WHA would play 4 on 4??

[SignGuyDino]

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Sports/2003/12/11/283556.html


Discuss, my children.

[Big Chris]

I think 4on4 in the WHA is win-win two-fold:

1) With stars like Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick and John Leclair showing serious intrest in jumping to the WHA is there is a lockout next year, seeing some of the biggest stars in the game playing such a wide open style will be a treat for fans. (If you remember the 1994 NHLPA 4on4 series during that lockout, you know how exciting that can be.)

2) It helps the lesser and minor league players that will be filling out those first WHA rosters look a whole lot better right away.

That said, I hope they go big on signing young players like the original WHA did. This kind of fast, up-tempo hockey is great for developing young players. (Currently in Canada there has been a boom of 3on3 and 4X4 hockey summer leagues and conditioning camps to help develop youngsters. It has been a very positive step in developing players here.)

[SignGuyDino]

I think generally it's a good idea if that's what they did, I have been talking about Rob Ryder's 4 man basketball league idea, in fact, I have my own site, http://www.4manbasketball.com. Like in hockey, the players are getting so big that it's blocking up the flow and the only real way to increase scoring in basketball would be to go 4 on 4.

However, I don't think the WHA2 plays 4 on 4 except in overtime. Don't you think they should be trying this out in the lower league to test it out, like NFL Europe tries out all the rule changes before they're implemented in the NFL?

I don't know if taking out the red line is going to be needed if you play 4 on 4. No need for scores like 9-8. They need a year in the WHA2 to try it out.

Speaking of revolutionary, I found out last night that on http://www.monolithic.com, the Monolithic Dome Institute made a presentation to the WHA in SkyDome about their low-cost, low-maintenence dome arenas.

Story here: http://monolithic.com/gallery/sports/wha/index.html

What's interesting is that I sent David Waronker (and members of Asheville City Council) the materials and video on that months ago concerning the possibilities of a smaller arena built in Asheville. I knew that David Key of Wichita was considering this concept for a 292' dome for his af2 Stealth team and other teams. The arena cost would be around $10 million for a 7,000 seat arena.

Little did I know Waronker took those materials more seriously than I thought. (Don't know if I'll get any credit for it, though.) I have multinational influence, baby!! 8)

[Magnum357]

I definitly agree with the 4-on-4 hockey for the WHA. It opens things up and brings a whole new dynamic to the game of hockey. New strategies, higher scoring, deadly Powerplays! I think it would be better for TV too because of the Highscoring and lack of 0-0 ties or 0-1 wins.

I agree with you Dino, most of the rules established for standard hockey could easily be kept. I don't think you would need to eliminate the Red line, but I would eliminate the "No 2-line Pass rule". And you would definitly want to keep an offsides rule. Automatic Icing would help too like in international rules. The only thing I'm conerned with is if it is a good idea to stay with 3-20 minnute periods, or go with a 24 Minute Half idea. With 24 minute halfs, you can get away with that amount of time because you are dealing with only 8 skaters instead of 10 which means the ice would not be chopped up as bad.

I agree aswell, this should be tested in WHA2 first too see how it goes. But overall, I think it would be a hit because it would really give players that have actual hockey skills succeed and keep big bruisers limited in the game.

[SignGuyDino]

Seems to me, and I know it's insane, but if the WHA does ever take off, eventually the NHL lockout would end, and the NHL would try to incorporate something new to spice the game up, most likely rules changes from the upstart league.

Instead of some tweaks the average sports fan wouldn't care about, maybe they would do something real dramatic and go 4 on 4? (Really 5 on 5 with the goalies, but you guys know what I mean.)

The union would despise it, but what real choice do they have? The owners could theorhetically fold the NHL and start an entirely new league, and they could really screw the players over anyway.

[Magnum357]

Agreed. I have no idea if the WHA even wants to go with 4-on-4 rules, but the league has to make its game something different then what the NHL has. When the NHL lockout ends, what will make fans want to stay watching WHA games when the NHL is starting up again? But if you incorperate 4-on-4 rules in the WHA too allow for a much more dynamic game, it gives the WHA an edge over the NHL and can even survive even when the NHL lockout ends because its has all the elements that make hockey fun to play and even fun too watch with 4-on-4 rules.

I do agree though, 4-on-4 NEEDS to be tested in WHA2 or something. I read that the WHA is going to build its own Affilated Junior league system so that might be a good area to start using 4-on-4 rules, at the grass roots level. But I still think the WHA should have told the WHA2 to experiment with the idea this year so they can get ready for next year.