IHC Member
After speaking with Keith Curtis in Tennessee, there will be a team developing in Tennessee for the upcoming 2007-2008 PIHA Season. If you are a player interested in playing with the Tennessee team, please contact Keith Curtis at:
(772)224-1906
or
[email protected]
IHC Member
What about Chicago? Is anyone ever going to get it together out here? There are a lot of good players but I haven't heard anything about PIHA out this way? Anyone know anything?
IHC Member
It is being proposed to the board of the parks system that runs Hattrick. I will know information very soon. There is a very good shot they will be in.
IHC Member
Originally Posted by Dave Garland
At what point will the PIHA start contracting and eliminate 4-5 teams from the same market? OR even 1-2 teams from the same facility. Don't get me wrong, i think the PIHA is great, and all the expansion is phenomenal. However, it just seems crazy that the league could have somewhere over 36 teams.
I understand all the problems with travel and everything. However, it seems to me that a Professional league would not have 4 teams in one market (Philly and St. Louis), not sure if you count Denver. 1-2 per market isn't entirely crazy because it happens in the four major sports.
Expansion is great for the PIHA and the sport of roller hockey, However, isn't too much expansion in such limited geography a bad thing?
I just was wondering what everyone was thinking in this manor.
Would 4 owners with four separate teams, have a better chance to survive and excel with one team and more resources?
Please don't take this as league bashing. I love the PIHA. Not that i play in it, but i do follow it with a close eye. I know many of the owners and players in this region Southeast/Southcentral PA. I am just looking to start conversation and see what anyone else is thinking on this idea.
IHC Member
All valid points. But this league isn't about getting paid or anything like that. The main focus of this league is primarily the expansion. By expanding more and more every season, the popularity grows, the interest grows, and more people begin to take notice of us (not just players either). Although, I 1000% agree with you about the two teams in one rink, I think that is the biggest mistake for us, although even that happens in the highest end of professional sports (Jets/Giants).
My feeling is that, if there is a rink, that houses quality players, and that rink would like to house a PIHA team, then so be it. As many rinks as possible . . . not as many teams. Buildings in this league should NOT be housing two teams. Hopefully that made sense.
IHC Member
PIHA's goal is not to form a national inline hockey league, with one team in each major region. The goal is to have a division in each major region. This means 4-5 teams in a particular area and maybe even multiple teams out of a rink, if the talent pool supports it. Look at it more like the the little league world series then the nhl. This league may one day have 100 team across north america.
While this may seem ridiculous to those that simply think a pro league must be in a the standard 30 team, one in each city format.
The PIHA is being built to market itself by virtue of its numbers now and in the future.
IHC Member
I personally like the way PIHA is doing things with a division per major region. I think this is possibly how professional soccer may have evolved in Europe.
If you look at professional soccer in England, for example, they have many professional teams throughout the country. I don't know the exact history, but at some point they were broken up into different leagues or tiers if you will. Now they have like around 4 leagues and at the end of every season, the top 3 teams in each league get promoted to the better league or tier and the bottom 3 teams in each league get relegated to the lower divisions or tiers.
Maybe at some point PIHA could get to that level where it has enough teams, high enough spectator interest, sponsorship, etc. to split up into different leagues or tiers... Not saying its gonna happen any time soon, but right now the name of the game is league growth and expanding interest in the league.
Just something to think about.
Pat Barbano
IHC Member
Pat,
That is a GREAT point. Actually in Italy they do that with inline hockey. There are three levels of play: A1, A2, and B. The system works as you mentioned with top teams moving up and bottom teams dropping.
The way I see PIHA is that it is changing how we think of professional and concepts of professional sports. PIHA is family and grassroots based. A huge number of niche/minor league/etc. sports fail all the time because of a flawed system where a ton of capital is used to start a league/team and then teams try to recover it. This is why many minor/niche sports fail.
I think multiple teams in a market works extremely well and that is why I liked the European comparison. And in all honesty, PIHA is expanding and changing and has already hit over the five year mark. Something must be going right or they would be going the way of the RHI and other "Pro" leagues.
People are usually very adverse to change and new concepts that may actually end up more beneficial for everyone.
IHC Member
Yea... the way those leagues in Europe are set up is the exact opposite to anything a professional sports league has ever tried here in the U.S.
I actually like the way they do it over there better... Clubs get rewarded for having a well managed organization, and poorly managed organizations pay the price.
Pat Barbano
IHC Member
Thanks for your responses, i actually love the comparison to the European Soccer. It makes total sense and i like the way it was also compared to the Little League. With just your few posts you changed the way i was looking at things. However, i still think that the two teams, one rink is the wrong way to look at things. I understand the Giants/Jets do it, but frankly i just don't like it. Going back to just my personal opinion.
IHC Member
I understand why people are against more then one team at a rink, but imagine the excitement it creates at that rink when those two teams face off. There are certainly pros and cons. In Connecticut there is only one rink, but enough talent to support two teams. Should these players have to travel out of state just to find another rink? Should Colorado only have 4 teams instead of 5, because there arn't enough rinks?
Chris... What is this new organization in Tennessee going to be called?
IHC Member
The Tennessee Rocky Toppers
IHC Member
Ideally it would be perfect for each team to have their own rink; however, sometimes this just doesn't work out.
Management changes, rink expenses change, teams change, etc. and sometimes there is more interest than rinks. We are blessed here to have four teams at four rinks in St. Louis; however, we would not pack up shop if we were somehow down to three or even two.
I agree however as you said that it would be great for each team to have their own rink.
IHC Member
Which Division will the Tennessee team be in, and what city will they play in?
IHC Member
An experienced "FYI" --
Actually, "in Europe" that is NOT how it is done in either "European Soccer" or a better example, ice hockey. "Little League" is in NO way a fair or appropriate comparison of "sports" culture "in Europe" (or anywhere outside of "Little League" baseball, for that matter). Nearly all levels of team competition (especially in soccer and ice hockey, the 2 biggest "money/participation" sports in Europe), whether it is a civic, private or "pro" organization playing within the various 'divisions' and/or leagues are funded mostly "TOP-down", NOT "bottom-UP". The only way the "grass-roots" come into play is in their being expected to support the "TOP" ("pro") teams (at the "gate") that support the varrying teams/levels/leagues that are under the "pro" teams' sponsorship banners.
English soccer was never "at some point...broken up into different leagues or tiers" -- it has almost always been a "TOP-down" scenario, with the lesser teams, leagues and players almost always aspiring to the "Premier's" prestige, talent, money and financial success.
I think it's amazing how much is wrongfully assumed in regards to what is clearly an "Ameri-centric" view of the world (as they would LIKE it to be maybe?). Do even a little bit of "googling" and you'll find out that "grass-roots" organized sport support (AGAIN, in especially soccer and ice hockey) goes nowhere sponsorship/advertising/marketing-wise without the "TOP-down" support of whatever "pro" team happens to command the sponsor/advertiser/marketing "cache/cash" of the local or regional community.
Also, the assumption that a city or region can't or shouldn't feature more that one team is again NOT the thinking or actual practice "in Europe". Some of the greatest soccer and ice hockey rivalries "in Europe" are "crosstown" affairs -- not unlike the Rangers/Islanders/Devils in the NHL; Knicks/Nets, Lakers/Clippers in the NBA; Yankees/Mets, White Sox/Cubs, Giants/A's in MLB; and even USC/UCLA in NCAA anything -- AGAIN, if you don't know it for sure, do some "googling" and you'll find lods of evidence that prove this "exact opposite" assumption clearly wrong.
What Dave mentioned about "in Italy" is closer, but not relative to PIHA's situation as a so-called "pro" league. In fact, "in Italy" most of their better 'inline' hockey teams are essentially ice hockey "off-season/dry-land" fitness/training for a lot of their contract "pro" ice players, many who happen to be locals. The levels/leagues under the "TOP" ones typically feature younger, less experienced/even beginner players and is further evidence of the "TOP-down" sponsorship/advertising/marketing departments of the "pro" ice hockey teams/organizations at work (remember now, I'm talking about the "better" teams here) -- ALL of this leads to hopefully akind of "brand loyalty" among the younger players, parents and sponsors at the "pro" teams' ice and 'inline' "gates".
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