The New WCHA (2013-14)

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

FS23, I though that your thinking was the correct way.

So, if my above post is amended to a flight to each UA_ and UAA, Icebreaker, and Hall of Fame game, NMU could play 41 games before the first round of playoffs?

I believe so but the NCAA schedules the Icebreaker and HOF game so I doubt they would have the same team participate in both. 39 is certainly a possibility.

 

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

The league office isn't moving anywhere until 2013 at the earliest. There are 12 teams in the league, the offices are free and Bruce presumably lives in Denver.

The WCHA has a fiduciary duty to protect the interests of the 12 existing members. The WCHA can plan for the future, but until teams leave the conference they can't put interests of the "stayers" vs. ahead of the "departers."

If the WCHA does choose to relocate the league offices in 2013, are they going to go to the expense of paying Bruce's moving expenses? Doubtful. So the future site of the league offices will probably have more to do with the hometown of the new commissioner, if they go that route, than anything else.

If Bruce is commissioner in 2013 and beyond, they will probably stay in Denver.

The NCHC has already hired a commish and has issued press releases. Seems like the six bolting schools want the whole street to themselves.....

 

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

FS23, I though that your thinking was the correct way.

So, if my above post is amended to a flight to each UA_ and UAA, Icebreaker, and Hall of Fame game, NMU could play 41 games before the first round of playoffs?

Correct. Then the WCHA should go back to the way they used to do playoff series (two game, total goals) and have a First Round, Semis, and Finals at the higher seed, and that will add another 6 games to the potential, then 4 games in the NCAA Tournament, an exhibition against a Canadian school, exhibition against the USA U20 squad, and a foreign tour to start the season (3-4 games?) and you could potentially see upwards of 55 games...

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Correct. Then the WCHA should go back to the way they used to do playoff series (two game, total goals) and have a First Round, Semis, and Finals at the higher seed, and that will add another 6 games to the potential, then 4 games in the NCAA Tournament, an exhibition against a Canadian school, exhibition against the USA U20 squad, and a foreign tour to start the season (3-4 games?) and you could potentially see upwards of 55 games...

As I learned as a Michigan Tech fan, the foreign tour must be taken while students are on break. In the case of Michigan Tech, one year they traveled to Lakehead for a 2 game series after finals in December because the coach didn't like the long break between games and the GLI and 1.5 years ago, the team went to germany/austria and played 3 or 4 professional teams in august before classes started. Freshman were not allowed to go on the trip but graduated seniors that had not played in a pro league yet, were allowed. Very strange setup there.

 

[manurespreader]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

The league office isn't moving anywhere until 2013 at the earliest. There are 12 teams in the league, the offices are free and Bruce presumably lives in Denver.

The WCHA has a fiduciary duty to protect the interests of the 12 existing members. The WCHA can plan for the future, but until teams leave the conference they can't put interests of the "stayers" vs. ahead of the "departers."

If the WCHA does choose to relocate the league offices in 2013, are they going to go to the expense of paying Bruce's moving expenses? Doubtful. So the future site of the league offices will probably have more to do with the hometown of the new commissioner, if they go that route, than anything else.

If Bruce is commissioner in 2013 and beyond, they will probably stay in Denver.

First agreed, it is unethical to abrogate your fiduciary responsibility, but no one except you is suggesting it. If the WCHA offices move it is because a majority of the members voted for it, and what I hear you saying is that the leavers are going to veto anything that they view does not directly benefit them.( BTw it would also be unethical for the nchc to approach certain WCHA staffers with an offer to leave the present job and move over to a new one in the Springs at some future time.)
I think the left outers are going to need some new staff in place before summer of 2013 so it might be that they fund it separately. I wonder what the actual date of departure of the leavers is going to be. If they leave right after the 12-13 season it's one thing but if they leave mid summer something else.

As far as Bruce, the job is almost for sure moving, he might be able to come along but I doubt anyone is paying his moving bill.
I think the whole thing is going to be difficult for everyone and putting cards on the table would help. This is not something that we are used to seeing however, so I think it could be that there are even more bad feelings to come unfortunately.

 

[manurespreader]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Fans of the new WCHA, and for that matter the NCHC, are kidding themselves if they think a conference tournament in a "Final 5" type format will be even remotely successful. It won't.

What you will see is similar to the ECAC tournament games now held in Atlantic City. You'll get 3000, maybe 4000 fans for each game.

That works for the ECAC, because most of their rinks are so small they wouldn't do any better if they actually held the games at the higher seed's rink.

The WCHA Final 5 was popular, and successful for a couple of basic reasons. They played it the Twin Cities, which is the home of one of the teams that happens to have a very big hockey following. Hockey is a very popular sport in the Twin Cities. It was within about 4 hours driving distance from all the largest schools in the WCHA, and 7 schools total.

There is a reason the WCHA just decided to go with St. Paul and abandoned the experiment of holding it in Milwaukee every few years. It wasn't successful in Milwaukee, even when Wisconsin was in the Final 5.

Strangely enough the new Big 10 conference could probably hold a successful, single location conference tourney. The schools and fan bases are large enough. Yet they are going to start by playing tournament games in the home rink of the higher seeds.

The WCHA and NCHC, which have little or no chance of having a successful Final 5 type event, and should absolutely go with the old format of higher seed hosts, is instead likely to go with the single location format. Go figure.

One of the things that could happen is that the WCHA announces one year ahead of time which home rink will be host to the playoffs that year. For instance would the league make more money if it was held at the Sanford Center or in Green Bay. I would bet that the attendance would be similar. Can some cities handle the hotel needs, most likely they can, but that would need to be investigated. The system would allow travel planning and at the same time the league would benefit from home fans attending. Essentially that was what the X had, a ton of home fans supplemented by some visitors.

 

[4four4]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Maybe the WCHA should have the final five tourney in Fargo/Moorhead area.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

There are 12 teams in the league... The WCHA has a fiduciary duty to protect the interests of the 12 existing members. The WCHA can plan for the future, but until teams leave the conference they can't put interests of the "stayers" vs. ahead of the "departers..." So the future site of the league offices will probably have more to do with the hometown of the new commissioner, if they go that route, than anything else.

Seriously, do you think before you write this stuff? I'm trying to be polite but give me a break with the "WCHA needs to listen to the lame duck members" talk. These teams decided to leave because they couldn't live with the WCHA any longer, they got what they wanted (out of the league) and now you want the management and remaining members to listen to continue to listen to what the departing members want? When you leave for the greener grass on the other side of the fence, don't let the door hit you... The best thing these lame duck teams can do is stay out of the way and keep their heads down. They can skip league meetings from now on for all I care.
No wait, here's an idea, the new WCHA members are going to create a new message board. Let's have people who won't be a part of it tell us how to set it up and make the rules. Yes, that's a super idea... And by all means let's pick our offices' location for our multi-million $ operation based on avoiding $10,000 in moving costs for a comish that frankly most could care less if he stays or goes.

Ryan J

 

[gfmorris]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

All I know is that the WCHA has a spot open that they apparently want to fill. The candidates are a bunch of schools who might put together a hockey team and one who has a team, a team that's taken a lot of licks from the demise of the CHA to the rejection of the CCHA to a couple of months where we thought the program was going to be gone altogether. I read people saying, "We need subsidies and a commitment." I say, "With subsidies, you have a commitment from us." If UAH subsidizes travel---and I don't see how we get into the WCHA without doing so at this point---and then folds the program in five years, what's the harm? [Other than me bitterly crying myself to sleep for a month.] If there were other established D-I programs, or if Morehead was ready to go in the timeframe, I'd understand. I don't see those schools materializing. I don't see us going away if we find a conference home. [If we don't, what's the point?]

GFM

 

[gfmorris]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Oh, and bring UAH in and the folks in Nashville will want to host the Final Four every so often on their way to a Frozen Four bid. I won't be surprised if there's a four-team holiday tournament in the next few seasons with UAH as the anchor school.

GFM

 

[darker98]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Seriously, do you think before you write this stuff? I'm trying to be polite but give me a break with the "WCHA needs to listen to the lame duck members" talk. These teams decided to leave because they couldn't live with the WCHA any longer, they got what they wanted (out of the league) and now you want the management and remaining members to listen to continue to listen to what the departing members want? When you leave for the greener grass on the other side of the fence, don't let the door hit you... The best thing these lame duck teams can do is stay out of the way and keep their heads down. They can skip league meetings from now on for all I care.
No wait, here's an idea, the new WCHA members are going to create a new message board. Let's have people who won't be a part of it tell us how to set it up and make the rules. Yes, that's a super idea... And by all means let's pick our offices' location for our multi-million $ operation based on avoiding $10,000 in moving costs for a comish that frankly most could care less if he stays or goes.

Ryan J

Until the teams that are leaving are gone. They are still members of the WCHA. They way I understood aparch is that you don't need the leaving members for votes on future WCHA decisions, but the future isn't until 13-14.

 

[Almington]

Until the teams that are leaving are gone. They are still members of the WCHA. They way I understood aparch is that you don't need the leaving members for votes on future WCHA decisions, but the future isn't until 13-14.

I don't see how moving the offices or changing the commissioner before 2012-13 would negatively impact the current schools who are already preparing the infrastructure that they need to have in place going forward.

It's important to remember that the wcha will still have a woman's league that will have many of the schools who are leaving. I think that they should move the league offices out of Denver, but the most logical new location would be in Minneapolis/St Paul area.

 

[aparch]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

It's important to remember that the wcha will still have a woman's league that will have many of the schools who are leaving. I think that they should move the league offices out of Denver, but the most logical new location would be in Minneapolis/St Paul area.

From what I can tell, the Denver offices seem to be just a mailing address on campus with limited staff. Half of the listed WCHA Staff is located already on the Wisconsin campus (serving as the Women's league HQ). It makes sense (for now) to just move everything to the Wisconsin location, and then where the league championship game location is decided, place the office in that town.

 

[Bale]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Until the teams that are leaving are gone. They are still members of the WCHA. They way I understood aparch is that you don't need the leaving members for votes on future WCHA decisions, but the future isn't until 13-14.

I agree with what you are saying, but it's kind of like one last f-u by those teams. They are able to set up their infrastructure and make decisions that will help them succeed in their new conference, but at the same time able to dictate what the rest are going to do when they are gone even if it's not in the best interest of those schools still there in 13-14. Realistically, the most logical course of action is for the schools that are leaving to recuse themselves from any administrative dealings of the conference and only deal with on-ice issues. To me, on those administrative dealings should also include the new schools coming into the conference (and give those schools leaving a veto power of sorts for whether it happens now or in 13-14).

You have to understand how this kind of thing rubs those of us booted out of the cool kids club the wrong way. I mean, seriously, more than anything else, these are the types of things that the new WCHA is going to have to structure correctly to survive. If the new WCHA is forced to wait until 2 months before the 13-14 season (which is entirely possible depending on the way contracts are written) to make any changes and the others are able to make all those decisions (as they are already doing with hiring a new commissioner etc) 2 years ahead of time, it's putting us all on an even more uneven playing field. If people like dg had their way, everything would stay in Denver to benefit DU until the last day it is around just so that they can have their say even if it means that the WCHA is a horrible failure in the future. It's ridiculous for the schools leaving to want to have their say in 2 leagues all at once with a complete disregard for any other institution. They've already made it known how little they think of the rest of us. Now it's their choice if they want to give us a fighting chance or if they want to stick it to us just a bit more.

 

[darker98]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

I agree with what you are saying, but it's kind of like one last f-u by those teams. They are able to set up their infrastructure and make decisions that will help them succeed in their new conference, but at the same time able to dictate what the rest are going to do when they are gone even if it's not in the best interest of those schools still there in 13-14. Realistically, the most logical course of action is for the schools that are leaving to recuse themselves from any administrative dealings of the conference and only deal with on-ice issues. To me, on those administrative dealings should also include the new schools coming into the conference (and give those schools leaving a veto power of sorts for whether it happens now or in 13-14).

I agree with you here and I don't think other schools would interferre. dg brought up the admin part and someone said Eff the other schools. Basically what i meant was the on-ice stuff for next year. I just poorly word stuff.

 

[geezer]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

I think Michigan Tech (being the most centrally located, owners of the McNaughton Cup, etc.) should host the league offices and tournament, and poach an alum to serve as commissioner.

 

[MavsFan]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

From what I can tell, the Denver offices seem to be just a mailing address on campus with limited staff. Half of the listed WCHA Staff is located already on the Wisconsin campus (serving as the Women's league HQ). It makes sense (for now) to just move everything to the Wisconsin location, and then where the league championship game location is decided, place the office in that town.

Oh, sure, give the league office to the school that was the most excited to form the B1G hockey conference and start all this mess. Great idea.

 

[huskyfan]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Jamie Russell would be an AWESOME! new WCHA commissioner. lots of Tech ties obviously. and Ferris. he's the package. WCHA needs to get on this now!

 

[aparch]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Jamie Russell would be an AWESOME! new WCHA commissioner. lots of Tech ties obviously. and Ferris. he's the package. WCHA needs to get on this now!

Yeah.... no. Absolutely not. Rick Comley before Jamie Russell. Hell, even Don Waddell before Jamie Russell.

 

[huskyfan]

Re: The New WCHA (2013-14)

Comley's semi retired and doing some pro scouting. although I'd be ok with him. but. no. Jamie!