New professional hockey league is launching in North America

[Winger98]

Fans already hate 3 on 3 when the NHL does it, why would a full league of it go anywhere? Players who want to play in the NHL aren't leaving just cause of the money. They want to play in the best league in the world and this new whatever will never be it.

I think they'd pull some midlevel stars if the money is high enough. As someone else said, could hit the AHL hard, and the 3/4 liners in the NHL, again all depending on the money. Playing in the NHL is the dream, but having a larger nest egg for the 50 years of your life that doesn't include making an NHL paycheck will probably turn a lot of heads, just the reality of it.

I'm hoping players go in, milk it for all of the money they can, no one watches, and everyone who isn't a player loses their butts.

 

[A55P2]

Yeah, I won't watch that.

Now if someone wanted to start a bandy league that would be interesting! An actual sport that's already well established.

 

[Warden of the North]

If it actually a 30m dollar cap it will poach NHL players. That's not a small amount of money.

 

[Warden of the North]

Seems to be the first with the story which is odd. But Alan Walsh responding to it like that gives it some validity.

Walsh has a podcast on Dangles Podcast network.

 

[Hugh Mongusbig]

two 12 minutes halves. a single intermission. a 24 minute game????

tickets better be cheap.

 

[Oheao]

There are so many questions that haven't been answered:

1. Is there a salary floor? If so, what is it?
2. Is there a per-player maximum/minimum or not?
3. Will each team be owned by the league itself or be independent of each other?
4. How is it going to start this Fall if we don't even know where all the teams will be?
5. Are salaries/contracts guaranteed?

And so forth.

 

[Castle8130]

I don't think people realize how big of a deal this is. LIV golf was way way more successful than all the naysayers thought it'd be and 3 on 3 hockey is very entertaining. People enjoy it way more than you think. I bet the average fan will like it more than 5 on 5. NHL playoffs are still undefeated, but 3-on-3 could very well take off

 

[daver]

I don't think people realize how big of a deal this is. LIV golf was way way more successful than all the naysayers thought it'd be and 3 on 3 hockey is very entertaining. People enjoy it way more than you think. I bet the average fan will like it more than 5 on 5. NHL playoffs are still undefeated, but 3-on-3 could very well take off

If you mean by success, it is financially viable, then it is hilariously far from being success.

If by success you mean you can buy the souls of many people if you shovel an obscene amount of money at them, then, yes, it has been a success.

 

[robertmac43]

Paying for tickets for what could be a one hour game and expecting it to get close to break even with that kind if salary cap.. won't say it's impossible, but seems like a hard sell economics wise.

If it's backed by the saudi's it won't matter. They are willing to light money on fire in the name of sports.

 

[A55P2]

I don't think people realize how big of a deal this is. LIV golf was way way more successful than all the naysayers thought it'd be and 3 on 3 hockey is very entertaining. People enjoy it way more than you think. I bet the average fan will like it more than 5 on 5. NHL playoffs are still undefeated, but 3-on-3 could very well take off

The thing is that hockey fans are mostly passed down from older hockey fans and most of all current fans really won't care about it. It's a very hard sell.

I see this as a massive obvious flop, just as I assume the current 3vs3 league already is.

 

[Voight]

Seems to be the first with the story which is odd. But Alan Walsh responding to it like that gives it some validity.

Walsh has a podcast on Dangles website tho, FWIW.

But looks like this could be true.

 

[lakeshirts37]

Backed by oil money lmao damn, that's gonna be a pass from me dawg

how noble of you!

I’m a bit skeptical about this league. First off, there’s already a 3 on 3 summer league called 3ice. They’ve been around for several years now. They have a tv deal with CBS and TSN. It’s a fun league and it’s nice to have hockey on tv in the summer, but their marketing is terrible. Unfortunately, most hockey fans don’t even know 3ice exists. This Major League Hockey has a lot of work to do. How are they going to start a league so quickly? They don’t even have a website yet. Securing 16 arena leases and a tv deal in just a few months won’t be easy.

You just said how. Nobody knows about 3ice and their marketing is terrible. Just because a product exists doesnt mean someone cant come in and do it better. Happens all the time.

 

[BLNY]

Saudi money? Then definitely eff that league. Zero interest.

 

[TrufleShufle]

two 12 minutes halves. a single intermission. a 24 minute game????

tickets better be cheap.

What if they did something really outside the box and had four teams at every "event." Meaning some combination of 4 teams traveling to the same cities on the same days and every game night was a double header. Idk if anything like that has been done, but it would make sense in a situation like this. Or with 3v3 having way less stoppages, make every night a mini tourney. 3 games.

Idk, they would have to do something weird, because I can't see anyone traveling more than a short walk for a 24 minute game. That's barely enough time for 3 beers.

 

[lakeshirts37]

I don't think people realize how big of a deal this is. LIV golf was way way more successful than all the naysayers thought it'd be and 3 on 3 hockey is very entertaining. People enjoy it way more than you think. I bet the average fan will like it more than 5 on 5. NHL playoffs are still undefeated, but 3-on-3 could very well take off

LIV isnt successful. They just have unlimited money to keep it afloat. 3v3 hockey very well could be successful but it will have minimal if any impact on the NHL

 

[A55P2]

how noble of you!


You just said how. Nobody knows about 3ice and their marketing is terrible. Just because a product exists doesnt mean someone cant come in and do it better. Happens all the time.

Even if their marketing was top notch I don't think most would care, I know I wouldn't. The format isn't interesting, it's not hockey and hockey is already basically like basketball which is a fast paced sport unlike soccer.

I play hockey outside during the winters and 3vs3 is already a bit lame, you always prefer for it to be 4vs4 or 5vs5 and usually the ice is way smaller than an NHL ice. The point of hockey is to be creative with your passing. 3vs3 is about dangles and that gets old quick.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Damn, Saudis throwing around that oil money. I’ll be interested to see what the rules are. Back when I played 3v3 summer hockey, penalties were taken as penalty shots at the end of the game and when you were scored on the other team cleared the blue line and you just dug the puck out of your net and started the breakout. You might have been allowed to ice the puck as well, but I can’t remember for sure. The whole game was basically changes on the fly.

 

[kylbaz]

If it actually a 30m dollar cap it will poach NHL players. That's not a small amount of money.

That's a good point. They will definitely over pay for some lower end players which would water down the NHL. Until it folds of course.

 

[Oheao]

Maybe they could get Jagr and have him play his final season for the league.

 

[GindyDraws]

New league announced!

"It's a traveling 3-on-3 league that likely will feature stupid team names and feature subpar talent."

Oh...

Sportswashing.

Bingo. Toss enough money around and folks will look the other way at your human atrocities.

I’d rather watch the roller hockey league from the 90s. Bring that back instead.

Does anyone remember the summer leagues they had at Long Beach on ESPN 2?

 

[LeafsNation149]

Lowkey excited for this. Sounds fun

 

[Super Hans]

Watch them make Cooper Marody a more household name than Connor McDavid.

 

[NVious]

This is another absolutely insane Saudi idea. Why waste money with this ? Start a competing international racing series against F1. That would work. This wont

Cuz it's nothing to them.

They have trillions and trillions of dollars of wealth, let's say they put 10 billion into this before it fails, it's literally nothing for the small upside of it working.

It's like if somebody has a 100k networth, this is basically that person wasting $100 on something (nothing to them).

 

[talightf52]

Depending on the rules, this might be really difficult for goalies to adjust to and could cause a lot of injuries.

 

[orby]

It's hard to imagine a lot of regular NHL players getting poached, but I think many guys who are currently playing in Europe would jump at this opportunity.