FA Cup Style British Hockey Cup?

JT666

Active Member
Thread starter #1
Watching Newport County progress in the FA Cup last night, with a big money game against Manchester City at Rodney Parade in the next round, it had me wondering if a similar style competition would be feasible in British Ice Hockey?

Has the Challenge Cup become a bit staid? The final is a great occasion, and in all likelihood would still involve the top teams, but are the early stages, playing the same old teams we play throughout the season, in need of an overhaul?

Would EIHL teams visiting NIHL teams in the early rounds (with a seeding system in place - and a NIHL team guaranteed a home fixture if playing an EIHL side) provide a boost to their income (would the games sell out)?

Could NIHL teams actually compete?

Could the 'lost' guaranteed home games in the traditional Challenge Cup, just be bolted on to the league/new expanded form of play offs?

Playing the big sides in the CHL has been great to watch, would there be a similar effect if EIHL teams visited the likes of Telford and Swindon?

My knowledge of British hockey dates back around 4 years, so no idea if this has been tried before, but just a thought!
 

Gazza272

Well-Known Member
#2
Some NIHL teams can't even compete with other NIHL teams unfortunately.

Swindon or Telford would probably put up a spirited fight, but a team like MK Thunder would be under immense pressure.

Sadly I think this would be a non starter. There would be little 'magic' in such a competition given the gulf in standard between the leagues.

Edit: there was once upon a time a Cross over league competition back in the early 2000's which was very competitive, but the league below at the time the BNL was an 8 import league, of very good standard. Sadly it never continued.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#3
I like the idea of David against Goliath and the upset that it could cause and revenue for smaller teams but the game schedule at the moment is pretty packed and that's without postponed games.
Also with so much importance on winning the league and Play offs for European entry would you want to put your players in that situation of possible injuries? Ice hockey teams don't have the expansive squads like football to put in a second string side.
Look at us now, 3 major players down and that's in a normal season.
 

Mooney#16

Well-Known Member
#4
I get a giant killing is romantic but ice hockey is a completely different game to football and it just wouldn’t be entertaining in anyway. To quantify your talking about a sport where simply the shots on goal are a lot higher and any discrepancy in standard gets highlighted in spades. NIHL teams would cough up I wager at minimum 100+ shots a game and these would be good shots also. It’s not really a sport where you can park a bus. I get the appeal but in reality it would horrific.
 

JT666

Active Member
Thread starter #8
Back to the devils early days and 40 nil wins. Banish the group games instead
Putting aside my ridiculous suggestion for an inter league cup, I actually think a two leg knockout format (seeded based on the previous years league or cup position) from the beginning of the season would suit the Challenge Cup more than it's present format.
 
Top