?!  

I wouldn't count too much on everything that is printed in KIEKKOLEHTI. I
remember reading from that magazine about that probosed Global Hockey League
also. It is easy to give positive statements about NHL expanding into Europe
sometimes in the future. There is a number of problems to be solved before that
could be possible. Some sort of all-European league in more or less distant
future is much more probable.

As far as I know promotion and relegation are allowed in every sports league
outside America. A well defined mechanism prevents all those whinings about
where franchises should be located. If a city can support a succesful team then
it eventually will. At least Hamilton, Saskatoon et al would get a fair chance
and they would not have to dream about the next WHA.

Naturally relegation to minors would not please the Rangers fans (Devil and
Islanders fans might be pleased). Anyway, if the organisation and fan basis are
healthy and strong enough to compete on the highest level the team will
eventually promote after some seasons in lower level. At least this is the way
it goes in Europe, and people here are more or less used to it. I'm not trying
to say that the system would be a success in America, though. There are things
in American sports culture that I can't believe could ever happen in Europe,
like teams moving across the continent and immediately gaining fans or 
launching succesful teams in regions where that particular sport has been 
virtually unknown. In your proposed league you expect something like this
happen.

I don't deny that All European League would be great for the sport. It should
be made possible for the existing clubs to be a part of it. The only acceptable
method to evaluate the teams willing to participate is the performance on ice.
Probably system should be based on success over more than one year to avoid
doing harm to some big teams who just happen to have a bad year. This system
would still enable very small towns like Jyvaskyla to have a team. Anyway, if a
town is too small to support a succesful team it would eventually be replaced.

Transfer to New League should not be too drastic. There is a hockey culture on
this continent and it should not be bounced out of balance too much. I admit 
the eastern part of this culture lost its balance quite totally some years 
ago. It might be a good idea to reconstruct it in such a way that would not 
prohibit launching the EHL in the future.

We should get rid of meaningless national team games. Expanding international
club competition step by step will help to boost club-level hockey and create
more prosperous clubs.  
 
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Asko Huumonen                | f31922c@kaira.hut.fi     | phone 358-0-4522211
			     |				| home  358-0-8043563
----  In certain situations a good canister is worth a flood of rhetoric   ----
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA