Expansion Teams

[Juddy 13]

Expansion Locations

 

The VHL is currently Developing two new expansion teams, so the million dollar question is where should these teams by located? And what will their team names be?

 

We will dive into the North American division first. The 5 teams are located in Vancouver, Calgary, Seattle, Toronto, and New York. To break it down further and maybe create two divisions in each conference we see three teams in western North America and only two in east. Adding a team to the eastern part would allow for the league to make divisions. We also see three Canadian markets and two American markets. That could lead to two different conferences like USA and Canada or the more traditional east vs west. 

 

The first idea that came to mind is the Boston market. This could help either division idea since Boston is both in the east and in America. Boston is a huge hockey market and is always connected in rivalry with New York, not just in hockey but every sport. Toronto has also built up a recent rivalry with Boston so that could be great for the league here. A few Boston team names could be, Boston Shamrock, Boston Bandits, and Boston Whalers.

 

Another North American market that could be explored is Montreal. Montreal has a rich history in hockey and this would create an instant rivalry with Toronto. This would not work with the Canada and USA divisions but would work east and west divisions. A few Montreal team names could be Montreal Madmen, Montreal Freeze, and Montreal Royals.

 

Now we move over to the European conference. Forgive me I am not as familiar with the European layout so I’m not to sure how to break up divisions. It could be set up similar with east and west or we could look into a Europe division and an Asia division.

 

The first market that may be interesting is Beijing. Hockey is growing globally and China boasts a huge population. The KHL has teams in China and there’s an Asian hockey league so this is an untapped market in the VHL and a great way to grow our league across the world. Moscow would be an instant rival because of their closeness. Team names could be the Beijing Killer Rabbits, Beijing Ninjas, and Beijing Dragons.

 

The next European market that could be interesting would be London. This market would be huge, not only do you bring in English fans but Irish, Scottish, and Whales. England isn’t known for hockey but there is an English league and hockey is slowly growing their and a VHL team would only help push the growth. Team names could be London Monarchs, Great Britian Red Coats, and London Bulldogs.

 

The key theme for my expansion talk is the opening up of divisions in our conferences. Every other major sport has different divisions and it helps to promote rivalries. With these new divisions I see us having 6 playoffs teams. Three from each conference with the division winners getting the first two seeds and a wildcard team from either division. First place in each conference gets a bye round and 2v3 and winner playing against the 1 seed. We could also goto either teams with the divisions winners getting 1 and 2 seeds and then two wildcard from either division.

[Elmebeck 378]

Red Coats has a nice ring to it TBH.