"It's Hockey Night In North Dakota!"

Looking for fun on a Friday night in Bismarck was something of a daunting task. In the end it led us to a NAHL game between the Billings Bulls and the Bismarck Bobcats (Bobcats win 4-1.) This was my first experience with minor league hockey, and I have to admit it is a pretty good product especially for 10 bucks. The crowd was on the order of 1200 to 1500 and the little arena was mostly filled and occasionally loud.

It got me thinking about what exactly is wrong with the NHL. The easy answer is, of course, just about everything; no one cares, no big TV money because no one cares, expansion into markets where no one cares, the homogeneous of the NHL into an NBA clone so that the people who used to care about the NHL no longer do, and other insanities too numerous to mention. But, for me, the biggest thing the NHL did wrong was to turn its back on the people who care the most about hockey, and for a league that is driven by ticket sales that is suicide. The cradle of the NHL is Canada, the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, period. You can have a league of 24 teams centered on that region and it should thrive.

But the NHL needs more than just that. The desire to expand, in and of itself, was not (and is not) a bad thing. The model of expansion they used, however, was completely wrong. It makes sense for the NFL to charge an arm and a leg for an expansion team. The huge TV money distributed to the teams ensures that any new owner will get immediate returns on his investment in the league. That is not the case in the NHL. In the NHL you have to pay a large expansion fee for the right to lose even larger sums of money later on. Wonderful business model, no?

What the NHL needs is a promotion relegation system similar to the English soccer leagues. In this system there would be a second division of 24 more teams, made up in the beginning from smaller Canadian and US cities with hockey crazed fans who will support the teams at the gate. Teams that succeed on the scoreboard AND on the financial sheet will have an opportunity to get promoted to the NHL, and NHL struggler will have a chance to go down to a level where payroll demands are less and where they can get their house in order to make another goal of it. While there would only be 24 Major league teams at any given time, the pool of potential NHL teams would be increased from the current 32 to 48! Prospective new owners could enter into the league with a smaller team budget, develop a fan base and an organization over time and not lose their shirt in the process.

Philosophically, there is something else wrong with the NHL. Hockey needs to be hockey. It cannot be the NBA on ice, so stop trying to be! Be different! Offer a unique sporting experience, something you cannot get following basketball, baseball or football! Bring back the old names for the divisions! Institute a promotion/relegation system which would be unique in North American sports! And stop worrying so much about your TV deal. Get your house in order, make your fans happy and the rest will take care of itself.