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Originally Posted by Welkin
AUnfortunately the strong salary cap which would make the CHL viable (like the CFL) it would allow the American NHL teams to out bid Canadian teams for the top players and turn the CHL into a lower level league.
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There's no evidence to back up this view. This is just the default "American is better" attitude so many Canadians fall back on. If anything it would be the opposite. The Canadian NHL teams, on average, make more money and have stronger followings than the American ones. A hypothetical Canadian league would be second to noone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welkin
Without a strong salary cap, the CHL would turn into the EPL. I hate to burst everyones's bubble, but the EPL sucks as a league because it is a league of two classes. Just like a CHL where a couple of teams with all the money would dominate year-in-and-year out the EPL is dominated by a only a handfull of teams. The rest of the league knows they have no chance in hell of winning the league and they play simply to avoid relegation. 3/4 of the EPL are in the "We-are-just-happy-to-be-here" group and serve as nothing more than practice fodder for the rich, powerful teams.
In the last 20 years Manchester United has won the EPL 12 times, Man City once, Chelsa three times and Arsenal 3 times. The only time a non Top Four team has won the EPL in 20 years was Blackburn in 1995. The only fans that like the way the EPL is set up are the fans in lower-tier cities that are so happy to see their team play the Man U's of the world, that they really don't care that their team is going to loose. However, there is a growing movement in Europe for the establishment of a Super League where the top teams play for all the glory and riches and leave their domestic leagues to their second-tier cities and teams. Fans of Man U are getting tired of spending their money watching their home team playing the likes of Norwich, Swansea and Hull, when what they really want is Man U. playing comparable teams such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus on a regular basis.
A CHL would be the same. The big money markets of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver would dominate with Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Ottawa winning the occasional title, and Saskatoon, Regina, Halifax, Saint John, London, Victoria......etc just trying to stay out of the bottom. With the CHL competing against the NHL for top-tier players (don't assume top Canadian players are going to stay in Canada), the CHL would quickly become a league where a few top teams would be playing NHL caliber hockey and a lot of the teams playing AHL/KHL level hockey.
In essence we have already achieved the North American version of a Super League. Only the top-tier cities and teams in Canada and the US and get to play in the NHL and both countries have minor league teams for the second-tier cities.
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The beauty of the system the EPL plays in is that it doesn't play in isolation. There are tournaments with teams from all over Europe that are just as meaningful as league play. Teams can play with the big boys from other countries without sacrificing their domestic leagues. Put it this way: in EPL smaller teams like Swansea and Norwich don't have a very good chance of winning it all, but in MLS the chance of Edmonton and Ottawa winning is zero.