VHLE and Tom's thoughts

[Greg_Di 1,028]

 

We recently asked a few VHL players to post their thought on the VHLE which is the new development league for the VHL. One of those players was Tom Eagles and below is a summary of his thoughts on the league and potential destinations.

 

- Tom believes that the VHLE should expand into cities that usually do not have a high hockey presence in order to gain interest and popularity among the population and to grow the VHL Fan base. This can lead to higher TV Revenues and League apparel sales if you push into markets that don't have that presence. You would have to do media spots promoting the game and maybe even explaining the rules of the game.

- The VHLE should focus on bringing in talent from those same cities. If fans see that there is hometown players on their teams they are more likely to support the team and then follow that player throughout the VHL ranks. This means more customers which will lead to more revenues for the league.

 

- Current VHL Stars should start promoting the lower leagues around the new cities once they get announced. Popular players will bring interest to the game and by showing their support will exude confidence that this league is for the best interest of everyone.

 

- Tom believes the VHLE should spread outside of North America and Europe to up and coming countries to bring in a higher fan base. Tom has suggested the Asian Market as they do have a very high population and a growing middle class that can help grow the league. Putting teams in such places as South Korea, Japan and China could lead to a big revenue scream as the game starts to take root and grow in popularity.

- Putting teams in Asia can also help younger players learn about new cultures and new techniques that will eventually develop in the Asian market. New tactics, new philosophies which will lead to a bigger growth of the game and growing of new techniques.

 

- There have been quite a few Asian players in the VHL and VHLM and the Asian team has also been successful in the WJHC. Adding teams in Asia will help grow that talent pool and eventually have team Asia be on par with Team Europe, Canada and the USA.

- Overall Tom believes the league is a good idea for developing talent. It will give the opportunity to many players to play big minutes which at the moment, those same players might only play limited minutes in the VHLM or even not play at all due to limited space on those teams.

- In the future, once Tom is retired, he mentioned that he would be interested in managing a VHLE team in order to help and develop upcoming talent. No matter where the teams are located. Tom definitely wants to play a part in the league once he is retired and this would be a good start.

- If the league does not expand outside of North America and Europe, Tom suggests that putting some extra teams in Mexico could also help. While the heat and climate might be hard to keep proper ice conditions, it would be well worth exploring to once again grow the game outside Canada, US and Europe. in order for the league to grow, expand and collect record profits it has to look at ways to expand outside of those 3.