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Nov 1, 2007 9:51 AM
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nvrunder7
nvrunder7
I agree, I think the way they do sports in Europe is great. This system is also in the basketball leagues around Europe. And from what I understand the biggest game of the year isnt the finals but the game between the 3rd place team and the 4th placed team. Gets people watching...it will never happen here in the States but its fun idea to throw around.
Nov 6, 2007 1:35 PM
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Andre_sp
in response to: nvrunder7
Andre_sp
in response to: nvrunder7
Im from Philadephia where people are crazy about their sports teams...and I think hockey on any level has a long way to go before it becomes popular or anywhere near what it used to be in terms of people actually caring...
Nov 6, 2007 9:34 PM
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JBan
JBan
i hear that...i used to live there and now i live in virginia where i haven't even heard hockey mentioned. i do here a bit about nascar though. ha.
Nov 8, 2007 11:53 AM
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Active Sara
Active Sara
I agree. I'm afraid a good amount of people who used to watch hockey have moved on...I'm one of them. I love hockey, but it's just not the same as it used to be. I'm from Philadelphia too and you are right, we do love our sports teams and even the Flyers have a decent backing there, but the league in general doesn't have it anymore. It definitely can't compete with say basketball and football that are also playing right now.
Nov 9, 2007 3:12 PM
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Matt
Matt
This would never work. Not in a million years. First of all, people say hockey is struggling, but when you count the Canadian audience, it is the 3rd most watched sport and it rivals baseball viewership i believe. Another problem is that in the US we are too much of a bandwagon culture, the key to the Euro league is that all the smaller cities have teams, and actually have a strong following, here you have teams like the New England Patriots whose fan base stretches throughout an entire region...
Finally, the one predominant piece of the puzzle is that inevitably, the teams that are the best, year in and year out, are also the yankees. There is no salary cap in the EPL. So it helps to breed Yankee-like teams, for instance Chelsea who has a wealthy billionaire russian as their owner and continues to buy first place teams.
The other problem is that hockey is still a predominantly "white" sport, mainly due to the cost it takes to play the game. The US is an increasingly diverse place to live, and without significant in-roads into other races and ethnicities, it will never survive. Similarly, it is played almost exclusively in the northeast and mid-west, cold weather places, which isn't surprising. Despite teams in Florida and Atlanta, it hasn't picked up as a youth sport there like it has in other places. Kids tend to grow up as fans of sports they play, which is another reason why hockey suffers in the US.
Nov 20, 2007 2:48 AM
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BobDigi
BobDigi
the problem with using a relegation and promotional scheme in hockey is that you will hurt hockey revenues even more but pushing classic programs out of contention for a full year. As a Philadelphia Flyers fan, after a more than disappointing year last year in which we finished dead last in the league, this would have guaranteed our relegation to say the AHL or a league of equal stature. This being the case, as a fan and season ticket holder, i would opt out of my seat contract for the next year because if I couldn't contend for a Stanley Cup, then there would be no point in watching the games for the price of the ticket. (A lower level seat at the Wachovia center has a $89 face value) The only reason this works in the UK is because of the small city loyal fanbase who really have nothing else exciting sportingly in their communities and will continue to go to the games at any juncture. The teams also have the opportunity to salvage some grace by competing in the domestic cup which puts them up against all levels of teams in the UK. This tournament structure does not exist in the hockey world. If an original 6 NHL team were to be relegated, you can imagine the backlash the fans would have against the league and possibly boycott it. Flyers sell out almost every game, whereas the 76ers have sparsely filled seats and really a dull atmosphere. I would say hockey fans are more loyal to their team then basketball fans, but i may be biased. At any rate, these are my thoughts.
I've started to follow the EPL more closely in the past year--they have a great system in place. I think it would be really cool to see that type of set up in hockey... and other pro sports leagues if possible. Never a dull moment.
Go Liverpool :P