February 17, 2005
Competition From The Continent?
Might the breakdown of the NHL open up the possibility of a European Super League? Colby Cosh takes a look:
If the Europeans get their act together and construct a superleague, it is likely to be as strong as the NHL. Depending on the CBA that's eventually hammered out on this side of the Atlantic, it may be stronger. If the owners are too successful in this labour fight, the danger is created that we may become stuck with an NHL that's like the Canadian Football League--a poor second cousin to a foreign superstar. Fortunately--though I like the CFL--I don't think Canadian fans, or fans in the Maine-Minnesota U.S. hockey belt, would settle for this.
An interesting possibility to say the least. But then again, as Colby himself has noted (and I wish I could find the link), plenty of observers feel that the NHL is hamstrung by the fact that so many of its stars are Europeans, can't speak English terribly well, and are therefore hard to promote. If that's the case, then might that not help the NHL in a backhanded way?
I'll say one thing about a European Super League -- I can't see myself bothering to watch it. My loyalty, for good or ill, is to the NHL product. I don't care who might be on the ice -- MoDo vs. Bratislava in a mid-week Euro League matchup isn't going to do it for me, at least not for a decade or so.
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I could likely be persuaded to watch a swanky Euro league, especially if it were marketed better (i.e., no big-ass Skoda logos on jerseys) and the franchises were located in places that might develop natural rivalries. (One thinks of, e.g., Prague vs. Moscow or, on a lighter note, Stockholm vs. Helsinki.) Also, no complicated bizarro tier structures and so forth. Just, say, ten or twenty franchises playing top-drawer open-ice hockey. I wouldn't mind that at all...
Bill Walsh
Posted by:
at February 18, 2005 01:06 AM
You'd watch the Super League, probably, if you knew that its champion was going to play the Stanley Cup winner at the end of the year in a World Series of Hockey. And if that doesn't sound pretty cool to you, you might want to check your pulse...
Posted by:
at February 18, 2005 01:24 AM
And, incidentally, "big-ass logoes" don't seem to have hurt Formula One or soccer too much. Or NASCAR, for that matter. Get used to the idea sooner rather than later...
Posted by:
at February 18, 2005 01:26 AM
When I read Colby's article on his site, the first thing I thought of was what he posted here (World Cup of Hockey). Rather than out-right hostility, couldn't NA hockey and European hockey forge an alliance similar to the American and National Leagues of Baseball?
However, I do like the idea of sending poor performing teams to the minor leagues (tier structures?). IMO, NA cannot support 20 tier 1 hockey teams (much less whatever the # is now). Some teams will have to resign themselves to the fact that they will be the equivalent of the current farm system, developing players and selling them off.
Posted by:
at February 18, 2005 01:27 PM
I can't imagine being remotely interested in a Super Euro League game even if the Stanley Cup were in the balance. Heck, I wasn't remotely interested in last year's Cup finals, given the matchup.
Posted by:
at February 22, 2005 04:43 PM
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