Quote:
Originally Posted by spuzzum
Sochi and Vancouver Olympic ice hockey tournaments were the best of the best. National pride. You definitely know who you are cheering for. No better stage. Even if held in Korea or Botswana for all we care. I was up whenever needed to watch the games and cheer. The NHL has to continue with the Olympics, and sadly, they're going in the opposite direction.
Euro all star team from lesser hockey countries facing national countries? Foolish idea and concept. Many have illustrated the importance of cheering for "their team."
A team consisting of Italians, Germans, Austrians, Slovenians etc would be a laugh. No one would follow them, never mind the players being asked to suit up.
San Marino cheers for San Marino and they know they'll never get to the World Cup. It's called patriotism and being proud regardless of your population.
I love the Champions League idea but not sure it would fly. Logistical nightmare.
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I actually think the exact opposite. This might be everyone's favorite '2nd team' in the tournament from fans who have their respective countries already participating. There will be a tonne of interesting stories surrounding the individual players, their backgrounds and how they got there. Also remember how many immigrants (first, second or even beyond that) are in North America and still have ties or national pride. I would bet their second team would be the one with a player from their 'roots'. I know I would cheer especially hard if someone from my origin was on that team.
I also think that their countrymen would follow them, and think it is a great way to increase interest in countries where that interest is a bit limited. The media in those countries will of course write an article or two, and their 'Romanian Gretzky" or "Polish Crosby" should be followed by the respective fans. I think it would be a great way to give some attention to hockey in those countries, and maybe help to build the game up there in the long run. I think Hockey is a very fun sport to watch once you sit down and actually watch a game (I am talking about for someone who has never watched a game before). Maybe there would be more people taking an interest. I think it is as good of an idea as any in trying to make hockey a bit more popular.
If anything, I would love it if that second team was an all-Asian team instead of another Canadian team, or the remainder of the players from North America, etc. I don't think they would be competitive enough, unfortunately, though the sport does seem to be growing in popularity there (Kazakhstan, Korea and Japan probably have a few players, and even Thailand has their own league!). I don't believe they would be anywhere close to competitive enough, unfortunately, so I doubt they get invited any time soon.