2015-16 Champions Hockey League

[Jussi]

My impression is that everyone involved take this very seriously, except for the fans.

In Oulu the fans do.

 

[Slimmy]

It's going to be a very tough away game for Frölunda. Playing on home is is a big advantage and Kärpät is a very good team.
Was hoping to see the final in Scandinavium as well. Two consecutive years in the final and yet another away.. sucks.

 

[Jussi]

Kärpät-Lukklo finished 2-2, which means Kärpät go into the final as hosts.

 

[cydas]

I hope that we'll see many Frölunda fans finding their way to Oulu for the final too bad the big game is on a Tuesday, though it probably would have been too difficult to schedule it for a weekend.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Fitting final. I dont think anyone would argue that these are the two best teams in Europe right now? Frölunda 1st in SHL and Kärpät in Liiga.

 

[Slimmy]

I hope that we'll see many Frölunda fans finding their way to Oulu for the final too bad the big game is on a Tuesday, though it probably would have been too difficult to schedule it for a weekend.

I doubt it. Game is played on a Tuesday(?) in Oulu.. How do you even get there from Gothenburg?

 

[hansomreiste]

I doubt it. Game is played on a Tuesday(?) in Oulu.. How do you even get there from Gothenburg?

Doesn't matter how you travel, you will probably need to take two days off from work & school.

Even with a plane it will take at least 5 hours to reach Oulu with ticket prices close to 4000 SEK for a roundtrip, departure being next day. There are no direct flights (at least, as far as I know) so you will have to wait for interchanges and such.

The best and most economic idea, if you have two days off, would probably be driving to Nynäshamn (if they still work) and taking a ferry from there. This still takes A LOT of time and if you are not used to long hours of driving, would probably wear you down at time of the game. Using highway only would mean you have to travel through almost entirety of Sweden, which makes no sense at all.

I don't know about trains but if there is one running from Göteborg to Oulu directly, I am sure it will either be very expensive or take as many hours as the other options.

This is not UEFA Champions League... This game should've been played on weekend. And it starts on 18:30, huh? Do you guys in Scandinavia teleport to your homes after workday or what? It takes 2hrs for me to come home back from school.

 

[Slimmy]

They might as well play in the ****ing north pole

 

[Jussi]

Doesn't matter how you travel, you will probably need to take two days off from work & school.

Even with a plane it will take at least 5 hours to reach Oulu with ticket prices close to 4000 SEK for a roundtrip, departure being next day. There are no direct flights (at least, as far as I know) so you will have to wait for interchanges and such.

The best and most economic idea, if you have two days off, would probably be driving to Nynäshamn (if they still work) and taking a ferry from there. This still takes A LOT of time and if you are not used to long hours of driving, would probably wear you down at time of the game. Using highway only would mean you have to travel through almost entirety of Sweden, which makes no sense at all.

I don't know about trains but if there is one running from Göteborg to Oulu directly, I am sure it will either be very expensive or take as many hours as the other options.

This is not UEFA Champions League... This game should've been played on weekend. And it starts on 18:30, huh? Do you guys in Scandinavia teleport to your homes after workday or what? It takes 2hrs for me to come home back from school.

Hockey games have always started at that time in Finland on weekdays as far back as I can remember. It's more common for people to leave the games early so they wouldn't be at home too late.

 

[stars33]

Proposed CHL format - 32 teams total - 24 teams group stage

The top 7 leagues including KHL. Play off champion and regular season champ.
The KHL and SHL would have a 3rd team.
Total 16 teams. Qualified directly to group stage.

There would be a qualifying round. Two game series between the challenge league teams and continental cup winner (8 teams) vs 8 runner ups from the elite leagues.

The 8 winners would join the 16 in 8 groups of 3. 2 teams from each group goes to the round of 16.

 

[stars33]

From proposed CHL format listed above:

Challenge league qualifiers would be:
2 Slovakia
2 Norway
1 Great Britain
1 France
1 Denmark
1 Continental cup winner

The runner ups:
4th place KHL
4th place SHL
3rd place Finland
3rd place Czech rep.
3rd place Switzerland
3rd place Germany
4th place Finland
4th place Czech rep.

Note: KHL teams would be taken from western conference only. It is a European champions league.

 

[Lataba76]

From proposed CHL format listed above:

Challenge league qualifiers would be:
2 Slovakia
2 Norway
1 Great Britain
1 France
1 Denmark
1 Continental cup winner

The runner ups:
4th place KHL
4th place SHL
3rd place Finland
3rd place Czech rep.
3rd place Switzerland
3rd place Germany
4th place Finland
4th place Czech rep.

Note: KHL teams would be taken from western conference only. It is a European champions league.

I think we don t need a european champions league! For me is a scandinavien elite-league enough. 5 finnish,5 swedish teams + 1 norwegian and denmark team .

 

[Lataba76]

Why? LIIGA and SHL are too strong for the rest! Best idea ist the teams from KHL,SHL and LIIGA are seeded(maybe 3 or 4) and the rest must to be in qualifying round !

 

[hansomreiste]

I think a similar system to UEFA's coefficient would be great. This way, we would also be able to see how strong each league is. So this one seems like it and I loved it. Though I don't understand why KHL is restricted to Western teams - wasn't it CHL asking for KHL to include teams? And now they say, "We don't want Eastern teams because this is Europe, sorry guys"? Well I guess a team from Siberia wouldn't be very eager to travel Finland for CHL but still that sounds weird to me.

If CHL is to become a profitable, respectable organization; I believe they should play less groupstage and more elimination games. For this reason, a decision has to be made and every major European league should drop 5 or 6 regular season games to make place for CHL. And this will never happen, I guess.

Ice hockey is not football. I don't like 2-game aggregate style. This is not fair for ice hockey. We are talking about a sport where you can score 3 goals in 1min - yes it's rare, but given the sport's quick nature, it's always a possibility, unlike football. What's point of counting goals for elimination? It should be BO3 or BO5 series.

 

[bordshockeypampen]

From proposed CHL format listed above:

Challenge league qualifiers would be:
2 Slovakia
2 Norway
1 Great Britain
1 France
1 Denmark
1 Continental cup winner

The runner ups:
4th place KHL
4th place SHL
3rd place Finland
3rd place Czech rep.
3rd place Switzerland
3rd place Germany
4th place Finland
4th place Czech rep.

Note: KHL teams would be taken from western conference only. It is a European champions league.

At a first look, I really like your format. I would be very happy if the CHL format would be exactly like that. I do however spot two possible obstacles:
1. It will be a bit harder to sell television rights to Slovakia, Norway, UK, France and Denmark when their teams are likely to not even make it to the main round.
2. I think it would be hard to get KHL to accept Western Conference teams only. It's not in the interest of the current leaders of Russia to be part of a European only competition.

 

[Jussi]

At a first look, I really like your format. I would be very happy if the CHL format would be exactly like that. I do however spot two possible obstacles:
1. It will be a bit harder to sell television rights to Slovakia, Norway, UK, France and Denmark when their teams are likely to not even make it to the main round.
2. I think it would be hard to get KHL to accept Western Conference teams only. It's not in the interest of the current leaders of Russia to be part of a European only competition.

I noticed while watching some streams of NHL games this season that they advertised CHL heavily on the UK Premier Sports channel.

 

[bordshockeypampen]

There would be a qualifying round. Two game series between the challenge league teams and continental cup winner (8 teams) vs 8 runner ups from the elite leagues.

Or maybe do the qualifying like in UEFA CL?
Where they qualifying is separated between champion of "lesser" leagues and non-champions of better leagues.
That way there is a higher probability that the teams in the group stage would be from more countries.

 

[stars33]

Response from my proposed champions league format:

I agree with the ideas of having the challenge league champions auto-qualified because of securing TV rights in those countries.

Also I do not mind the two game format for the knockout rounds but total goals has to go. The original CHL had the 2 game series but if both teams split the games they would play a 20 minute sudden death after game 2. This was much more exciting. And remember under the old format if you won the first game than all you needed was a tie in the second game to advance.

And Finally I do not know how you can have Beijing, Vladistok, or Amur (if they are KHL champs) play European teams in this type of format. Looks like a scheduling nightmare.

 

[stars33]

Also to my European hockey friends:

This is the time for European hockey to take their leagues to the next level.

Reason 1 - Live entertainment is in now in demand with peoples viewing habits changed with digital recordings. Sports leagues values have increase dramatically in the last 5 years.

Reason 2 - The NHL fan base is upset with Gary Bettman. They do not like his point system. 2 points for win and 1 for OT loss and this world cup is a disaster. I am sure hockey fans in the US and Canada would get into the CHL if done right.

Reason 3- Soccer has become popular in the United states and Canada. This has created an interest from US sports fans in other sports from around the world. The US is a large and wealthy market and sports channels in the US are now showing sports from the world.

 

[Exarz]

Response from my proposed champions league format:

I agree with the ideas of having the challenge league champions auto-qualified because of securing TV rights in those countries.

Also I do not mind the two game format for the knockout rounds but total goals has to go. The original CHL had the 2 game series but if both teams split the games they would play a 20 minute sudden death after game 2. This was much more exciting. And remember under the old format if you won the first game than all you needed was a tie in the second game to advance.

And Finally I do not know how you can have Beijing, Vladistok, or Amur (if they are KHL champs) play European teams in this type of format. Looks like a scheduling nightmare.

There are teams in the Eastern Conference that geographically are a part of Europe. Should they be excluded from the CHL because they happen to play in the wrong division? There are also several teams located around the Ural Mountains. Ufa is in the extreme Eastern point of Europe, Yekaterinburg is both in Europe and Asia, while Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk is basically on the extreme west point of Asia. Should those be exluded? Where would the line be drawn?

You do realise the chance of having Admiral, Amur or Beijing in the CHL is basically minimal, as they would have to be a top 4 KHL team? In my opinion, it's more of a problem having Admiral or Amur playing the Gagarin Cup finals considering the tight schedule.

 

[stars33]

There are teams in the Eastern Conference that geographically are a part of Europe. Should they be excluded from the CHL because they happen to play in the wrong division? There are also several teams located around the Ural Mountains. Ufa is in the extreme Eastern point of Europe, Yekaterinburg is both in Europe and Asia, while Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk is basically on the extreme west point of Asia. Should those be exluded? Where would the line be drawn?

You do realise the chance of having Admiral, Amur or Beijing in the CHL is basically minimal, as they would have to be a top 4 KHL team? In my opinion, it's more of a problem having Admiral or Amur playing the Gagarin Cup finals considering the tight schedule.

Fair point. But the CHL is squeezed into the regular season. If a European team finds they are playing Admiral in the next round they might have to cancel league games.
The Gagarin cup playoffs could be stretched out. And I believe they play the 2-3-2 format.

I am not against Eastern KHL teams being in the CHL. Honestly , I want the NHL involved. But this travel problem is a major concern. Especially since the CHL is not yet an established tournament.

 

[EbencoyE]

I noticed while watching some streams of NHL games this season that they advertised CHL heavily on the UK Premier Sports channel.

It also seems to me that fans of the second tier league teams get more excited for this tournament than fans of teams from the top leagues, so it wouldn't make much sense to restrict the tournament to only Russian/Swedish/Finnish teams. If you do that, you might as well not have the tournament at all.

 

[kabidjan18]

Also to my European hockey friends:

This is the time for European hockey to take their leagues to the next level.

Reason 1 - Live entertainment is in now in demand with peoples viewing habits changed with digital recordings. Sports leagues values have increase dramatically in the last 5 years.

Reason 2 - The NHL fan base is upset with Gary Bettman. They do not like his point system. 2 points for win and 1 for OT loss and this world cup is a disaster. I am sure hockey fans in the US and Canada would get into the CHL if done right.

Reason 3- Soccer has become popular in the United states and Canada. This has created an interest from US sports fans in other sports from around the world. The US is a large and wealthy market and sports channels in the US are now showing sports from the world.

1. Yes, very very much yes.
2. Yes, but this has minimal impact.
3. No not really...and even if it were more true the impact is marginal as well.

I like the CHL tournament, great idea, and it'll become more popular given more time to market.

 

[stars33]

1. Yes, very very much yes.
2. Yes, but this has minimal impact.
3. No not really...and even if it were more true the impact is marginal as well.

I like the CHL tournament, great idea, and it'll become more popular given more time to market.

I do understand that my 2nd and 3rd reason is minimal. However, i feel there is a small crack in the NHL fan base. Many fans i speak to are unhappy with low scoring games, too many games decided by shootouts, and i said before the point system.
Even though i agree there should be no fighting. The decrease in fighting has made many games boring with no intensity. The NHL response has been to make games more exciting by artificially making games close. Which the NHL point system helps produce. Teams play for overtime on many nights. And the 3 on 3 overtime is fun but overall just another gimmick.
The NHL has always been America's sports best kept secret. Every hockey fan you talked not just liked hockey they loved hockey. But i do not feel this passion as of late. I understand this is only my experience.

I believe too make hockey exciting is not by gimmicks but having games with real meaning. Instead of an 82 game season. Lets follow the FIFA soccer model and have more international tournaments throughout the year. World cups, Qualifiers, and Champion leagues. Do not change the game just add more meaning to them.
Hockey played with intensity and passion is what makes the game great. Not 3 on 3 mini games or made up teams in international tournaments.

If Europe and the KHL can join together on the Champions league and market it right. I am hoping this will force the NHL to work with them. If not, than Bettman and the NHL will keep creating these stupid gimmicks instead of creating real international tournaments.

 

[kabidjan18]

Also to my European hockey friends:

This is the time for European hockey to take their leagues to the next level.

Reason 1 - Live entertainment is in now in demand with peoples viewing habits changed with digital recordings. Sports leagues values have increase dramatically in the last 5 years.

Reason 2 - The NHL fan base is upset with Gary Bettman. They do not like his point system. 2 points for win and 1 for OT loss and this world cup is a disaster. I am sure hockey fans in the US and Canada would get into the CHL if done right.

Reason 3- Soccer has become popular in the United states and Canada. This has created an interest from US sports fans in other sports from around the world. The US is a large and wealthy market and sports channels in the US are now showing sports from the world.

Fineuh, I'll explain one by one.
1. Yes because the streaming market for tv shows has made watching live TV shows unimportant, this has caused a spike in the value of sports tv contracts because I can Netflix every show of a season on my computer but watching old games is very unappealing and on a small screen like a computer, even less so.
2. Some don't like the point system, most don't like the world cup, but hockey fans in the us, they aren't fans of the sport of hockey, they're fans of the red wings, or bruins, or maple leafs, the amount of the market that would turn to lower quality overseas hockey just because it's less gimmicky is very very small.
3. Soccer has not become popular in the US. Relative to itself, soccer is growing, and relative to itself Rugby is growing even faster. After the world cup there's always a fervor for soccer which translates to a few people tuning into some mls games and a few new teams in the mls started a few new and small fanbases. This was marketed as extensive growth of soccer by the soccer industry but less than 2 years later, soccer fever is dead once again. The sport will continue to grow in it's niche but basketball especially is a complete monopoly over the east and west coast, and football rules the south. Even if soccer was growing super fast however I don't see how soccer growing fast makes americans and canadians more interested in global sports. I don't have CSN but I don't see international sports very often at all on american sports, and now that nbc did a contract with the EPL 2 years back I can watch on EPL game a week on Saturday before noon during the season. You're basically saying if the MLS ran a tournament with the NASL and had a no gimmicks format then people in England would start watching American soccer, perhaps a few would but the market affect would be small at largest.