Dramatic changes to the World Cup?

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

difference being the Owners get a lot more money by risking their players in the World Cup compared to the Olympics

Well sure, the only reason this idea gets floated every so often is for a cash grab. Call it the Cash Call Tournament.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Hate this idea. Absolutely hate it.

So many positive Patty's around these parts.

CHANGE THINGS! ANY CHANGE IS THE BEST THING EVER!

Seriously. This sounds terrible. Adding more gimmicks to a gimmicky cash grab tournament? Blech

[/substance]

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Why not throw in players into a pool based on the country criteria, then mix all players and create 6 teams of mixed talent?

Storylines drive interest. You simply aren't getting buy-in with no emotional attachment.

Piggybacking national pride, adding in small talent countries and pooling then also brings an underdog team to go against the powerhouses to give those who like an underdog someone to cheer for.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Well sure, the only reason this idea gets floated every so often is for a cash grab. Call it the Cash Call Tournament.

All sport is business.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

How does that help the NHL's business though?

The revenues for Champions League soccer are astronomical. If hockey could do even 5% of that business, it is still enormous.

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionslea...d=2117799.html

The 32 teams that competed in the UEFA Champions League shared €904m in payments from UEFA in 2013/14, matching the record outlay from the previous season.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Storylines drive interest. You simply aren't getting buy-in with no emotional attachment.

Piggybacking national pride, adding in small talent countries and pooling then also brings an underdog team to go against the powerhouses to give those who like an underdog someone to cheer for.

Hmm, that's fair. But it would be quite interesting to have the no chance countries submit their best talent to play with great talent so they can be evaluated?

How about the Major 6 "country categories", 25% of the team must be from a different continent?

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

All sport is business.

Some just disguise it or mask it better than others.

A modification to the existing World Championships would be a much better solution to this. But that would require more cooperation and less politics and ego. So instead, we get this. Hopefully the "World Cup" can get a corporate sponsor. I can't wait to see the unveiling of the GoDaddy.com trophy - cool ranch edition.

[GGG]

Why don't we put the Slovaks on the Czech team. Then they might be able to compete with the Russian, USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland group.

[hummdeedoo]

If they are concerned that good players will be excluded why don't they let Canada ice a 2nd team - you know Bobsleigh style.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by hummdeedoo

If they are concerned that good players will be excluded why don't they let Canada ice a 2nd team - you know Bobsleigh style.

Because picking a 1 & 2 ranked Bobsled team is easy, picking a 1 & 2 ranked hockey team is not.

[hummdeedoo]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Because picking a 1 & 2 ranked Bobsled team is easy, picking a 1 & 2 ranked hockey team is not.

Canada has lots of good players - It's not that hard.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by hummdeedoo

Canada has lots of good players - It's not that hard.

hmmmm, have you ever read the opinions that come out when a team is named for the Olympics or any other team......


While you might be correct that Canada has lots of good players, the seperation between the top and second tier is subjective and therefore a nightmare.

In bobsled, you can look as push times and race/training times. There really is less subjective input.

[Burke Salad]

Is the addition of a young guns team to this tourney a way to get some Oilers players involved?

[Senator Clay Davis]

This is kind of odd considering Switzerland has become a pretty good international team and Slovakia has a top 4 Olympic finish in the last four years (the Czechs and Russians do not...). Seems to me you already have your 8 teams.

[Red Menace]

The whole point of international competition is to play for your country...seems strange to add teams with multiple countries. I suppose it works in the Ryder Cup.
I imagine the big factor is that this is an NHL event, not an IIHF one, so they want NHL players....and Swiss/Slovaks, etc cannot ice an entire team with NHL players...not even sure the Czechs can. I suppose that is why they are thinking of an 8th team of extras...since there is no way the rest of Europe could assemble 2 NHL rosters...they'd be stretched at 1.

[Red Menace]

Here's quick look at a potential Europe team outside the top 6:

Gaborik-Kopitar-Vanek
Hossa-Zuccarello-Boedker
Tatar-Neiderreiter-Nielsen
Grabner-Girgensens-Hansen
Baertschi-Draisatl-Brunner

Chara-Streit
Josi-Ehrhoff
Sekera-Seidenberg
Meszaros-Visnovsky

Hiller
Halak
F.Andersen

[troutman]

Canada could ice 4 or 5 provincial teams better than the all-star teams.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Red Menace

The whole point of international competition is to play for your country...seems strange to add teams with multiple countries. I suppose it works in the Ryder Cup.
I imagine the big factor is that this is an NHL event, not an IIHF one, so they want NHL players....and Swiss/Slovaks, etc cannot ice an entire team with NHL players...not even sure the Czechs can. I suppose that is why they are thinking of an 8th team of extras...since there is no way the rest of Europe could assemble 2 NHL rosters...they'd be stretched at 1.

That's true. I was thinking more all star game than world cup. My bad.

[hummdeedoo]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

hmmmm, have you ever read the opinions that come out when a team is named for the Olympics or any other team......


While you might be correct that Canada has lots of good players, the seperation between the top and second tier is subjective and therefore a nightmare.

In bobsled, you can look as push times and race/training times. There really is less subjective input.

I get what you are saying about bobsled - I guess my point is we could ice a 2nd team that would be very competitive. Of course there is always talk about who should make the team(s) and who shouldn't and it would be subjective and no different than how it is currently done.

[Red Menace]

All-Alberta:

Hall-Little-Iginla
Lupul-Ennis-MacArthur
Doan-Gallagher-Raymond
Versteeg-Sutter-Colborne

Green-Bouwmeester
Phaneuf-Russell
Myers-Holden

Ward
Scrivens
C.Johnson

I think the Euro team is better....Ontario would certainly be stacked.