What if....expansion went bigger, more cities, more teams, more power

[hockeyis66 143]

What if…what if during the last expansion, the VHL expanded into 24 teams – 12 in Europe and 12 in North America with stipulations being an East/West divisions for both, the cities in Europe must be a major city and in North America, the cities cannot have a current NHL team – what would this look like potentially.  In the North American divisions, I would like to have 3 Canadian and 3 United States cities in each one.

 

 

In the Europe West Division – London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest to hit all of the major cities in predominate hockey countries and keeping it to one city per country as well.  Travel would be pretty easy the cities as well with the only trip over water having to play in London.  Other cities in play would be Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid and Rome.  Amsterdam would probably be next on the list with Madrid and Rome last on the list since they are farther east and south and more in a warmer climate than the other ones.

 

In the Europe East Division – Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Moscow, Riga and Warsaw would be my top 6 picks with Minsk, Kiev, Copenhagen and Bucharest just missing the cut.  Keeping the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland together would make for some great rivalries and travel would not be too bad either as a team could play all 3 of the Nordic teams in a row or all 3 of other teams to the east of the Baltic Sea at once. 

I like my mix of cities here in Europe – travel is easy and there are natural rivalries between the cities already.  As the VHL continues to grow, there are already cities that could easily jump into the league in both divisions to keep the travel at a minimum and the competition high.

 

North America West – For the US Cities and using the Mississippi River as the divider between West and East, I would go with Portland, Salt Lake City and Kansas City to give a nice spread of coastal, mountain and Midwestern flavor.  For the Canadian cities, I would pick Victoria, Saskatoon and Regina.  Victoria and Portland would end up having a nice rivalry on Western coast and the other 4 hit my Mountain/Midwestern look that I was hoping to achieve.   Fargo and Boise would be a couple of US cities that come to mind as potential destinations as well while maybe Moose Jaw and Red Deer just miss the Canadian city cut.

 

North America East – Quebec and Hartford are in no matter what.  No agreement.  No discussion.  They are in.  Period.  For my other two Eastern US cities, I am going to keep with the Midwestern/Great Lakes theme here and select Cleveland and Milwaukee.  Two Midwestern cities both situated on Great Lakes and easy access to Canada.  Nothing south or below the Mason-Dixon line.  Also thought of Cincy and Indy and possible Baltimore here, but being a Pittsburgh native my whole and selecting Cleveland should tell you a whole lot.  Lots of choices for the two Canadian teams, but I am going to go with Hamilton and Halifax.  Hamilton is close to Cleveland and will make for a nice rivalry there and Halifax is a coastal town which will match up nicely with Hartford.

 

Same as with Europe, I am happy with the overall mix of the North American cities – coastal, Midwest and mountain – and nothing more south than Kansas City.  And with as the same as Europe too, there are still good possibilities to expand into. 

[bigAL 2,176]

Two teams in Saskatchewan?! Good stuff, nice breakdown, and awesome ideas.

[Juice 641]

A team in Budapest Sign me up to go from hometown Yukon to current city Budapest!

 

Absolutely killer article @hockeyis66! I'd love to see you also give each city/team a name, but overall I love the read  

[rory 1,788]

KYIV COSSACKS FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

 

Great article, interesting opinions

[Xflexz 158]

Absolutely amazing read. These kind of things get me excited to read. Only suggestion is to indent you paragraphs. Seems to be a common theme in the VHL that no one does this. Drives me up a wall. 9/10

Edited April 17, 2021 by Xflexz

[Smarch 2,995]

Lol Moose Jaw, we can hardly supper a junior hockey team on a nightly basis.

 

good read tho!