10 imports next season

[Mooney#16]

Problem isn't all about standards of players though. It's also finances. The money isn't in the game for Brits to pursue careers in UK hockey. Alot and I mean alot of very good players who could have gone on to be very good players have simply hung up the skates as they have to go out and get jobs that actually pay enough to live a good standard of life from. The Brits will only truely stick with the game and progress in level and up the leagues if the money and ice time is there to warrent it. There has to be a clear signal from the Eliteleague they want to have a league populated with British players and that they will earn enough and skate enough to make it worth there while.

Until the Eliteleague can stabilise itself as a model i.e number of teams and budgets I'm not sure that signal can be sent to the Brits. Yes Import hockey keeps a standard high but its not financially viable in the long term and in no way benefits the greater UK hockey scene. I would say also that alot of players do vital conditioning, skills and fitness training during the off season. Those Imports that the Brits are supposed to learn off and aspire to get close to dissappear for the summer and the Brits are left only with peers to compare with and they will never truely know how they fair until Imports arrive. Remember the Imports are mercenaries. They are here for the cash. Its the Brits that can actually bring a sustained level to Uk hockey. I know its a big subject with many different arguements but brutal honesty is Hockey in the UK will not progress beyond being a bush league until they get a GB team on prime time BBC coverage at the Winter Olympics. Only way that'll happen is with more Brits in the Eliteleague.

 

[Clare]

See, I am just completely failing to understand why a slight drop in "quality" (in not having so many imports) is actually a problem.

Enjoy hockey for what it is. If you want to watch a bunch of imports play each other, go live in Canada and watch them there as often as you like.

Or, we could all just carry on demanding imports and before you know it, no youngster in the UK will even want to consider ice hockey as a past time... I mean, what the hell would be the point if you can never play professionally in the UK (!?)


(Yes, I am having a bad week... )

 

[Rossboy19]

See, I am just completely failing to understand why a slight drop in "quality" (in not having so many imports) is actually a problem.

Enjoy hockey for what it is. If you want to watch a bunch of imports play each other, go live in Canada and watch them there as often as you like.

Or, we could all just carry on demanding imports and before you know it, no youngster in the UK will even want to consider ice hockey as a past time... I mean, what the hell would be the point if you can never play professionally in the UK (!?)


(Yes, I am having a bad week... )

Bad week or not u make a good point. Whatever way you analyse the import limit this is UK hockey, so surely we should be wanting the majority of players being homegrown. It's just like the foreign take over in footballs premier league. The less imports means more homegrown talent is able to develop in the long term which can only be good for our league and our national team

 

[devil99]

excellent, been waiting for this for years, Mooney & clare find your posts spot on! After discussing this on here for years lets hope they will now start equalising not only the number of brits/imports but also bring the salaries & benefits more in line. your right in that the number of very good british trained players who leave hockey completely due to no space and very poor wages is huge. Yes a lot of them go to EPL, that's not because they are not good enough to play at elite standard, but very simply the wages are 2/3/4 times more and they train during the evenings leaving their days free to work if needed.
The other annoying thing is the fact we have to even distinguish between both parties, the same training/game time put in, yet such vast differences in the financial/adoration side of things.
Personally, I'm a cardiff devils supporter and an ice hockey supporter, I can't play hockey myself or even skate, even though I've sat in more ice rinks around the world than I care to mention, I would watch hockey no matter what the standard was, I pay a fortune each year on top of season ticket moneys to be part of this sport, from the under 10's to the retirie elite/epl, enl player they can do what I never could, the skill to play this sport is immense and you sometimes forget that what they are doing on the ice is average, that anyone can do it! yeah right(and i'm talking about british players).
Roll on the future of 12+ elite teams and maximum 8 players who were not born here!

 

[Broken Machine]

See, I am just completely failing to understand why a slight drop in "quality" (in not having so many imports) is actually a problem.

Enjoy hockey for what it is. If you want to watch a bunch of imports play each other, go live in Canada and watch them there as often as you like.

Or, we could all just carry on demanding imports and before you know it, no youngster in the UK will even want to consider ice hockey as a past time... I mean, what the hell would be the point if you can never play professionally in the UK (!?)


(Yes, I am having a bad week... )

Persumably the point of an import limit would be to ultimately force investment in youth development to bring local players up to a high standard, not to ban anyone and everyone better to the point where a bunch of randomly picked boys from a local supermarket would have a legitimate chance of making it as professional sportsmen. The key though is that the end result is that British players are eventually there based on talent and not nationality.

Not sure what the point is, really. While children are our future, blahblah, the fact that the weather in this country is permanently-set to 'light drizzle' does kinda work against us, same as the conditions aren't right in most of America, yet they seem to get by with only making up a fifth of NHLers. This ignores the fact that half the Elite clubs are unsure if they'll last the season, let alone putting any real money into youth programmes.