Ice Hockey gets popular in the UK

Thanks for the reply Dan but Im afraid that alot of what you say is wrong. First of all I have been following ice hockey for along time and I also work for sky and I don't want to sound boastful but part of the reason ice hockey is on sky is thanks to me. I don't work high up in the ranks in sky but I felt that the elite league deserved to be on it and after talking to my boss I was able to set up a meeting with him and Neil Black 3 years ago (the 2 actually knew each other due to Neil Black's other company masters football). As a result of this meeting sky agreed to show highlights of the elite league and the elite league had to pay a very small sum of this money. This year I attended an elite league meeting with other staff from sky and with a company called televideo who do the filming. The deal that was made this year was that Sky would show 8 live games and a highlight show when the live games weren't on. The elite league are NOT paying sky for the coverage this year, that is a fact my friend. If you don't believe me on this I am willing to release a couple of the dates that the live games are scheduled for.

I'm actually very happy to be wrong on that one. I'd understood that the small sum was somewhere around £20k, and also understood that this would continue or grow. If the coverage has been successful enough to get that dropped completely that is a better sign towards a sustainable league. That said, the EIHL is still not a stable league, going from 10 teams at the end of 08/09 to 8 the following season and now back to 10, is not stable. On the flip side to that, having the same teams year in, year out can get dull if there's not enough of them, new teams coming in is a good thing.


Onto the other topics, Braehead, Dundee and Hull. The fact that Braehead are owned by Neil Black is great, if there is anyone in the league who you would want to own your team its him, he has created a huge success in Nottingham and he is bound to succeed in Braehead and also one thing is for sure and that is that the Braehead Clan will be the 2nd most financially secure team in the league. Dundee have made the step up which is excellent and straight away they have quadruapled their crowd size from 400-1700/1800, despite a bad first game im sure they will pick it up and have a decent season. What happened to Hull this summer was always going to happen, they were being run by people who had absolutely no idea what they were doing and were not the right people to be owning an elite league team. I think coventry taking them over is great because I see coventry and Hull as quite similar cities and if Coventry can replicate their successful bussiness model to Hull then I think they will flourish.

As much as I'm dubious about the Clan's origins, if nothing else, the extra Scots team seems to have given Dundee the inspiration to step up, in a way it's a shame Fife couldn't follow them - maybe they will later.

On to the topic of Sheffield. Well yes they have had a extremely tough summer and yes their owner is as dodgy as dodgy gets but the fact is they are still there and there is not a 1% chance that sheffield won't have an ice hockey team. The team they have put together is unbelievable and there is a buzz around the team, on their roster they have 2 NHLers and a KHLer(top russian league). For their first game this season they attracted roughly 4,000 people

Quite, and your choices of descriptions of Bob Phillips and the descriptions of the team he's put together are quite accurate - Dodgy and unbelievable, for someone owing HMRC a few hundred thou, losing a few more thou in season ticket money and having bankrupcy(sp) hearings against him, it is fairly unbelievable that he can afford a team at that level, it's a hell of a gamble. Although they'd have had a few lean years, I'm thinking long term, the Simms/O'Connor led consortium would have been better.

Basingstoke were right to drop out the elite league because of where they are and the EPL suits them alot more financially. I'm pretty sure in the next few years we will see a Manchester team return to the top flight of British Ice Hockey.
I think we'll agree to disagree on Manchester, without either a major reduction in costs to compete in the EIHL, a major infusion of cash into the Pheonix from sponsors, or a surge in gate numbers, Manchester simply can't afford it. One of the owners was talking about his decision to get Manchester to drop just before the beginning of last season, in his words, if Manchester had tried to compete in the EIHL, the club would have folded by Christmas. As for Basingstoke, without a local rival in the EIHL, they did very well to last as long as they did. Had Guildford stepped up when they were offered the chance, well, I guess that's one for a thread on here, but I'd suspect that a stronger southern contingent in the EIHL could have seen MK Lightning make the leap as well. Oh for what might have been...

I know you say things aren't as bright in the elite league as people think but i would like to know what this issues are?
As for the league stumbling year to year well lets have a look at the facts, In 2003 the elite league started with 8 teams, in 2010 the elite league started with 10 team, in my opinion thats progession not stumbling

Mostly covered above - expense and stability are the two big ones. One can be marginalised if the other can be controlled, and if we can go into the 11/12 season with the no teams dropping out or having major and tangiable doubts about starting or finishing the season, then that would be success for me.


Aslo on the point of ITC's and player registration well first of all they are £700 and secondly every single professional or semi-pro ice hockey club in the whole world has to pay for ITCs and there is player registration in every ice hockey league around the world aswell.
Player registration is no issue at any level, it's accepted in every league for every sport, but my issue and for me an indicator of what's wrong is when a Ladies rec team neither Pro nor semi pro, are told they have to shell out for an ITC. They don't even play in the WPL. Same goes for many of the Poles and Czechs we have working round here that would love to play some rec games but have been told by the EIHA they have to have ITCs to do so.

At the end of the day, while I'm happy, on the basis of your knowledge to admit a lot of what I wrote was incorrect about the EIHL, the rest still stands comfortably.
British Hockey, as a whole is in a mess and needs a ground up rebuild to become completely sustainable and affordable allowing clubs to compete to the best of their ability.
 
Player registration is no issue at any level, it's accepted in every league for every sport, but my issue and for me an indicator of what's wrong is when a Ladies rec team neither Pro nor semi pro, are told they have to shell out for an ITC. They don't even play in the WPL. Same goes for many of the Poles and Czechs we have working round here that would love to play some rec games but have been told by the EIHA they have to have ITCs to do so.

At the end of the day, while I'm happy, on the basis of your knowledge to admit a lot of what I wrote was incorrect about the EIHL, the rest still stands comfortably.
British Hockey, as a whole is in a mess and needs a ground up rebuild to become completely sustainable and affordable allowing clubs to compete to the best of their ability.

I probably didn't make the point clear about the ITC's, its not only semi-proffessional or proffesional teams that have to pay for ITCs it is every single team in the world where its nation is a member of the IIHF (international ice hockey federation), so if you have a problem about paying for an ITC for a rec player don't blame the EIHA, blame the IIHF because its their rules

On the topic of the league well its an interesting debate but as fans I think its more important that we try and ignore the off-ice activities the best we can and insted concentrate on the on-ice issues because at the end of the day thats all I care about. All that matters is that when I arrive at the arena on the day there are 2 teams ready to battle and whatever happens off-ice there is no doubting that the elite league is a great standard which is exciting and entertaining and IMO there is no better way to spend your night than watching the best sport in the world. For those of you that have never seen an elite league ice hockey game I advise you to come and see what Britain's largest indoor spectator sport is all about:)
 
And if you do, best bet would be a Nottingham Panthers Vs Sheffield Steelers at the NIC in Nottingham.

On the ITC front, ITCs for rec players are pointless, all you do is prevent hobby players from playing. But that's one to take up with IIHF I guess.

Ah well, such is life and the regular season is nearly upon us. (unless you follow EIHL or ENL, in which case it's already started, :D)
 
And if you do, best bet would be a Nottingham Panthers Vs Sheffield Steelers at the NIC in Nottingham.

Based on the past, that's like going to a fight and hoping a hockey game breaks out ;)

I have been meaning to go to a Panthers game for years, but have never got round to it.
 
That's changed a bit in the lower leagues, (EPL or ENL, although they play to much smaller audiences), with the introduction of a zero tolerance approach for fighting. In the Elite League, you will get fights occasionally, but rather than being staged for entertainment, they normally come out of events during the game or previous bad blood and the penalties are slightly different.

These days there's less fighting and with the influx of more European players, a more skill based game as opposed to the more physical North American game. As a result, the UK game is more physical than the rather sanitised European game, and more skill based than the North American game, (except the NHL).
In my opinon anyway. Not that this means a huge amount.
 
Fairly big hockey fan here, I felt I had to add my two cents. :D

I'd agree with KingByng. One just has to look back further. Hockey seemed to be relatively popular in the UK (and Western Europe, for that matter) prior to WW2. If you can somehow keep the enthusiasm and interest that people had in hockey, then you have a pretty good shot at getting the sport more well known. Keep teams established which creates a loyal fanbase. Maybe also have hockey stay fairly popular in France (and/or Spain, Netherlands and Ireland as well. How it's not popular in the Netherlands, a country that loves field hockey and speed skating is beyond me!), which could create a regional rivalry for international tournaments, thus more interest from the populace. Depending on how well Team GB does and develops, perhaps a rivalry with Germany wouldn't be out of the question sometime in the future!

Granted, my knowledge of the setup with hockey in the UK is fairly minimal, outside that a few teams (Nottingham, Sheffield, Coventry, and Belfast) seem to draw pretty well. I just feel this way would be a fairly good way to keep/get hockey (or ice hockey, if you will ;) ) popular.
 
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