New Leagues?

[whoopee23]

I thought Big Chris would know this. Are there any new leagues out there on the horizon starting up. I, believe it or not, really enjoyed reading :wink: about all these new leagues in A level and all the problems they were having getting going, and the players that played in them. There used to be the NLPH, NEHL, IIHL, CPHL, whatever happened to any of these? Now there is the the new Michigan Hockey League, www.michiganhockeyleague.com, which is a Jr. A league, but I havent heard of any proposed A level Minor Hockey Leagues, any word out there, or websites?

[nksports]

In terms of talent, the SPHL is about A level. An actual league calling itself an A level league would kind of be hard to market. A better bet would be calling itself a rookie league and limiting players to 1 to 3 years (they'd either have to move up or get a day job). (An 18-player roster would have, say, eight rookies, six second-year players and four "veterans.")
It would have to be tight geographically. It would have to be someplace where people would pay money to come see it. Costs would have to be low.
I would love to see the NHL get together with the other minor leagues and bring "order to the force" ala baseball, but NHL teams don't want to pay for around 54 minor-league players. Most NHL teams don't keep more than about 20 to 30 minor leaguers under contract.
You could order it kind of like this (don't get mad at me, all those who talk smack about this league or that):
AHL — AAA (30 teams)
ECHL — AA (30 teams)
CHL and UHL — A (15 teams each)
SPHL and four other new leagues — Rookie (6 teams per league)

[BCRantzilla]

I don't want to let the cat out of the bag too soon but yes, there will be another A-Puck league in 2005-06. I'll have more details later but Paul will hear about it first.

As for A-Puck and it's marketability, teams in the SPHL have drawn fans so it isn't unmarketable crap per se. The best way to market this brand of minor league hockey is probably the way the Northern League used to market themselves and that is as a renegade indy league. By telling the city in question that they are supporting their own team as opposed to someone else's team is a good selling point for smaller centers.

Hockey is the thing being sold first and foremost so the best thing to do is market the game to the hardcore hockey fans. "Family atmosphere" is a good way to scare the diehards away. Since few people actually take their entire families to games, it is pointless to market to that demographic. Make sure beer is sold at the rink, (some leagues I won't mention "banned" alcohol to promote a family atmosphere.) Drop beer and you will lose a big chunk of your fanbase. After that, promote agressive, hardworking hockey with goal scoring. (At this level there is an unavoidable dearth in top quality goaltending so it is a gimmie that goal scoring will be higher than the upper leagues.)

In cities where they aren't going to have much chance to get the NHL or AHL, this kind of hockey has a fighting chance. Places like Detroit or Pittsburgh would have a hope as well because of runoff of fans that can't get in to see the Penguins or Wings. Again, 1-2000 fans a game is your aim here and that isn't insurmountable. (There are 2 Northern League teams in the Chicagoland area dispite the fact that they have 2 MLB teams there as well. Both teams do pretty well attendance wise as does nearby Madison.

As for the kind of players you could attract with a $3500-5500 a week salary cap, you aren't going to get AHL guys. Nor are you going to get the kind of marque goons that play in the LNAH. I agree that you will get a lot of guys that have 2 years of pro experience or less. At the same time, you will get your fair share of ECHL and UHL cuts before mid season. (Out of sight, out of mind and a recently cut player will play for a small salary and housing over not playing at all just to get stats and be seen. Those guys are going to be available.) This with ACHA and NCAA D3 players and Junior A and B players will likley fill out the remainder of the rosters at this level as they did in the SPHL.

To close, here's my minor league ladder:

AAA: AHL
AA: ECHL, CHL and UHL
Semi AA: UHL
A: SPHL

I believe in A-Puck and hope it can thrive the way A-Ball has but it is clearly still in it's infancy in terms of it's niche. Stay tuned...

[nksports]

"Family atmosphere" is a good way to scare the diehards away.

How true.
We had MISL, MSL, NPSL indoor soccer here in Wichita for just over 20 years. It was sold to the wholesome, white bread soccer moms and dads of the suburbs as pack up the kids in the minivan and take them out to the Coliseum.
They didn't buy beer, so when the CHL's Wichita Thunder came to town, which drew a lot more singles and date-night couples (who bought beer), they got the better dates, despite slightly smaller crowds. They are here and the Wichita Wings are gone.
(About 20 years of Save the Wings campaigns didn't help either.)

[patmc16]

Now there is the the new Michigan Hockey League, www.michiganhockeyleague.com, which is a Jr. A league

Does anyone know anything about this league beyond what is on their website? The St. Clair Shores team's home (if it is where I think it will be) is literally walking distance from my home, so I am interested to see if it is the real deal. I know it is a pay-to-play league, so it really doesn't fit the OSC mold, but I figured I'd ask the question anyway.

I think it is Jr. A only in the sense that the CEHL was, that is, because they call themselves that. There is no offical designation for this league. I don't think USA Hockey recognizes it.

I have been checking the website for the last few months. In the beginning, it seemed really promising. Recently I have begun to wonder if it will really happen. Maybe it is just start-up issues but it is 5 weeks til opening day and there is no schedule, no officially announced venues (although I can assume where most of them will be), no rosters (there was at one time, but not now). The only announced game is against a non-league team in a non-league arena. That was just announced today. 2 teams, including "my" St. Clair Shores Sailors, don't even have a logo yet. One team (Mt. Pleasant) has already relocated (to Detroit) and 2 others (Dearborn & Downriver) have merged. The Mt. Pleasant relocation makes sense, as all of the other teams are relatively close together and it was far from any of the others. The merger, however, just makes me think there were not enough players interested to fill out 6 full rosters.

Any info that anyone might have would be appreciated.

[Sewer-rat]

Only time will tell I guess with these leagues. The Southern Elite Hockey League down in Florida/Alabama lasted only about 3 years I believe, and the CEHL had a pretty good run for it's short lived life. Both ok to pretty decent leagues. I played in the SEHL, and it was not to bad at all. The teams were pretty well spread out for the most part in both of these leagues, but I really don't know if a single city can support 2-3 Jr. A teams even if it is Detroit. Maybe if they have sponsors out the ying yang, but it's not to promising. I hope it will work, but when you start getting alot of these so called Jr. A leagues popping up everywhere you most of the time end up with quantity, and not quality. Good Luck to the new league!

[Sewer-rat]

By the way I went to the WHA site just to see if by chance there was any new news, and it now says..... WHA Super Junior League coming 2005-2006 season. Thought I'd throw that in if anybody cares. Maybe they should wait a year , and make shure everything is in place. It sounds like another rush job to me. "patience is a virtue"

[UMBAUGH]

How many hockey teams does michigan need? they just added the mechanics to the UHL last year. and now a new league? Well, I suppose the plymouth Whalers could leave the Ontario league and save some travelling miles by joining the Michigan league.

[UMBAUGH]

I haven't even heard of this Michigan Hockey League until just now. How does that happen? Especially w/o the NHL last year you think there would have been some buzz over it if it's expected to be any sort of worth-while league.

[patmc16]

I haven't even heard of this Michigan Hockey League until just now. How does that happen?

Easy.... Zero marketing, zero news coverage, etc. Doesn't look very promising. The website has not been updated in over 2 weeks and the first game is supposed to take place in 3 days. No official schedule has been released. No rosters announced. No arenas announced. No team websites. Only 2 of the 5 teams have logos.

Any day now I expect to hear that they are postponing the start of the league until next season.

To answer the other questions... there can never be enough hockey. The Mechanics are minor league. The MHL is/was independent junior hockey. Big difference. Even comparing the Whalers to what this league is supposed to be is not a fair comparison. If they do play, the OHL and the MHL will be light years apart.

[Dan K]

This past summer, the USA Junior Hockey Magazine had some ads for the Michigan Hockey League looking for players to try out, so I am assuming this is a junior hockey league. It seems that the junior-level is growing and could eventually create a glut of players for an A-level pro league. Two other new junior leagues that I noticed were the America East Hockey League and the Colonial Hockey League, which I believe is a feeder to the AEHL.

[patmc16]

The ad on the USA Jr. hockey website was how I first learned of the league. There was no promotion/media attention at all around here. It was self labled Jr. "A", much like the CEHL was. This one seems to be dead in the water. The first game was to be last Saturday between the Detroit Gamblers and the non-league Toronto Rattlers. Until the last day or so, there had not been an update to the website since Sept 26. Now, most of the info is gone from the home page of the website and there is a message dated 9/12 added that says franchises are available for future seasons. No mention of the 05/06 season at all. I couldn't find any info about the only announced game on the Rattlers website either, so I'm guessing it never happened. A week into the season and there are no rosters, or schedules, or announced venues, or logos for the majority of teams. I read somewhere that a whole 2 players showed for one of the tryouts this summer. They had already eliminated one of the "original 6" and were still looking for players to fill out the remaining 5 teams' rosters as of the last time the website was active. I may be wrong but I think we can slap a "RIP" on this one. Once again, it is the kids that did sign up that get screwed.