Additional Week

[Yotes]

Elite League adds an extra week to the regular season to fit in the postponed games:
www.eliteleague.co.uk/article/2059-season-extended-by-one-week-to-allow-for-complete-schedule

[Discoray]

Extremely poor they did not even give the slightest acknowledgement to the extra hassle and cost this will have on fans.

[iginla]

An extra week to suffer,lucky Panthers fans.
Hope all the teams have asked the players first otherwise there might be a few missing come play off weekend if they’ve booked a holiday !

[blackandgold73]

"The new date for the Premier Sports Playoff Finals Weekend is 30 April - 1 May 2022."

For those booking time off etc

[Yotes]

Feb 1, 2022 11:29:02 GMT blackandgold73 said:

"The new date for the Premier Sports Playoff Finals Weekend is 30 April - 1 May 2022."

For those booking time off etc

This seems likely to cost people more money, rebooking a hotel for a bank holiday weekend.

Can see why they've done it but, as said above, no mention of the difficulties this causes the cash cow.

[wannabe2]

Huge bummer for lots of people, my hotel has doubled in price and it’s bank holiday as has been said. People have booked flights, taken time off work and been left in the lurch. Unfortunately it is what it is, but not clever.

[iginla]

Feb 1, 2022 11:56:33 GMT wannabe2 said:

Huge bummer for lots of people, my hotel has doubled in price and it’s bank holiday as has been said. People have booked flights, taken time off work and been left in the lurch. Unfortunately it is what it is, but not clever.

We’ve done what’s best for us and sod the fans, basically that’s what the EIHL have done.
Serve them right if the NIC is half empty come POFW.

[ragingbull]

The league couldn’t really have done much more given the circumstances as of right now with all the postponements and rescheduling required. By doing this to ensure the full quota of games is played is understandable.

The key failings were actually from the the start of the season with the overloading of CC games and lack of contingency planning for Covid. They also could’ve avoided the issue by not pre announcing the dates this season.

And I bet a high number of those moaning about the situation will still go and therefore meaning the league will continue to be able to do what they want.

[wannabe2]

Lots of people will still go, as they look forward to this weekend all year and will take it on the chin. It’s different for Panthers fans, as they are in the NIC most weeks anyway and haven’t had much to shout about anyway. It’s about hooking up with old friends having a weekend away in different surroundings, and generally getting away for a mini break, it’s just unfortunate it has turned a bit sour.

[EMB]

Was told about this extension and new Playoff date last week by a Belfast fan, they have booked two hotels a week apart and not the flights until it had been confirmed.
I'm sure some people will have booked the flights earlier in the season to get a low rate.

[Jord v4]

Some people no doubt cannot afford to change their plans.... They're the ones who suffer here.

[Deleted]

I thought it had been a while since the elite league had done a 'eihl' 🤣🤦

[bobness]

To be fair, they're damned if they do or don't.

Extend by a week and some people will be disadvantaged and/or unable to make the new date. That's unfortunate to say the least but I can't imagine this would be a "league only" decision, this must've surely been done in consultation with the teams.
Keep the date and cram more and more fixtures into a finite space and get slated for that by teams and fans alike. As has happened in these very pages.

The clubs effectively are the league, don't forget.

[Jord v4]

Feb 1, 2022 14:49:01 GMT bobness said:

To be fair, they're damned if they do or don't.

Extend by a week and some people will be disadvantaged and/or unable to make the new date. That's unfortunate to say the least but I can't imagine this would be a "league only" decision, this must've surely been done in consultation with the teams.
Keep the date and cram more and more fixtures into a finite space and get slated for that by teams and fans alike. As has happened in these very pages.

The clubs effectively are the league, don't forget.

The problem in this instance Bob is the paying fans are the ones hurt, this is never a good idea for any business. 

It doesn't matter if the usual suspects here (myself included) find this abhorrent, we'll amusingly find fault in anything we can. When these actions start affecting the loyal paying fans then we're talking a whole new puck game. That's dangerous imo.    

[bobness]

Feb 1, 2022 15:57:19 GMT Jord v4 said:

Feb 1, 2022 14:49:01 GMT bobness said:

To be fair, they're damned if they do or don't.

Extend by a week and some people will be disadvantaged and/or unable to make the new date. That's unfortunate to say the least but I can't imagine this would be a "league only" decision, this must've surely been done in consultation with the teams.
Keep the date and cram more and more fixtures into a finite space and get slated for that by teams and fans alike. As has happened in these very pages.

The clubs effectively are the league, don't forget.

The problem in this instance Bob is the paying fans are the ones hurt, this is never a good idea for any business. 

It doesn't matter if the usual suspects here (myself included) find this abhorrent, we'll amusingly find fault in anything we can. When these actions start affecting the loyal paying fans then we're talking a whole new puck game. That's dangerous imo.    

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

[wgray]

Feb 1, 2022 19:13:52 GMT bobness said:

Feb 1, 2022 15:57:19 GMT Jord v4 said:

The problem in this instance Bob is the paying fans are the ones hurt, this is never a good idea for any business. 

It doesn't matter if the usual suspects here (myself included) find this abhorrent, we'll amusingly find fault in anything we can. When these actions start affecting the loyal paying fans then we're talking a whole new puck game. That's dangerous imo.    

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

There aren’t any.

[Bagheera]

With Bobness on this one. It's not great for paying fans, acknowledgement of that in the statement would have been nice, but what else could they do?

We all know they should have had some foresite it may happen and not have such a silly CC format. When that point passed though and they were hit with covid cancellations they were left little option.
As with many things the last few years it's worth giving them a bit of grace here. Let's be honest, if anything it's going to cost them money too. They wont make any more cash bit will almost certainly have to pay out wages and associated costs for players for the extra time they are here. POFW may see less sales now too.

[wgray]

I don’t live in Nottingham so we always book a hotel in the city for the play-off weekend. We decided to hold off from booking any hotels due to the way things have been and the uncertainty around all events, until now.

I understand that people like to book in advance to get the best deals possible but surely with the way things have been people could have foreseen this situation?

[Jord v4]

Feb 1, 2022 19:13:52 GMT bobness said:

Feb 1, 2022 15:57:19 GMT Jord v4 said:

The problem in this instance Bob is the paying fans are the ones hurt, this is never a good idea for any business. 

It doesn't matter if the usual suspects here (myself included) find this abhorrent, we'll amusingly find fault in anything we can. When these actions start affecting the loyal paying fans then we're talking a whole new puck game. That's dangerous imo.    

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

Off the top of my head extend for two weeks to avoid the bank hol weekend... But I'm assuming there's an availability issue to be had with that. 

This should have been taken in to account pre-season & some kind of communicated contingency plan put in place at that time.... Wouldn't have been difficult & at least have made the fans aware this was a possible action pre booking. 

[iginla]

Feb 1, 2022 19:13:52 GMT bobness said:

Feb 1, 2022 15:57:19 GMT Jord v4 said:

The problem in this instance Bob is the paying fans are the ones hurt, this is never a good idea for any business. 

It doesn't matter if the usual suspects here (myself included) find this abhorrent, we'll amusingly find fault in anything we can. When these actions start affecting the loyal paying fans then we're talking a whole new puck game. That's dangerous imo.    

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

“Disrupted by matters no one could foresee”.
I’d say the whole world could forsee what was going to happen !
Plenty certainly did on this forum.

[iginla]

Feb 1, 2022 19:31:31 GMT wgray said:

Feb 1, 2022 19:13:52 GMT bobness said:

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

There aren’t any.

Yes there are or were.
Just at a quick look over the next couple of weeks and this week,week commencing 31st Jan over 5 days Mon-Fi there is only one game.
Then week commencing 21st Feb Mon-Fri over 5 days again there is not a single game.
Extend that over the next theee months and there must be more holes in the schedule that could have been filled.

[bobness]

Feb 1, 2022 22:09:13 GMT iginla said:

Feb 1, 2022 19:13:52 GMT bobness said:

Absolutely, but what would you suggest?
Keep it as is? That's been laughed at long and hard on here. Fixture pile ups etc.
The season has been significantly disrupted, through matters no-one could control or foresee.
I get you don't like it, as many won't, but what are the alternatives?

“Disrupted by matters no one could foresee”.
I’d say the whole world could forsee what was going to happen !
Plenty certainly did on this forum.

Plenty foresaw it after it happened, yes.

[yeti]

Don't think it's the case of foresaw it after it happened. It was well known that covid cases would increase over the winter and we could face more restrictions. They made the choice to have the extended cup instead of starting the league earlier to give themselves some wiggle room to allow for Covid restrictions over the winter.

[bobness]

Feb 2, 2022 10:25:49 GMT yeti said:

Don't think it's the case of foresaw it after it happened. It was well known that covid cases would increase over the winter and we could face more restrictions. They made the choice to have the extended cup instead of starting the league earlier to give themselves some wiggle room to allow for Covid restrictions over the winter.

No-one foresaw what impact Omicron would have though? Restrictions, maybe, but playing behind closed doors in Scotland and Wales, all teams covid "suspended" for days at a time at roughly the same time?
Some wiggle room would have been nice, yes, but then you get extra costs without any extra revenue, and some potential empty weeks? OK for Panthers and their millions but trickier for some rink teams, I'd expect.
I guess there's no right answer, and hindsight is always 20/20.

I wonder if anyone, when fixtures were announced, questioned the timings in case of disruption on a scale not considered?
I agree, the Cup has been a farce so far, one hopes that will change.
Out of the hat, first 4 teams play to get into the last 8. Winners and the other 6 then play straight 2 leg knockouts, drawn out of a hat, like the FA cup. Minimum 2 games per team, max 8.

[yeti]

It has to be remembered that this year the cup group stage was a one off with Clan having to drop out.

Hopefully next season will be back to normal with 2 groups of 5. Could do with the groups being either drawn or seeded. Think they need to ditch the quarter finals and go straight to top of one group plays second in the other group in the semi's.
Think the only reason we have the quarters was that the group makeup prior to this year meant that one of the big four, Either Panthers, Steelers or Devils would be knocked out at the group stage.

Would also be good if they ran the Challenge Cup similar to the old Autumn Cup and had it finished with the final before Christmas.