Why Budapest Would Be a Great Location for a VHLE Franchise

[Juice 641]

Well, that just happened. When it came to resolving roster issues, a 3rd league was the last thing I was expecting.

 

With the recent surprise announcement of the VHLE, among the chaos of hype and questions regarding the entire not-expansion expansion, it had the cogs in my head from two perspectives. First, as a player I'm absolutely pumped that eventually I'll be able to play in another league and see how that's going to work with a lot higher TPE minimums than the VHLM (will recreates still dominate?) as well as the additional year retirement cap added. However, as a GM in the VHLM it has me both curious and hesitant.

 

(skip the below if you don't want to read VHLE concerns and want to go straight to why Budapest would be a sick VHLE team location)

 

The hesitant: I've mentioned this to a few people and talked about it at length over discord with a few others, but as a VHLM GM I would be lying if I'm not a bit concerned. First and foremost, as it seems this is the conclusion most people think when they hear this, but not being competitive in the VHLM shouldn't be the main goal whereas development should be the main focus. The people that interact with me the most know that my main goal is to find gem first gens and guide them to become core community members and overall have fun with the league. 

 

With that touched on, my main concern for this expansion league is that it hurts the VHLM. I think with the lack of recreates that will ever touch the VHLM for more than half a season (If you create at a certain time, you'll be able to play roughly half a season to hit the 200 TPE cap ahead of the draft) hits a bit hard. This is due to that recreates help hype up the locker-room and help guide new players, and although having them for a part of a season is good, I think it's quite different compared to from start to end of a season.

 

The other reason for me that concerns me is regarding the 200 TPE cap, as I think this will hurt in several ways. First being that of course it effects the overall structure of the league as most players that are at least earning at a respectable level will be gone in under a season (and I understand that is the main goal, however I could see the VHLM being a place where welfare + practice players stay for a few seasons and that's it, which isn't exactly the best place to show new people to the league for how locker-rooms work if they aren't active past that). The second reason is that in my mind, the job as a GM in the VHLM changes quite a lot where before you were there as a stepping stone for some that know what they are doing and can help your team in multiple ways (compete + be present for new players) as well as helping teach new people the ropes of the league and hopefully give them a look into what they'll experience up in the VHL, whereas at the same time personally as a GM you're practically learning the ropes to maybe eventually being a VHL GM. With the new change, with pretty much anyone who earns well leaving immediately, the VHLM GM job seems more like only being a greeter type job whereas the VHLE GM is your new go-to to learn more to be a VHL GM.

 

Overall, I think my bias plays in (Yukon raised GM'ing for Yukon) as I'd hate to feel be more useless with the new league being introduced, but I'm more than willing to have an open mind and give it several seasons to see how it works before being fully set in with my idea of it.

 

With the above being said, I am still really looking forward to the changes and hoping for the best with the 3-league change.

 

Now, to go to the fun part. Why I think Budapest would be a location to consider for a VHLE Franchise.

 

Registered Hockey Players per Country

Stolen from @dlamb, sorry

 

1. Rising hockey popularity in Europe

 

As you can see in the above, if you disregard the obvious big hockey countries (Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czechia), Hungary sits 9th in registered hockey players in the world, and if we take out the already taken countries used for VHL franchises, Hungary would be 5th for European countries left. Now while Hungary might not be known as a powerhouse of a hockey country (Frank Banham being the only Hungarian descent to play in the NHL...and he was born and raised in Canada), however with the growing rate of registered hockey players I have a feeling that we could have another Germany situation where we'll add another European country to pop out good hockey prospects and players.

 

 

Map of Europe, with Hungary's location being pointed out

 

2. Location Location Location

 

What is the one thing that always needs to be taken into consideration when settling any sort of sports team? Where is the best place to put the arena and house your new team! And looking at where Hungary is located, besides Czechia (who already has a team) and Germany there is no better centralized place to put a team in my opinion. While it might be a bit different in person compared to a lot of other places due to it being an ex-Soviet country and not exactly the first place you'd think of when you hear about heading to Europe, Budapest is a beautiful place and could attract a lot of tourism, fans, and even vitalize the growing hockey market. This as well as it'd be close by a few already established VHL teams, so it's an easy place to bring both attention to the VHLE and VHL.

 

 

Team Name idea for the franchise, not created by myself

 

3. The Budapest Raiders

 

The other important thing for a team is of course the franchise's name. I would probably play into the history of Hungary, being technically from the Steppes in the East and coming West to where Hungary is now today with the Magyar, which were several dynasties of clans that were known as fierce warriors, invaders, and raided their way here. That being said, I'd go with the Budapest Raiders as the team name. I'd have to mock up an idea for the team logo, as I'm awful with art and had to find the above from google, but I think with the right graphic it could be a wonderful team name and logo.

 

 

One of the many really good Hungarian draft beers

 

4. Cheap Beer

 

If the above didn't help you consider it, I'm gonna have to pull out my trump card. Welcome to the land of cheap beer, which means also cheaper beer at the hockey arenas. Based on a World Beer Index, Hungary ranks 18th in the countries of the world in average cheapest price for a beer. And if we take into account just European countries, that number goes up to 5th for lowest average beer price with the countries ahead being Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, and Spain, and with those countries in mind only two are more hockey countries than Hungary. I'm a huge fan of drinking beers when watching hockey, but the outrageous prices (looking at you Rogers Arena) always makes me sigh and I usually pass on ever getting one. However with the cheap beer in mind, a hockey franchise would be able to make a fortune on relatively fair prices on beer for hockey standards that are well above average for the country itself.

 

 

Fields of Lavender in Tihany

 

5. Lavender

 

Putting this one in for @fishyto help play to the admins as well as anyone else who loves the purple goodness that is lavender. It's quite popular in Hungary, with huge fields spread-out through the country as well as an entire town near the capital city being dedicated to growing lavender (Tihany, if interested) as well as throwing lavender festivals. This, as well as the yearly Christmas markets always having several places that sell nothing but lavender, lavender scented products, as well as anything remotely they can make purple.

 

 

        Pain

 

6. I Live Here

 

I got pied for a moment like this, please bring a team here.

 

In summary, although there are a ton of good options (I'm keen towards Germany and France getting teams as well), I think Budapest, Hungary should be heavily considered either at first or for future VHLE expansion if we ever get to that point as I believe it could be an amazing location to play into. Even though my bias is definitely showing, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else would be down for this as well as if anyone would be able to mock up a graphic for the logo as if I attempted it then the entire idea would instantly be shot down by anyone with a reasonably good vision, my art abilities are that bad.

 

(1533 Words)

[Juice 641]

Claim 2/3 for week ending in 6/6

[Gaikoku-hito 1,996]

On 5/30/2021 at 10:56 AM, Juice said:

Budapest Raiders

I actually like the team name after doing some research after reading the article. That being said I would like to see the team name represent the local areas so I would like to see the name be either: (My Hungarian sucks so I did use Google translator for this.)

Budapest Betolakodók (Invaiders)

Budapest Rajtaütés (Raiders?)

Budapest Harcosok (Warrors)

 

If nothing else I would like to see the Hungarians names used on the logo to represent the local area better; with maybe the English names being used as the official name. 

[Juice 641]

2 minutes ago, Gaikoku-hito said:

I actually like the team name after doing some research after reading the article. That being said I would like to see the team name represent the local areas so I would like to see the name be either: (My Hungarian sucks so I did use Google translator for this.)

Budapest Betolakodók (Invaiders)

Budapest Rajtaütés (Raiders?)

Budapest Harcosok (Warrors)

 

If nothing else I would like to see the Hungarians names used on the logo to represent the local area better; with maybe the English names being used as the official name. 

That's actually an amazing idea, I figured the name being the team name wouldn't be a good idea as then even the player's can't say their own team name, however factored into the logo would be a great idea.

 

My girlfriend told me that even the Hungarian people call the Magyar that came over here Huns (  ), and that the plural would be "Hunok", so maybe that?

[Beketov 8,946]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:56 PM, Juice said:

The other reason for me that concerns me is regarding the 200 TPE cap, as I think this will hurt in several ways. First being that of course it effects the overall structure of the league as most players that are at least earning at a respectable level will be gone in under a season (and I understand that is the main goal

I wouldn’t say most. If you look at the past draft it would have been a single player, the draft before that had 0. The people who earn at that pace tend to retire at the deadline or pre-season, neither of those will run into the half season problem you describe. My hunch says it will be a handful if any every season. It’s not going to be some rush of people skipping the M. It’s also still being discussed if this would even be how it goes.

 

Also keep in mind that the cap was 200 for the vast majority of the league’s existence. This isn’t that new of a limit.

[Gaikoku-hito 1,996]

1 hour ago, Juice said:

That's actually an amazing idea, I figured the name being the team name wouldn't be a good idea as then even the player's can't say their own team name, however factored into the logo would be a great idea.

 

My girlfriend told me that even the Hungarian people call the Magyar that came over here Huns (  ), and that the plural would be "Hunok", so maybe that?

 Budapest Magyar would also work but I think staying away from the Huns in naming would be better as most don't think of the Huns as peaceful group that settled the area of Hungary in the 9th century due to Attila the hun and the wars he waged against the Roman Empire in the 440's.

[Juice 641]

Claiming 2/3, for week ending 6/13.

[Xflexz 174]

YOOOO this was incredible. I don't think I've seen such an in-depth article before. It also looks aesthetically pleasing and makes anyone with OCD happy. (What kind of pie?) 10/10

[mediocrepony 1,216]

huszars could be a good name:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussar

[Juice 641]

10 hours ago, GrittyIsKing09 said:

huszars could be a good name:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussar

I was thinking about it, but tbh I always think of Poland when I hear Hussar ;-;

[mediocrepony 1,216]

4 minutes ago, Juice said:

I was thinking about it, but tbh I always think of Poland when I hear Hussar ;-;

ah yeah, me too. i think polish ones are winged huszars tho.

the only reason i know about them are civ6 lmao. i didn't even think that the hungarian soldiers were huszars, i thought they were black knights or something 

[Juice 641]

9 hours ago, GrittyIsKing09 said:

ah yeah, me too. i think polish ones are winged huszars tho.

the only reason i know about them are civ6 lmao. i didn't even think that the hungarian soldiers were huszars, i thought they were black knights or something 

Oh shit I completely forgot about the Black Army, you're absolutely right.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Army_of_Hungary

 

Might be good to play into

[Juice 641]

Claiming 3/3, for week ending 6/20.