The Business of HockeyDiscuss the financial and business aspects of the NHL. Franchise sales, valuations, TV contracts, ratings, expansion, relocation, the CBA and work stoppage discussion goes here.
From a monetary standpoint it makes total sense to do this for the US teams especially.
The more teams that are in the playoffs or close to the playoffs the better it is for a market. If teams feel they have a shot it is better for the fans.
I have a part of me that hates to see stuff change because I love hockey. But then as someone that used to watch baseball but has mostly quit due to few teams making the playoffs and the hopelessnes felt as a fan of my team, I can understand how it can be useful to let more teams into the playoffs.
Refusing to change no matter what will make the NHL go the way of MLB baseball. Maybe in some places MLB is strong, but in other areas it is slowly becoming a game watched by older and older people all the time, and not changing anything at all doesn' t help to draw in new fans
The NHL considered expanding the playoffs to 20 teams after the last Lockout.
The '05 CBA actually gave the NHL the right to add an add'l playoff round in '05-'06 or '06-'07 - teams 7-10 in each conference playing a best of 3 to advance - however the League never elected to exercise the option.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CBA Article 16.2
16.2 Playoff Games. The NHLPA has consented to granting the League, either in the
2005-06 NHL Season, or, alternatively, in the 2006-07 NHL Season, the option to
institute in any League Year a "Playoff Qualification Round" preliminary to the Playoffs,
which will consist of one (1) round involving four (4) Clubs in each Conference, with
each series in the round having a maximum of three (3) games, with the winner of each
series advancing to the Playoffs. If the League institutes a Playoff Qualification Round
in either 2005-06 or 2006-07, the parties agree to thereafter jointly evaluate and discuss
such experience. If the League desires to implement a Playoff Qualification Round with
respect to future NHL Season(s), it may only do so with the consent of the NHLPA,
which shall not be unreasonably withheld. The Playoffs will consist of four (4) rounds,
with each series in each round having a maximum of seven (7) games.
Have always envisioned it once expansion to 32 happens (still think it's coming) and the realignment is complete.
How they can do it is have the 8 team conferences, seeds 1 through 3 are 'playoff, teams. Seeds 4 and 5 are 'play in' teams and they borrow a page from MLB's book and have a sudden death game at the #4 home and go from there.
They'll be no need to play and extra week or 2 later (yet) just start the schedule on a Tuesday instead of Thursday (Plus Thursday night football looks like it's here to stay)
The OP is onto something about the new playoff format. Just think about it everyone Let's say all teams end up staying where they are including Phoenix. Then you add in expansion teams.
It would make sense to increase the chances of making the playoffs to earn more revenue. If you do not, you'll see teams who don't perform well do bad at the gates to the point where you could end up having several Phoenix money pits that will need to relocate or contract.
A New playoff format would help those teams who are borderline of not making the playoffs year in and year out.
When the League, if ever the League, reaches 40 teams, THEN a 20-team Playoff will be fine. Before then, No Thanks!
Let's keep the Playoffs for the better Half of the teams from the Regular Season. Let's not have anything that comes any closer to approximating the embarrassment of Playoff seeding when there were only 21 and 24 teams with 16 making the Playoffs.
Agreed. More than half the league making the playoffs is just wrong. It's bad enough as it is that 16 teams out of 30 get in. I wouldn't take away a playoff round exactly, but I migrated to hockey from baseball, so having outright losing teams in the playoffs is just a bit jarring.
Agreed. More than half the league making the playoffs is just wrong. It's bad enough as it is that 16 teams out of 30 get in. I wouldn't take away a playoff round exactly, but I migrated to hockey from baseball, so having outright losing teams in the playoffs is just a bit jarring.
I suppose that makes sense to someone coming from baseball, but i would imagine for fans of the other big 3 sports in North America having only 8 teams make the playoffs is just downright incomprehensible.
I suppose that makes sense to someone coming from baseball, but i would imagine for fans of the other big 3 sports in North America having only 8 teams make the playoffs is just downright incomprehensible.
How about a 30 team playoff field? How about playoffs from October to April (best-of-100-series or something)? The regular season doesn't have a lot of meaning anway with so many teams making the playoffs.
Agreed. It's already pretty borderline with over half the teams making the playoffs. Anything more inclusive and I will poop on various doorsteps.
This is coming from a Flames fan, so you know I'm thinking from a standpoint of the legitimacy of the league.
I suppose that makes sense to someone coming from baseball, but i would imagine for fans of the other big 3 sports in North America having only 8 teams make the playoffs is just downright incomprehensible.
Considering that it was only in my lifetime that it became more than 4?
In baseball, in order to make the playoffs, you used to have to win a pennant. The playoffs themselves are becoming more meaningless, which makes the regular season -- which as much as MLB brass completely doesn't understand this, is and always was the strength and soul of baseball -- much less significant.
Gone are the days of fans of multiple towns anxiously beating out the pennant race on the last day of the season, and knowing that only by winning the Pennant is the World Series accessible. Gone, therefore, is the old tension and suspense of the long regular season, and both the triumph and the agony of the pennant chance are pale shadows of what they used to be. Gone too are the heady consolation prizes where everyone who lost in the World Series had still proven over a grueling 162 game schedule that they were the best team in their own league (rather than a fluke who lucked their way through some tough short series *coughStLouiscough*
No, thank you. 16 is perfect in every way. Easy set up for a single-elimination tournament, no needless byes that could ice better teams, and no needless parts of the tournament that have a different format than others.
Gonna side with NO on this one. 53% of the league already makes the play-offs, no need to open the door to more teams. It would take all the value out of making the play-offs.
16 is enough. This idea is absurd. Just a pure cash grab. Is this supposed to help the weaker teams? LOL. Whose idea was this anyways? I didnt even take it seriously when it was first borught up.
I'd rather have a 12 teams in the playoffs rather than 16 so no. No to the NHL further degrading itself by being the pro sport that allows the most number of teams in the playoffs.
I can understand why they'd want to create as much interest as they can coming out of a lockout by it's moves like this that are turning the game into a 2nd rate sport .
It's bad enough with the 3 pt games but 20 out 30 teams makes the playoffs a farce , what's next do we follow basketball and have the refs help decide games .
We should keep the current proportion, if anything expand to 60 teams with 32 making the playoffs.
Baltimore
Indianapolis
Seattle
Kansas City
Quebec
Hamilton
Atlanta (without ASG)
Houston
Portland
Madison
Halifax
Las Vegas
Salt Lake
San Diego
San Francisco
Memphis (rivalry with Nashville)
Minneapolis
New Orleans
Cincinnati
Sacramento
Norfolk
North Dakota
South Dakota
Louisville
Oakland
Saskatoon
Anchorage
OKC
Omaha
Charlotte
Give or take anyway. Would be nice counter to expected KHL 64 team expansion as well. Now that would be a league to be reckoned with.
I think 16 is the perfect number of teams. Here's why:
-Only the elite of the league gets in. The teams that get there deserve it.
Ah, no, any criteria that accepts more than 50% of applicants is by definition anything but elite. Allowing 4 teams to qualify - that would be elite.
Since the format already lets in tons of mediocre teams, I see no compelling reason not to let in ALL teams. 16 is already an absurd number, so let's just skip "20" and go straight to a "everybody qualifies" format.
Personally, I would rather see the number cut down to 8.
Ah, no, any criteria that accepts more than 50% of applicants is by definition anything but elite. Allowing 4 teams to qualify - that would be elite.
Since the format already lets in tons of mediocre teams, I see no compelling reason not to let in ALL teams. 16 is already an absurd number, so let's just skip "20" and go straight to a "everybody qualifies" format.
Personally, I would rather see the number cut down to 8.
The Kings just proved that this should never happen.
The Kings just proved that this should never happen.
That's not a proof, you can look at it the other way: The Kings should never have been in a position to win the Cup. At max they were the best team for two months (April 11 - June 11, they played 21 games during that time), but for the majority of the season, six months (October 7 - April 7, they played 82 games during that time), they clearly weren't. The same goes for every playoff team ranking low in the regular season.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dado
Personally, I would rather see the number cut down to 8.
Agreed. The 3 division winners in each conference + the best 2nd placed team.
As a Leafs fan it's someone interesting that I say this, but I think that it's too easy to get in as it is. More than half the team get in the playoffs as it is, I see no reason to up that to 2/3rds.
I prefer the NFL count. 6 teams in each conference, top 2 seeds get a bye. Make the first round best of 5 instead of 7.
Obviously the owners would never go for this in a million years, but I like it.
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The 3 division winners in each conference + the best 2nd placed team.
Enough people complained about Florida getting the 3rd seed in an 8 team conference playoff format. I'm sure it would go over even better if only 4 teams made it.
If you wanted to do 8, go with the realigned 4 larger groups, and it's the conference winners, and then the best 4 remaining records.
No chance it's less than 16 teams though, even if it probably should be. Too much money.
Let's say all teams end up staying where they are including Phoenix. Then you add in expansion teams.
