My thoughts on expansion in the M

[fyrefly 172]

        I was just reading @Spence King’s great article on a possible expansion franchise on the VHLM, and I was intrigued. There is a really good reason for expansion. 
 

          There is one glaring issue in the league right now that has sparked all this clamouring first expansion. It is the influx of new players from social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. The VHL has put some energy into marketing on these platforms, and the result is thirty or so new recruits. Only problem? The teams in the M are getting full. There is a maximum player limit on teams, and a lot of teams have reached theirs. For example, at the start of the season, the Houston Bulls had four skaters and a goalie. That was because of mass graduation to the VHL. At first, the small influx was a miracle to the barren Bulls, who have recruited lots of waiver players. But now, even they have had to turn players down because of the limit. So, the problem we have right now is that some players have no team, because all the other teams have run out of space. Players need spots on teams to play, and that isn’t available right now. So what is the consensus solution? Expansion.

  

            In Spence King’s article, he claims that there are a bunch of cities that would kill to have a VHLM team. And he also claimed that he had secured jersey rights, logo rights, and an arena somewhere. He also suggested himself for the position. In accordance to his comments, I also believe that there are plenty of cities capable of hosting a VHLM team. For example, on the comments of Spence King’s article, @GrittyIsKing09 suggested the Buffalo Battalion as a good name. I actually really like this name, as Buffalo is a certified hockey town currently without a VHL or VHLM team, and ‘Battalion’ fits their mantra of naming every one of their sports teams something in relation to buffalos. And I bet there will be plenty more great team names out there, so I will ask right now for the readers to post their favoured expansion franchise name in the comments. Thank you, and excuse me for sounding like a YouTuber here.

 

            Now, let’s look at the downside. The reason the M commissioners haven’t authorized an expansion already. This reason is a banger. The concern about it the expansion revolves around the influx stopping, which is almost inevitable. Let’s say the Battalion are created, and build their team through the dispersal draft and the odd waiver pickup. So far so good, right? Wrong. If the influx stops, which has a high possibility eventually,  there will be more and more teams like the Bulls that struggle to ice a full team. And remember, the Miami Marauders are still a very new team here, and the league is feeling the pull of that expansion. So, bottom line: as of right now, teams are full to the brim, and good players are playing on the fourth line. For example, my player, Sheldon Juniper, is 90 TPE before I claim for this. He is playing on the fourth line for the Marauders, who aren’t a very strong team. This is exhibited again with my friend @Suzuki14, who’s player, Victor Foles, who is 88 TPE, is playing on the fourth line of the Mexico City Kings. This isn’t the fault of the GMs, especially not the fault of mine, @Ricer13, who’s been a great guy to me. It’s technically the fault of the influx, and as of right now, there is no clear solution to this mess.

 

       The title of this article says ‘my thoughts’. So I’m going to give you my thoughts. 
Here’s my take-the season is almost over, and the playoffs are pretty much set. I think we should tell the newbies to sit tight and wait it out for a bit, because the draft is right around the corner. And VHL graduation is real as ever, so that will open up a lot of spots. Bottom line: we should wait until after the draft before making any rash decisions. By then, we’ll know the amount of players we need to cater to, and if we actually need an expansion franchise. Thanks for reading.

 

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[Suzuki14 24]

Review: Great article, nice and long. Good use of paragraphs, maybe make them a little shorter next time. I think you’e right about expansion, it’s not yet needed. Overall good article.

9/10

[NickSunderbruch 392]

8/10 I like the way you space your paragraphs, I'm kind of a sucker for proper writing. I also really think that you would benefit from the uses of images to break it up a little bit, make it easier for people to read. Either way, I think the idea of an expansion team is great, but the problems outweigh the benefits at the moment, maybe if we launch another campaign and get another influx of members we could afford one. Like if we got another 15-20 recruits on top of the ones in this influx we could probably survive internally with an expansion team without the need to worry about the influx ending.