From: tervio@katk.Helsinki.FI (TERVI| MARKO J)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: A Proposal For a European Hockey League
Date: 5 Nov 92 10:21:29 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki, Computing Centre

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:
>> 
>> 
>> >Dream on! We'll never be able to match the NHL, especially not if the bulk of
>> >the EHL is going to be small towns in Sweden, Finland and Switzerland with a
>> >population of 100,000-200,000 people. The NHL is playing in larger markets, have
>> >more money, more players... Co-operation with the North Americans is our only
>> >hope.
>> 
>> 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.
> 
>> I don't believe it's so sure that 15000 people in Paris turn to fans of bunch
>> of foreigners calling themselves, say, Paris Frogs playing some sort of sport
>> nobody in Paris knows anything about.

>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!

>> 
>> 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.
>---
>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. 
>> 
>> It is true that we can't compete with NHL with teams in small towns. Anyway,
>> organizing an all European League would be a boost for the sport and generate
>> some interest in bigger cities. Eventually those big cities might even develop
>> a hockey culture of their own and be able to join the competition. 
>> 
>> Being from smaller towns is not such a handicap in Europe as it is in American
>> Sports. Good teams draw crowds no matter where they come from. Italian hockey
>> fans would not consider a team from Turku negligible after having been beaten
>> by them.  
>> 
>> >majors. This ensures that playing standards will be high, except in London and
>> >(perhaps) Paris and Vienna, there are already enough good players (foreign-
>> >born in Italy's case) to put on a good show. Naturally, it will be all glitz and
>> >glamour. Bikini Nights at the Milano Forum, Fireworks Night at Wembley Arena...
>> >The nicknames will be brand-new and exciting (Helsinki Tornado, Stockholm
>> >Storm, Vienna Wind...) to have all-European appeal. Take that, MoDo
>> >Ornskoldsvik or Lahden Kiekko-Reipas! 
>> 
>> I would rather  watch a game of hockey between Helsinki IFK with mostly Finnish
>> players play against team from Lahti with Finnish players or SC Bern with Swiss
>> players or Dynamo Moscow with Russian players. I don't care too much about 
>> glitz and glamour and Helsinki Tornado with its collection of players against 
>> Vienna Wind with its North American players not quite good enough to make it 
>> in the NHL.

>Roughly half of Vienna's players would be Austrian citizens, if that changes
>anything!

>> If I would ever accept NHL in  Europe it would have to happen with terms we are
>> used to
>>      - getting rid of  that draft system. I want to root for Finnish 
>>           players! If a player wants to play in his hometown team he has 
>>           to be able to do that no matter who has drafted him
>>      - allowing anybody with a team good enough to enter the league    
>>           (naturally after necasary qualification games) and 
>>           getting rid of bad (meaning losing teams) teams
>> 

>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?!  

> 
>> >MARCU$
>> 
>> Asko
>> 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   ----

The reason why these European expansion teams of NHL would be bad for 
European hockey is that then you would throw away the biggest assett that 
European hockey has: loyal fans to numerous teams.  You can be sure that in 
Helsinki for example an NHL expansion team would draw less fans than both 
present teams- combined or separately.  Many Europoean teams already have a 
respectable history and just wiping out the present hockey culture and 
starting from scratch would be a terrible waste.  Who would care for regular 
national league games if even those best players that haven't gone to NHL 
would play for those " one or two teams" that you suggest would be created 
in each country. I wouldn't care for such fake teams but I would probably be 
less tempted to see any Finnish league hockey games either. And what about 
those other towns that aren't big enough to be in your NHL-europe? European 
hockey would lose tens or hundreds of thousands of fans in towns like Pori, 
Lulea and Mannheim.  The total support for hockey in Europe would actually 
decrease!
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey