Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
I've said this many times on here. I should try to find an old post where i put it in detail. The NHL got conned by Olympic fever. They had the perfect tournament with the Canada Cup which turned into the 1996 World Cup. Perfect tournament, held both in Europe and North American and the Americans won. Couldn't have scripted it better to push American hockey with new expansion teams. 2000 World Cup should have been held in the sun belt. Miami, Tampa, Dallas...
But they threw that all away for what? A trip to Japan? Games at 4am? Having your whole tournament run by the IOC where you don't get the money or can't choose the location? The NHL got excited about the 92 US Dream Team in basketball but that worked because basketball didn't have a great best on best tournament. But even no, the Olympic Basketball tournament is now an afterthought. The newly rebranded Basketball World Cup is becoming bigger.
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A million times this. Even if they continued with the Olympics, there was no reason they couldn't keep the World Cup going on the offset quadrennial.
Soccer has both World Cup and Euros (and I believe other continental cups) on that kind of schedule...both are a huge deal.
Give me a magic wand at I'd make:
76 game seasons
Play-in games (perhaps follow the NBA's model and do for each division: 3v4 - loser plays winner of 5v6 game.
Even years = Olympics & World Cup
1 Odd year = Canada Cup (West, East, Ontario, USA West, USA East...maybe do a similar deal of only Euro teams)
1 Odd year = Rivalry series (CAN/USA vs. RUS; SWE vs. FIN; the CAN/USA not playing Russia plays an E vs. W series)