Relegation Zone

[samantha]

Just heard on Radio Nottingham (7.30 news) that Panthers are 8th, just above the relegation zone? Surely he means we are in the bottom position of the playoff qualifiers. This is shocking BTW

[DonClaneone]

Perhaps we need a National second tier with Pro/Rel.

Yes, you don't need to tell me how the finances are as I'm fully aware of the lack of it.

If it was made affordable and the format was something like bottom team automatically relegated with the next team above going into a playoff against the 2nd, 3rd & 4th teams in the 2nd tier. Have the Semi's & Final take place during the EIHL Playoff Weekend but rename it BIH Playoffs Weekend.

Add an extra day and start it on Friday

Format could be

Friday
2nd Tier Semi 1 at 2pm
EIHL Semi 1 at 7:30pm

Saturday

EIHL Semi 2 at 2:15pm
2nd tier Semi 2 at 6:30pm

Sunday

2nd tier Final at 1pm
EIHL Final at 5pm

3 Fantastic days of hockey and it could breathe new life into our game

[Yotes]

Might focus a few minds if we could be dumped out of the league.

[The Flying Shirt]

Oct 14, 2019 9:22:49 GMT Yotes said:

Might focus a few minds if we could be dumped out of the league.

So long as they dump the fans first they wont mind I'm sure.

[kievthegreat]

Few new rinks would be good. Tick some off the list.

[Deleted]

I'm hoping Panthers remain in the bottom two all season.. theres no Caps or MK to rely on being worse now..

The last time Panthers really proped up the table was back in 2001 before all social media etc so you never really got a idea of any meltdown...

[spik]

Two tier won't happen.
Last time we had it and Durham didn't get chucked out.It would end up a fix.

[Deleted]

Oct 14, 2019 16:09:16 GMT spik said:

Two tier won't happen.
Last time we had it and Durham didn't get chucked out.It would end up a fix.

What.. British hockey rigged...never!

[meadow]

As much as it'd be a great way to hold the panthers ownership / management group's collective feet to the flames in terms of fielding a competitive team, unfortunately given that the EIHL is a franchise system and the league itself is run by the owners its never going to happen.

The big plus of something like the EIHL from an ownership perspective is knowing that - regardless of team performance - you're going to have some level of cost certainty season on season; i.e. a team like panthers isn't going to sink into the NIHL for a season and see their crowds and revenue drop by 75% for a year, all of which the owner would end up absorbing. (on the other end of the spectrum a team like the Storm isn't going to lose the big volume of travelling panthers / steelers / devils fans that help them survive - if they dropped to the NIHL they might struggle to survive full stop)

Unfortunately I'm old enough to have seen the pre-ISL promotion and relegation system and that only (sort of!) worked because the import numbers across the leagues were comparable, but still was a bit of a farce when Steelers and the old Storm were in the lower leagues to begin with and smashing teams week in week out. You also had a situation in Peterbourgh where they were relegated, but were invited back into the league when Edinburgh Racers folded, but couldn't afford to go back because they'd already lost all their sponsorship and best players.

[DonClaneone]

That was then though, times have changed and the sport here needs to evolve.

Start by getting rid of the American franchise system
Have a strict salary cap
Minimum number of Imports per team across all leagues
Each team must have a Youth set up, ie teams called the same name as the senior side
During the season each team would have to give U23 players ice time of at least 30 minutes throughout the season, how teams choose to allocate that would be up to them
There will be 1 heritage night where teams would be encouraged to use an old time classic designed jersey with a percentage of revenue from ticket sales going towards the teams designated charity
There would also be an FA Cup style competition to replace the Challenge Cup.

Top league of 16 teams playing 30 games. 1 home & 1 away
2nd tier of 12 teams. 1 home & 1 away playing 24 games
3rd tier of 12 teams. Same as above

Then below that a series of leagues based along regional lines, there'd be a playoff amongst the 4 newly created leagues with the winning team being promoted and replsced by the lowest placed team from their own country.

I know these are radical ideas that won't happen and I should punch myself in the jaw for wasting time typing this up but I feel strongly about change for the sport of Ice Hockey in this country.

[spik]

Too much to ask for but the league of 16 would be nice....yet we can't muster a dozen presently.
been involved with the sport for far too long to know it's at its peak now.

Leagues won't get on with each other and relegation/promotion (like money restraints) is a no go as of import numbers etc.

[pingchowchi]

With religation and promotion you could end up with some bizarre leagues geographically speaking. Imagine having one Scottish team in the 3rd tier with them having to travel south of Sheffield for every away game.

[DonClaneone]

In my 3rd tier scenario there'd 3 teams representing each of the 4 countries. Ireland would represent the whole island just as their national team does.

Only question is, what places would you put each team in to make it work?

[pingchowchi]

Your proposed relegation would leed to some crazy relegation possibilities though - like the third place team being relegated if the top three where all from the same country (if a team from that country gained promotion)

(Edited as I missed the bit where you proposed this very system)