Euro-NHL???

Logistical nightmare!!
I think the only way this could work is if it was two seperate leagues with no interleague schedule and the two best teams met in the "finals".
I also think you would have a hard time convincing the PA to do this. Afterall the majority of the lague is made up of North Americans. There should be atleast 2 more teams in Canada before Euro expansion is ever brought up.
 
It's such an intriguing idea, yet it can't work.

kamper23 mentioned the logistics issue. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that sitting 10 hours on a plane doesn't help an athlete's performance much, and then there's a little thing called jet lag. Then, consider how expensive it would be (especially for the Europe-based teams) to costantly keep crossing the Atlantic? And then there's the environmental viewpoint as well.

Besides, would this concept really attract the general public? European fans would probably be wildly interested in North American stars for at least a couple of years, but tears would be shed in the Nashville Predators office while looking at the ticket sales of their game with Slavia Prague. The thing is, the European hockey community has an interest towards the NHL, but the North American hockey community has very little interest towards Europe, besides obviously for scouting purposes. Good luck trying to market a franchise that's old and has rich tradition in Europe but is not known at all across the pond.

I don't understand why this overseas expansion stuff is still around. I've read about it every now and then for the last ten years and there's been no progress on the matter. Okay, maybe somewhere in the distant future, when people can travel at the speed of light at a low cost and the whole world has been united into one nation, an overseas expansion could be possible, butfor the foreseeable future it doesn't seem even remotely possible.
 
I hear a lot of people talking about more teams in Canada, but in reality, where would you put them? MAYBE (and that's a big maybe) Winnipeg and Hamilton...other than that, I don't see the point?
 
they will have to bring the SR-71 Blackbird back into commision to reduce the travel times. the concept of a global league would be pretty amazing to see. but as everyone else said there is no real logical way of doing it... unless they had a euro league and a NA league and met in the finals... but then the regular NHL would be missing alot of the talent as it goes overseas.
 
I think the chances of this happening increased thanks to the KHL. The last thing the NHL wants is a place poaching it's talent. They've talked about expanding to Europe for ages, so if they can become the primary product basically everywhere else but the U.S., I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad for business.
 
They would also have to reconfigure the draft someway or you would really have some trouble with players. Its one thing to have a player decide on their own that they want to leave Europe to come to North America or leave NA to go to Europe. Its another thing when a player has to take a chance he will move from Toronto to Germany just cause he wants to play in the NHL.

I think you would see a North American league pop up if the NHL tried to do this and I think you would get a big switch of players to the new league that want to stay in NA and not live or travel to Europe regularly.
 
As a Brit all I can say is it just wont work. Those of us who watch live hockey do so at 1am in the morning.

Try to put it on in the day and you will get no viewers. Put it on at the weekend and you will be up against football (soccer) no chance!

Our UK hocey leauge is poor and lightly watched live (hundereds of people). Time zone will always be the issue for me as the absolute killer.
 
TanguayFan said:
I hear a lot of people talking about more teams in Canada, but in reality, where would you put them? MAYBE (and that's a big maybe) Winnipeg and Hamilton...other than that, I don't see the point?
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In the past, we saw infinitely inflating salaries being paid in US dollars out of revenues received in far less valuable Canadian dollars. Now the NHL is a completely new business model thanks largely to the new CBA.

Hamilton or (but not both) Kitchener-Waterloo with their highway access and significant growth over the past decade are definitely strong hockey markets.

Quebec City will always be a strong hockey market over the long term. I personally consider Winnipeg to be a tougher sell than Quebec though people tend to consider Winnipeg first and foremost most of the time for some reason. I think corporate support is important in today's NHL and I think that's where Winnipeg may lack.

Halifax, as much as I'd like to see a team there, puzzles me as to why they are considered a possibility for expansion.

Move 2 or 3 teams to Canada and perhaps 2 or 3 teams to Europe with minimal expansion (I think you can gain European exposure without a 10-team conference) and it could work so long as all teams in the league are in strong markets.

As for the traveling, I think you'd see longer road stretchs while a European team is in North America and when a North American team goes to Europe that road stretch would be longer than it would be traveling through the US or Canada. The attempt towards a balanced schedule and lifestyle could be made if done right.
 
hockeychrisly said:
When hockey in Europe is played 7 pm it's 1 pm in Toronto.
And when hockey is played in Toronto at 7 pm it's 1 am in Europe.;)
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We also have the champions leauge/uefa cup/fa cup/carling cup/ (all soccer events) That play in the week with 7pm 8pm kick offs.

All the major Hockey countries in europe have teams involved in those too (russia,germany,finland)

Plus the games would only show on ppv type TV over here (soccer is done this way) and for that we would pay £10 a month ($18/month) they would have to show the NHL for less than that so not all that much $$$$ made that way.

Supporting soccer is said to cost £102 a game $200 and we watch 38 games or more a year. Hockey would have to come in in line with that or lower.
 
That's a huge step!!! Would it work,it could????

Alot of factors as yopu guys mentioned and for sure the purists would not go for it. The league will expand in the future,just wish it's back to Winnipeg,Quebec and Hartford again before looking overseas
 
bto3105 said:
That's a huge step!!! Would it work,it could????

Alot of factors as yopu guys mentioned and for sure the purists would not go for it. The league will expand in the future,just wish it's back to Winnipeg,Quebec and Hartford again before looking overseas
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SASKATOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A team in the flatlands would be great!

Much better than going into Europe.

Imagine doing the winter classic in SK! Any old outdoor rink and a few bleachers would be great!
 
Travel would be the main concern. But I read an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (Canadian paper for those who don't know) which said that the idea would be to have a separate European division of about six teams, from major European hockey markets. Not all NA teams would play against them in the regular season (and vice versa) and the European teams would only cross the pond 2 or 3 times a year, playing mostly each other. I think this would be a cool idea, and that eventually this is the direction they should go. But back to the issue of travel - yes it would be tough, the jet lag and all, but I think that things might balance out a bit, with teams going back and forth to play each other from both sides.
 

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