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View Full Version : NHL Caliber Hockey in Seattle...and other places?



Tipped Off
03-15-2005, 09:21 PM
(Sports Network) - If NHL-calibre hockey is what you're craving in the near future, you just might get it.

OK, while it won't quite have the intensity of an April matchup between the Flyers and Maple Leafs, the World Hockey Association's Bobby Hull Invitational tournament this May could whet our appetite just a bit.

The tourney will feature six teams that will be "hand picked" by their respective captains. Games will be held in Hamilton and Toronto on the east coast, and Vancouver out west.

Of course, keeping with the new WHA's theme of being exciting and unorthodox, the tournament will have some quirks. Teams will be awarded one point for every period won and two for every game victory. Each squad will play three matches, and a division championship will be held after that. The East winner will then play the West winner in a best-of-five series.

Players will be paid $20,000 to play in the tourney, and there will be a $2 million prize awarded to the winning team.

The WHA's hope is that this tournament will jump start the re-formed league's season next fall, especially if the NHL lockout remains in effect.

The WHA lists 60 players currently committed to playing in the Bobby Hull Invitational, and the league's website states that "more players will be added shortly."

Highlighting the current list are: Jarome Iginla, Jeremy Roenick, Nicklas Lidstrom, Keith Primeau, Anson Carter, Scott Gomez, Chris Chelios, Robert Esche and Jose Theodore.

The tournament is scheduled to begin on May 20 -- after the IIHF World Championships are held in Austria.

As for the WHA's chances of actually launching a season next fall, that remains to be seen. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there are 16 cities that have been targeted by the WHA, but the more likely number to start will be 10.

Ricky Smith and Mark McKelvie, who bought the WHA's trademark last fall, told the Inquirer that they already have or will have lease agreements with several arenas, including Reunion Arena in Dallas, KeyArena in Seattle and Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

ScottyWazz
03-15-2005, 10:20 PM
The WHA has promised this before and has failed horribly. To be honest, I would be surprised if the "mini-tournament" gets off the ground. If it does, it's right smack dab in the middle of the Memorial Cup; so it seems ill-planned.

Rooselk
03-15-2005, 10:34 PM
I think that Key Arena sucks as a hockey venue - especially when compared to GM Place in Vancouver. I would rather have a successful WHL team like the T-birds in Seattle than an upstart hockey league that may or may not suceed. But if getting a WHA team would prod the city into making changes to Key Arena to make the way easier for Seattle to get an NHL team someday in the future, then I'm all for it. :D

Jovorock
03-16-2005, 09:56 AM
If this WHA tourny comes true, all it will be is a pond hockey game or Sweden verses Finland. No hitting, no defense, just a Sunday skate, a joke IMO.

I would rather watch the Poker tournament.

RunTheGoalie
03-16-2005, 10:42 AM
In the 1970's, the WHA was able to compete with the salaries the NHL could offer.

In the 2000's, the WHA cannot. While it might get an initial boost from NHLPA idealogues should there be no CBA signed once the WHA gets started proper (if it ever happens), the days of the WHA as an "NHL calibre" league will be short. Simply put, if the NHL and WHA compete head to head, the best talent will ultimately end up in the NHL, which even after this mess will still be able to offer salaries at 2-3 times what the WHA can offer, while the NHL will also be in all of the established hockey markets that can sustain those salaries.

The WHA will be left to either inferior markets or inferior buildings.

IceMan
03-16-2005, 01:25 PM
These people have their heads in the sand. We love hockey here at the grassroots leve.. All of Canada loves hockey at the Pro level, and people in 25 of the 30 NHL cities love it to.

If EVERYONE who loves hockey tuned in to watch a game, it would still be less people than watch an average NFL game on a Sunday.

The hockey powers that be, and we as fans have to have the balls to say that while it's probably the best sport in the world, it's not -- by a longshot -- even in the top 5 as far as popularity goes, either in attendance or TV Ratings.

Why, then, does the NHL think that it can expand to 30 teams and succeed without a TV Deal? Why, now, does the WHA think that it can succeed in even smaller markets without TV? It makes no sense to take a sport with basically a captive and non-expanding audience and spread it out even further so that its smaller fan base becomes even more fragmented and spread out.

Hell, the NFL, the runaway #1 team sport in North America staved off a rival league (The USFL, remember that?). The USFL was every bit as high quality as the NFL, competed in the "off season", had a national TV deal, bigtime stars, and still folded up, even with decent attendance and a TV viewership that is probably 50 times what the NHL had in it's best year.

This sport needs to IMPLODE, not EXPLODE. Reduce the number teams, put hockey back into hockey markets, lower prices, get itself on TV, and "energize the base" by putting out quality. Quantity, in this sport, is not the answer, as the NHL has proven, and as the WHA is about to.

The_Vulk
03-17-2005, 10:32 AM
The North American Market is full of pro/semi-pro hockey leagues.

The ECHL has 28 team (after it absorb what was left of the WCHL).

The UHL has 14 teams.

The CHL (Central Hockey League) has 17 teams.

The SEHL has only 4 teams.

The AHL has 28 teams (after it absorbed some teams from the IHL).


There is alot of hockey being played and watched above the amateur.

I am all for the WHA.

Just so long as they don't make the same mistakes as they did before. Expanding way too quickly and without thought.

grumphy
03-17-2005, 10:38 AM
This sport needs to IMPLODE, not EXPLODE. Reduce the number teams, put hockey back into hockey markets, lower prices, get itself on TV, and "energize the base" by putting out quality. Quantity, in this sport, is not the answer, as the NHL has proven, and as the WHA is about to.
Very, very, very well put. Excellent post