roller /inline hockey...

[mrcool92501]

make a comeback in regards to a nat'l level?

[REVVED]

I loved the St. Louis Vipers of the RHI. I miss the action and hope they can revive professional roller hockey!

[tidalshark]

There were a couple of ideas on this. The first is Speed Hockey (http://www.speedhockey.org/) which is trying to field 12 teams. Right now they've got Team USA and Team Canada, but I don't think they are carrying full rosters on either one. Rob and several of the other guys (The Yoders, Ziggy, Buff) have been asked to join it, and I did notice their names are listed on the roster, where as other guys (Garvey, Rice, Nelson & Woolf) seem to staying away.

The difference between Speed Hockey and traditional Roller hockey is it's three skaters and a goalie as opposed to four skaters and a goalie.

The other to is to have a National Pro League working within the current formation of NARCh. NARCh plays pro tournaments at their winter and summer finals, but they'd like to expand that to a include a 12-game (per team) schedule that would play at select regional events during the course of the season with the playoffs being held at the summer finals.

The main difference there is you'll have more "Brand Name" teams (i.e. RinkRat, Mission, etc) and less Location teams (i.e. Buffalo Wings). The problem is they'd like to do 10 or 12 or even 16 teams and I don't know where they are going to find that many sponsors. (Yeah, yeah, Bauer and Hyper and Mission do multiple teams, but still...)

I was talking to one of the guys from the Wings at the beginning of the month, and while they do play around (they competed in TORHS) it's been regional. TORHS for example was local to them. If it was being held in California, they wouldn't go.

I still sort of miss Beach Hockey. That was fun!

But yeah, I'd like to see more Pro-Roller Hockey.

[Magnum357]

Ya, I miss the RHI aswell. It was a very high scoring, action pack Hockey game compared to Ice Hockey and it could easily fit in a short time frame with 24 minute halfs. With Ice Hockey taking a hit in TV ratings, its too bad the RHI isn't around now to take advantage of it. I bet the number of Americans that would watch it could be close to the ratings we are seeing the AFL is getting on NBC. I heard the RHI made a comeback in 1999, but obviously it didn't work out too well.

If you guys want some stats from the RHI, check out this website. It has a lot of stats of the history of the RHI.

http://rhistats.tripod.com/

[REVVED]

:idea: If the NHL and the players association don't get their act together by September 15, 2004, maybe a new league will be able to thrive! If they can get the WHA out of mothballs, why not the RHI? :lol:

[Magnum357]

Good point! It actually could be easily done during the summer months again like the old RHI did with its 24 game schedules (between May through August). I've also notice that many of these southern cities that don't seem too do well with Ice Hockey really flourished with Inline Hockey. Los Angles, San Jose, Kansas City/Saint Louis, Miami, etc. seemed too support the inline game as much as the Ice game. I've heard one reason why Los Angeles did well in the RHI was that their are tons of inline Rinks in Los Angeles and the people their are more receptive too inline hockey then other parts of the country. Also, Basketball is pretty popular in LA and having Inline Hockey in the off months is a great summer alternative. I have always considered Inline Hockey the "Arena Football" of Hockey.

If the RHI would to ever return, I would suggest only one thing. Create a Junior Inline hockey league system. If you want inline Hockey to be more accepted at the grass roots, building Professional Junior Inline leagues in small cities could really help this problem and I think the southern cities might except it more then Ice Hockey.

[Magnum357]

Now that I think about it, one rule I think the RHI could have used was an offside rule. I did not mind having a center red line, but it would have been nice if the RHI had included an illegal offsides with the center red line too. I forgot how lopsided some of those RHI scores where and having the Red Line as an Offside marker might have been helpful.