Claimed: Hypothetical - A North American VHL [1/2]

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Hypothetical - A North American VHL

 

Originally, one of the unique characteristics of the Victory Hockey League was the European Conference. Instead of the traditional Eastern and Western conferences, the VHL included cities such as Stockholm, Riga, Helsinki, and Madrid within their ranks. While this does add somewhat of an interesting dynamic to the league, I sometimes wonder if members, specifically new/newer members, would feel more "attachment" to their team and the league if we were completely North American based. While this obviously wouldn't really apply to current members who are already attached to these teams and I do recognize that we have some European based members, it is something I've thought about. With that, I've come up with some potential relocation destinations for the European franchises.

 

Side note: I didn't include any cities with current NHL franchises.

 

Hamilton, Ontario/Kitchener, Ontario/Some place in Nova Scotia

 

I'm lumping these two cities together because quite frankly, I don't know a ton about Canadian cities outside of the major ones that already have NHL franchises. I doubt any proposal with 5 American cities would be accepted, so I picked two cities with decent populations relative to the rest of Canada as well as an area of the country that is not currently represented in the VHL. Hamilton and Kitchener both support junior hockey pretty decently, so it wouldn't be a stretch from a background standpoint for these cities to support a VHL team. I think Nova Scotia is pretty empty so that might be a little bit of a stretch population wise to support a team, but it's something we could easily work around.

 

Houston, Texas

 

Originally the home of the Houston Aeros (twice), the fourth largest city in the U.S. has been without a hockey team since 2013. Both iterations of the Aeros ran into problems off the ice more so than on it. The original Aeros of the WHA were unable to merge with the NHL after multiple attempts, while the AHL Aeros were unable to find an arena with a suitable arrangement. This is a city that has supported minor and lesser league hockey in the past, and with one of the largest populations in the US, represents an opportunity for the VHL to "grow the game". Houston is not stereotypical Texas and would more than support another hockey team if given a chance.

 

Memphis, Tennessee

 

This one is a little bit of a stretch and more of a "high-risk, high-reward" location, but Memphis is in an area of the U.S. not currently represented in the VHL. This is a city the VHL would hope becomes the equivalent of Nashville in the NHL - a primarily college sports hungry town that embraces a professional team in a sport not usually associated with the region. If Memphis supported their VHL team half as much as they support the Vols, a team could easily be successful there.

[Beketov 8,638]

Nova Scotia as a whole is pretty empty but Halifax is pushing 415k people so it's the largest city east of Quebec by a landslide. If there was ever going to be an Atlantic Canadian team it would be the most logical destination.

[Corco 1,124]

Will there be a part 2: Hypothetical European VHL???  

[Gudnason 607]

VEGAS!!!

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

37 minutes ago, Corco said:

Will there be a part 2: Hypothetical European VHL???  

 

Yes actually 

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

Review

Nice little write up flyers. All NA VHL would be interesting and there are a lot of destinations that make sense which would be different from the Normal destinations.