AIHL 'Festival' Schedule....

[-venom-]

As most of you probably know, the AIHL Southwest Division is going to be running a 'Festival' Schedule to accommodate to the teams and cut down on travel, and expenses in general. Makes perfect sense to me, and I think it's an excellent step to save money for both the organizations and the players themselves, in the long run.

But I do have one question (not necessarily a criticism...)... what's the deal with each 'Festival' being the same teams playing each other 6 times in 2/3 days?

For example;

Mar 7 3:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso
Mar 7 5:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso
Mar 7 7:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso
Mar 7 9:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso
Mar 8 2:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso
Mar 8 4:00PM El Paso, TX Reg at El Paso

So over the course of the weekend, Las Vegas travels to El Paso. and plays El Paso *SIX*, yes six times in two days. The same two teams.

I can only imagine how friendly it's going to be after the first 5 games carry over to game #6....

Maybe there were some availability/scheduling concerns which led to the current schedules, which would be totally understandable.... but this far in advance?

I would think it advantageous to set up a true Festival Schedule, placing all 4 teams in the same city on the same weekend, and for example, if you need 6 games per team for the weekend, then have them each play each other twice.

:confused::confused::confused:

I would think it would be a bit more exciting for both players and fans to get to see more than just two teams go at it 5 or 6 times in a weekend...

Again, not criticizing, just found it to be incredibly odd that the league decided to schedule it this way....

[SlammHockey]

A festival schedule would be a perfect fit, but if they are playing six games over a weekend, why not have 6 different teams so they could all play each other once in the weekend.

It is a step in the right direction from a cost standpoint, but it would be easier to sell the games if there were different teams.

[Downz39]

Mooers you're going to have to learn to contain that anger over the course of 6 games, look into therapy or something. Haha. Originally I heard was it was going to be all the teams traveling to each of the home rinks and having festivals. I believe travel became the main concern, they were talking of each team having 2 "home" weekends, but financially it wasn't feasible. I mean 2 trips to El Paso would probably cost a nice chunk since it's a pretty loooooong drive. The way the schedule is now I believe every team has 16 home/16 away games which would make it fair for owners to make some money if they can get fans in the door. It kind of sucks playing the same team 5/6 times a weekend, but the way I see it, it's better then not playing at all.

[-venom-]

Mooers you're going to have to learn to contain that anger over the course of 6 games, look into therapy or something. Haha. Originally I heard was it was going to be all the teams traveling to each of the home rinks and having festivals. I believe travel became the main concern, they were talking of each team having 2 "home" weekends, but financially it wasn't feasible. I mean 2 trips to El Paso would probably cost a nice chunk since it's a pretty loooooong drive. The way the schedule is now I believe every team has 16 home/16 away games which would make it fair for owners to make some money if they can get fans in the door. It kind of sucks playing the same team 5/6 times a weekend, but the way I see it, it's better then not playing at all.


I can totally understand from that point of view, which is why I'll agree that it does make some sense.

But yes, you hit it on the head, brotha.... I may implode playing the same guys 6 times in one weekend. It's easier to disperse over 6 games against 3 different sets of opponents, as opposed to the same guys 6 times over. :D

[Mlrhnorthfan]

I think the festival schedule depends on the Region and the teams involved.
The NE/Mid atlantic festival is in April and we are playing 4 games against four different teams.