Again, all fair comments and fine objectives. But how does the league achieve those things. Short of partnering subscribed to build more rinks, where will more teams come from? Encourage teams into arenas? Get maybe Leeds in? Find new ownership in Edinburgh? Invite teams from France, the Netherlands or Denmark to join?
I'm not having a poke at you, I'm just saying that there needs to be a plan to get where we want to be.
Who is we ?
The fans, their limited in numbers, the owners, they must be happy, take ours, on another thread it’s estimated per game the owners are at a loss of £40,000 per game. Take out costs that’s got to be a good guesstimate of £15,000 to £20,000 into the owners bank, thats not bad. How many other clubs are in that position & are they willing to stump up more funds to promote Ice Hockey.
Then there is Climate Change, energy costs will continue to massively increase, building more rinks become less and less viable.
Its catch 22, you need a large fan base to make business people want to invest, without that its a punt, a high risk punt. What U.K. hockey needs is what Cardiff has, and I’m afraid that’s unique and very highly unlikely in the future. How long will hockey last in the U.K. ?????
What we need is the EIHL to become part of Hockey Europe, it needs to be independent and professional and this will need a large financial commitment from U.K. clubs and will never happen. Owners are happy to take the profit and continue as is. The ones with ambition will be looking into European Club opportunities......