My Take On Vasteras Relocation

[Devise 4,475]

Now that is official, I felt like I should share my opinion, one that mostly was limited to BoG discussions. Since my time in the league, the discussion of relocating Vasteras has come up every 3-5 seasons. For those of you who don't know I've been in the league since season 24. That is just over 3 years of real world time now. Early on I mostly ignored the conversation, and then as I got more engaged and involved in the league I would make my opinion known.

 

Vasteras relocating is the right decision. Some are on the fence about it, some are neutral, and there are still some like Tyler who clamor that this decision is meaningless. I want to urge you all, it isn't. People seem to think this is about a group of people who hate on Vasteras and changing their outlook. As Tyler said in his media spot, the "circlejerk." I again will reiterate, it isn't. 

 

On top of lurking around the boards, posting three paragraph posts and ruining the player store I also take to newer members. While my role on recruitment crew is limited, I like to gauge overall interest in the franchises in the league, the VHL, etc. While I do think, quality gm's, quality players, quality decisions lead to a quality franchise, the Iron Eagles had a stigma that simply wasn't going away. They had competing members on them, were making runs recently with Jardy, and Coach on their roster and it still didn't matter. 

 

The perception of the Iron Eagles was something that had an effect on eagerness and excitement to play for the franchise. Sure, relocating them to Stockholm isn't suddenly going to transform them into contenders. But what it will do is help the franchise get more on even footing with other teams in the league. It helps make a better first impression. People who aren't apart of some of the "core" of the league won't instantly see this stigma, this undeserving fault. Members who flip flop, and choose to play for Stockholm now that they are no longer Vasteras will fuel more members to join them. 

 

Let me say as well that it does suck that there are some members in this league who hate Vasteras so much they never wanted to play for them. However just because it sucks doesn't mean it doesn't have to exist. Ultimately, Stockholm represents a better hockey city/market, the logo/colors appear to be a huge hit early on with most of the established members, and Boubabi who just took over the job gets a real fresh start at building up this new franchise as this move happened basically at the beginning of a rebuild. 

 

I was consistently on the fence about the Vasteras relocation, specifically because I sided with some on the BoG who argued that the quality of a franchise is all about the team make up, the GM, and how well the team is doing. However I know of members in this league who regardless of how well Vasteras was doing would never ever play for them. Super silly of course, but I ended up deciding in favor of this relocation simply because I feel the less hurdles we have for league parity, for every franchise to have a chance to make their mark, the better. It is for these long reasons why I think that this relocation was the right decision. League history is important, however if we were too attached to league history we would never change for the better. We still don't use old logo's and team names, because a lot of them were not professional or even custom made. The league has grown into a more professional well represented entity and in doing so some aspects of history have been forced to go by the wayside. 

 

TL;DR Vasteras moving is a tough thing to happen in this league, however I support the move for long reasons that can't really be described in a TL;DR by me because I'm Devise. The end. 

 

 

[Boomcheck 161]

Lets rebrand the Bears.

[Tyler 885]

the circlejerk is blatantly why newer users hate Vasteras tho. If people treated the franchise with respect, new users would respect it. Rather than important users saying "fuck vasteras" and thinking they're funny, they could have just been neutral. But hey, it doesn't matter now obviously

[Kendrick 4,741]

the circlejerk is blatantly why newer users hate Vasteras tho. If people treated the franchise with respect, new users would respect it. Rather than important users saying "fuck vasteras" and thinking they're funny, they could have just been neutral. But hey, it doesn't matter now obviously

The franchise never won much though, thats where the respect isn't warranted. IF you don't win then people start to grow tired of their failure, that goes in every sport. Vasteras stopped even making the playoffs, thats how bad their failure was in a 8/10 team league. People who have been here since the beginning thought it was a mistake from the get go, then they failed, thus a change was needed.

[Guest]

the circlejerk is blatantly why newer users hate Vasteras tho. If people treated the franchise with respect, new users would respect it. Rather than important users saying "fuck vasteras" and thinking they're funny, they could have just been neutral. But hey, it doesn't matter now obviously

lol this post made my day

[Tyler 885]

The franchise never won much though, thats where the respect isn't warranted. IF you don't win then people start to grow tired of their failure, that goes in every sport. Vasteras stopped even making the playoffs, thats how bad their failure was in a 8/10 team league. People who have been here since the beginning thought it was a mistake from the get go, then they failed, thus a change was needed.

 

When I was GM and won the cup, and made runs every year, people still said they'd never play there, they still had the exact same mentality. It's hardly a new thing.

 

Do you not see how the two things could potentially be related? If the most important users on the site constantly bash a team of course no one will want to go there. No one wants to play for the team everyone hates, it's pretty basic logic. Like I said, it's a moot point at this point because Vasteras is gone, but I really hope it serves as a lesson for the future.

[boubabi 4,725]

der meister : I don't hate VAS, probably because I wasn't active at the time

 

People who were new and active =    for no reason

 

and we cannot compare this to real life because team in real life doesn't have to relate to their fans base to have a competitive team.

 

In this case, we have to be love, or ''neutral'' at least. It's not normal that 701 who has nothing to do with the Vasteras history, hate the team. Because hating Vasteras was trending by the circlejerk.

 

Personally, I'm neutral I don't really care. I would have kept the eagle but for my team, I saw the hate toward the team in general and it was a no brainer to refuse the occasion to ''remove'' that reputation.

Edited November 13, 2014 by boubabi

[Cuffy 346]

I liked vas tbh

[Boomcheck 161]

 

Can I get one of these for every team.

[Kendrick 4,741]

When I was GM and won the cup, and made runs every year, people still said they'd never play there, they still had the exact same mentality. It's hardly a new thing.

 

Do you not see how the two things could potentially be related? If the most important users on the site constantly bash a team of course no one will want to go there. No one wants to play for the team everyone hates, it's pretty basic logic. Like I said, it's a moot point at this point because Vasteras is gone, but I really hope it serves as a lesson for the future.

The only person that was for Vasteras at the start and that was Pensfan (Because he had an obsession with a 2nd Division Swedish Hockey league team). It was the only franchise that was directly named after a real life team. It wasn't liked from the start. When you came along and won it also had been 20+ seasons of failure and people were tired of it then. I never went around bashing Vasteras much as others, but I can tell you one thing; it was a bad idea from the start. So as much as you think it's a circle jerk, its also the same type of circle jerk that it "pro" Vaster always coming in backing a team.

 

Whether you like it or not it wasn't liked by 70% or more of the site based on its stupid location, stupid name and very very stupid idea behind it. PensFan is gone and it doesn't matter anymore. Moving forward its better for the team. I agree with you that when some people bash it it doesn't bode well, but that could apply to most things on this site. Also the fact that you said draftees already hated before being drafted was bad (which is true), the fact that some long standing members who re-create want nothing to do with helping it is also a bad thing for the team, but warranted. All in all it is done and a new direction was needed and granted. Cheers to Stockholm!

Edited November 14, 2014 by Kendrick

[Will 4,660]

I'd like to know who thought it was a good idea to upload the fuck vasteras icon and single them out even further 

 

Although I do agree with what Devise said here, just curious of the logic behind the icon.

[sterling 1,997]

I imagine that started with brooks

[Kendrick 4,741]

It did, he wasn't happy with how Vasteras was a confirmed team from the start.

[Victor 10,940]

I imagine that started with brooks

no it was a very recent development. Post S30.

[sterling 1,997]

The actual emote might be recent, but the slogan started with him I'm sure

[Victor 10,940]

Vasterascum by McNeil ftw.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Pensfan to come back to league the day of the first sim next season e5

[Advantage 2,891]

Never should have been a team honestly.

[RMiner57 23]

Honestly, as a new member I don't get the whole stigma behind the hate for Vasteras. Any team can be poorly run and suffer for awhile, but to avoid a team like it's the plague because   is really dumb.

[probably not noah 346]

The word "circlejerk" gets thrown a lot in a really weird context. I think it needs a word filter.

[AIM-11 134]

Getting fake upset over playing for a fake team in a fake league is real lame.

[Kendrick 4,741]

Getting fake upset over playing for a fake team in a fake league is real lame.

I don't think people get upset, however they are here for fun because Sim Leagues is a hobby of theirs. If Vasteras is what limits the majority of the member bases fun because it had a shitty base at the start, then obviously it gets looked at.

[CoachReilly 688]

I just think it's better for the VHL to have all original team names, logos, etc. That's a huge plus we can brag about.

[Phil 5,119]

I really liked Devise's take on the relocation and as sad as I was to see them move, I believe it is the right decision as well.