The return of cheque book hockey

CARDIFF, UK – It is October and with NHL training camps now completed, talented hockey players unable to secure a contract in the higher leagues are looking further afield.   Just this week, both Nottingham Panthers and Belfast Giants have managed to secure the signatures of players with experience more reminiscent of ISL days.  
With the expansion of the EIHL to include ten teams, and the decision to ignore the poorly supervised wage-cap of previous seasons, will there be an ever-widening disparity in the success of EIHL teams?
This season the EIHL is brimming with top-league experience and the signing this week of ex-NHL player Brad Smyth to the Belfast Giants, and of young AHL forward Rob Bellamy to the Nottingham Panthers, in addition to Sheffield Steeler’s ex-NHL stars Ben Simon and Rob Globke, the standard of hockey looks promising, but is there a cost involved in terms of an equitable league?
Last season, the race for the league title was much closer than in some previous years, with three teams battling it out until the final weekend of the regular season.   While there were teams at the bottom of the league who were out of the running weeks before, there were plenty of games in which the wooden spoon winners overturned the league champions, making for an interesting competition.   This season, with Coventry Blaze struggling to find form, the ‘Big 4’ may have become the ‘Big 3’ with others struggling to take points from their higher budget rivals.   With arena capacities varying from little over 1,000 to in excess of 7,000, the potential gate revenue varies enormously throughout the league; without a wage-cap in place, it is of no surprise that those with the biggest arenas also have a highest budget for players and staff.
As a veteran of UK hockey, GB and Cardiff Devils goaltender Stevie Lyle has seen a lot of changes to the league and he expresses concern over the disparity in budgets between the ten teams.
“I don’t think that there will be many cases of the lower teams in the league gaining points against the big clubs this season…The late decision not to impose a wage cap this year has led to the larger arena clubs having budgets that put the smaller clubs in a difficult position.   I think that the gap between the large clubs and the smaller ones will be bigger than ever and that isn’t really something that is for the good of the league, it’s not even great for the big teams because the competition that people like to see is not there.”  
One month into the 2010-11 season and a brief look at the league table shows that even without the strengthening of their teams with highly paid signings, Belfast Giants and Nottingham Panthers are up at the top with the unbeaten Sheffield Steelers, while new EIHL team Dundee Stars have yet to receive a league point, losing all eight fixtures. Time will tell whether the people of Dundee will continue to pay to watch a poorly performing EIHL team, or whether the side would be more suited to a lower league.   Hull Stingrays, whose previous owners were forced to sell the club one month before the start of the season, havve suffered several setbacks over the years and have only this week played their opening game.   Suffering from low attendances in an small arena, is it ever possible for a financially viable team to operate from the city of Hull?   The gap between the biggest teams and the smallest, at this point in the season, looks to be widening week by week.   By increasing wage budgets and making big name signings in an attempt to fill the larger arenas, the ‘Big 3’ teams risk adversely affecting the success of smaller clubs more and more, but what will this mean for the future of EIHL hockey in the UK?  
Lyle, who also assists his home town club with marketing in the close-season has a suggestion.
“I think in terms of sustainability for the league they really need to start off with a level playing field, with the big clubs focussed on helping the smaller clubs to increase their revenue. When you see score lines of 6-0 and 7-0 and you hear of teams deciding to take their foot off the gas in the third period so that they don’t completely humiliate the opposition, you realise how unequal the league is and I don’t think that is for the good of the sport long term.   The league needs to come together as a whole and think of itself as one business, there are always going to be disagreements between owners but they need to pull together.   They need to employ someone to market the league, despite appearing on Sky Sports every single Friday, the league is still without a sponsor which seems crazy.   They need a good marketing manager there to make sure that the hockey is in the papers non-stop and gets in the public eye.   The league should be run by the league, not by certain team-owners within the league, each with an eye on their own pockets.   There is the potential for hockey in the UK and I really hope that things will improve and that the sport gets the attention it deserves.”
The 1990s showed us that hockey of the Superleague standard was not financially sustainable in the UK. Now, in a time of increased economic pressure, the desperation of team owners to find a profitable way to run their clubs in the short term risks being at the expense of a sustainable and equitable league.   For EIHL fans everywhere in the UK, let us hope that this is not the case.     
Contact the writer:   victoria.silverwood@prohockeynews.com