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Post by PantherG on Sept 17, 2014 6:09:54 GMT
I've got a feeling this game might not sell out. Will be the first time in a long time since that happened for a Shuff v Panthers match up.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 17, 2014 6:08:34 GMT
Thanks :-)
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Post by PantherG on Sept 16, 2014 21:15:11 GMT
How do you get the £2 tram deal now that the conductors have all gone and you have pay using the machines? I could not see an option on Saturday.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 15, 2014 19:33:42 GMT
I saw him for the first time in Saturday and he really stood out for me, thought he was a pleasure to watch and I'm sure he will be fantastic, but as he is short term I doubt we will have him much longer.
I'm not at all worried re the lack of toughness , the league is clamping down on these type of players and will be hit with long bans which is detrimental to the team, I certainly don't want another Henley.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 15, 2014 7:09:03 GMT
I have absolutely no idea on this one, Sheffield do look good and have signed some quality imports, plus Doyle has been plying well, so I am really not sure. Pleased it's only a CC match and it will be a good test for us and should let us know where we are.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 14, 2014 10:44:47 GMT
PantherG, Couple of points, Whilst i agree Docklands at the time as a pig to get to it was based in Docklands which was and still is home to large corporations. A significant amount of time and effort was made to target those very people at the time with what was frankly a far better product than we have now. As you will know there was very limited impact. There were large amounts of ex pats from North America then too (although admittedly not East European) but they didn't go either!! Secondly sustainable expansion is good but not expansion for expansions sake - look at the NHL, the only truly successful franchises have been in areas with a hockey fan base to tap - the likes of Columbus, Phoenix,Florida have not! My concern is not that we lose a few players, it is that expansion for the sake of it (and potentially i see the drive to have to have a franchise in London as being for the sake of it) will be harmful for the league. For it to be good it needs to benefit all teams in the league - not just a few. Over the last couple of years we have seen a significant improvement in overall competitiveness, what we don't need is to start another arms race. I don't agree that another arena team can only make it stronger - whats the point of adding a london area team if we end up losing 2 or 3 currently competitive teams due to increased costs. If you went to Docklands then you will obviously remember the year the Superleague collapsed!! Playing with only 5 teams in a league was frankly boring!! I too live in London - all be it South and i would love to have a team closer to me that i could watch (although frankly as i still go to Nottingham home games perhaps i'm not the best person to hope to go to Wembley - can't see it being the Copper Box as presents similar issues that Docklands suffered from in that even after the Olympics it still hasn't got brilliant travel links) but from the experience of other smaller and minority sports (you can add Basketball in London to the RL example i gave above)clearly shows the high rate of failure for this type of activity in the London area even with the correct business plan - top line is vanity, bottomline is sanity!! A couple more points from me, the London team failed purely due to the location of the arena, in fact the actual business of the London Arena failed because of the appalling location, so I'm not sure we can compare a team in Wembley with the team that played out of the Arena. I lived in London, but made the trip on a rare occasion because of that awful journey. Secondly, I'm guessing you're against expansion of the league full stop, that would be a logical conclusion as you appear to argue heavily for that in the post above. What I can't understand is why you would not want the league to increase in size to say 12-14 teams, any business that stands still is prone to failure and sensible growth seems the way forward, from what I understand the roadmap of the EIHL is to have teams playing out of Dublin and London. Anyway regardless of what you or I think a decision will be made and I'm pretty confident a London team will ice in the next two seasons.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 12, 2014 23:46:12 GMT
Yes, you really are. You said; "Millions of people commute into and across London by using the underground everyday!" I (and others) have clearly shown that commuting across London isn't as simple a thing as you seem to think. Indeed its arguable that you acknowledge this yourself in your last post towards me by changing the goal posts of a potential target area from 'across London' to Brent and its surrounds. I don't believe a team should target London,for reasons relating to locality loyality as touched upon by others, it was you that mentioned people travelling 'across London', and by extension it is not unreasonable for me and others go assume you, initially at least, believed in a single London-branded team drawing from Greater London. I acknowledge you may now have changed your position though in response to comment though. I live in London and yes, travelling from Streatham to Wembley would be a pain in the ass, but let me tell you the volume of people who live within a reasonable travelling time to Wembley is far far better than any of the other teams in the UK have access to. As others have pointed out, if a team can be created and made a success in Glasgow then that gives me confidence it can be replicated elsewhere. I see no reason why a team cannot be set up in London, there are a huge amount of exp pats from both North America and Eastern Europe who may enjoy going to watch some hockey each week. There are huge corporations in London so with the correct marketing etc interest can be garnered. That said I don't expect 10,000 people a week going to a match from day one, but with the right business plan, over a few years, there is no reason why it can't be a success. As a resident of London I can also state that the Docklands venture failed because that really was out of the way and transport links were poor, it took me forever to get to matches there but Wembley is far more accessible to a much wider group of people. You also have the borough of Hillingdon, a trip from Ruislip to Wembley is only a few stops and there are another 275,000 potential fans there to seek out. I get the fact that many fans are worried that Neil Black could potentially fund another team and that might impact on Nottingham, or of course that some of the better players might be tempted down South to live in London for a year or two, but any league expansion can only be good for the sport and another arena team will only strengthen the league, making it more competitive, so let's see how this plays out. My money is on a team playing out of Wembley next season or maybe the Copper Box, I'm hearing that the London team is on the cards, from really reliable sources, so instead of shouting people down for suggesting ways it can be a success, let's be positive and think how good it will be to expand the league a little more.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 10, 2014 21:34:15 GMT
Hope my ticket money won't be going towards it. Where are they going to play? Just out of interest are you ever happy at anything? Don't think he is lol, he appears to be the voice of gloom!! More teams can only be good for the league and a new team playing in London, probably out of Wembley , is even better.
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Post by PantherG on Sept 10, 2014 21:31:12 GMT
Can't make this one, not fussed about the cup but would have liked to have seen the season opener, see what tone we set. I think we'll start well this season, but then cut a load of players, replace them with poor quality, run with a small squad, pick up injuries and play short, bring out the tired excuses, coast to the end of a season and probably sneek a cup. Same as last season basically. Hope I am wrong and we hang onto the likes of Robinson for the season. Starting the season without a replacement for our top Brit, who we knew would be out injured is not a good start IMO. God you're pessimistic!!
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Post by PantherG on Sept 10, 2014 20:41:10 GMT
Apparently Tony Smith has confirmed that the next team to join the league will be a London Franchise and if they cant get a 12th that they will scrap the conference system. Great news on both counts!!
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Post by PantherG on Aug 9, 2014 7:07:31 GMT
Would be a crying shame of these games aren't well attended. I'm hoping for at least 5000 for each match. Looking at it , we'll be lucky to scrape 3000
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Post by PantherG on Aug 8, 2014 22:20:10 GMT
Had a quick look on the website and there are so many seats unsold, wonder if attendances will match the European games we had last season.
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Post by PantherG on Jul 2, 2014 8:42:47 GMT
Gutted, one of my favourite players... Huge loss for us!
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Post by PantherG on Jun 9, 2014 22:01:38 GMT
Outrageous! I really feel for the guy.
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Post by PantherG on Jun 7, 2014 15:47:07 GMT
I'm pretty sure Richardson will end up at Sheffield.
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Post by PantherG on Jun 5, 2014 14:18:41 GMT
Absolutely fantastic news, this is a massive signing.
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Post by PantherG on May 2, 2014 15:54:26 GMT
Relax, they're not that good. We only need them because they are Brits. I like having a local lad in the squad but with all the rumblings lately surly the best thing for gb would be for them both to play in the best league possible to gain experience? Reckon you need to change your name to "mr controversial" Lachowicz is just as good as half the imports we've seen since he's been playing for us. Plus him and Francis work well with each other so fingers crossed he's next to re-sign Agree Tom
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Post by PantherG on May 2, 2014 12:49:51 GMT
The on that basis it should still have been Shuff as PO winners, that's a far more prestigious cup than the Challenge Cup. Why is it? You play a 4 games to win the PlayOffs. You play 16 games to win the Challenge Cup (now 15 with the one-off final). The EIHL stated months ago that it's intention is for the league champions to go into the CHL, with the Challenge Cup winners going into the Continental Cup. Nope, you play 50 odd games to qualify for the chance to play in the play offs and then go through the next stages. So the PO is harder to win and if you do a straw poll across the league I think you'd find the majority of fans place the PO higher than the CC.
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Post by PantherG on May 2, 2014 10:48:56 GMT
It should have been Sheffield that qualified as runners up. Its a Champions Hockey League, not a Runners-up Hockey League. Given the two other EIHL titles to choose from would you say the CC Champions or the PO Champions are more worthy of taking Belfast's place? The on that basis it should still have been Shuff as PO winners, that's a far more prestigious cup than the Challenge Cup.
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Post by PantherG on May 2, 2014 9:13:58 GMT
It should have been Sheffield that qualified as runners up. Not happy about this at all. Another season of endless injuries and exhausted players come the end of the season.
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Post by PantherG on May 1, 2014 14:34:23 GMT
Over the moon with this, just need to get Boxhill and Lee back now.
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Post by PantherG on Apr 13, 2014 9:16:58 GMT
Bet news I have heard in a long time. Roll on next season without this distraction and build a team to win the league.
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Post by PantherG on Apr 11, 2014 6:09:58 GMT
Christiansen back to Giants? Clouthier? They'd be mad to take a Doug back and I think it would upset many of the fans. My money is on Cloutier.
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Post by PantherG on Apr 10, 2014 16:56:37 GMT
Francis & Jacina re-signed. Delighted with Francis, but no thanks to Jacina!
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Post by PantherG on Apr 8, 2014 11:32:40 GMT
Would prefer him here, as opposed to Telford! Corey get on the blower lol
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