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Daily Dish: Tier III Market Crash - Junior Hockey News
Published: Tuesday, 14 Aug 2012
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Expansions, mergers, USA Hockey, and AAU all are going to get the blame for a catastrophic pay-to-play market correction if players do not fall out of the sky within the next three weeks. It seams as if everybody is counting on North American Hockey League cuts to fill their individual team rosters. This is the direct result of unchecked expansion, bad operators, and the ever increasing cost of hockey at this level.
How many teams are we talking about? That depends on who we are asking. There could be as many as three teams removed from the NA3HL, Battle Creek is certainly one of those teams. There are far too many teams in the midwestern states and players now have a ton of options. Too many options for all the teams to survive. I see a dramatic change for this region.
The player crunch has also effected teams in the northeast. Again, the next few weeks are critical. There are teams on life support from every pay-to-play league outside of the Eastern Junior Hockey League and Atlantic.
The western Tier III and AAU teams are also scratching their collective heads for players.
So what is going to happen? I expect to see the crash begin any day now as teams see the writing on the wall and pull the plug. I've already received a call from a coach with eleven players looking to merge with another group for the season. Man, how is that going to work?
Unless the United States Hockey League and NAHL are sitting on 75 players or so each, we are going to be in for a heck of a ride over the next 21 days. So buckle in.
GoPenasco.com The Daily Dish is brought to you by GoPenasco.com. Relax, unwind...enjoy! Visit http://GoPenasco.com Stephen Heisler resides in Puerto Penasco with his wife, Maria, and their two children, Sonia and Tomas. Friend him on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/stephen.heisler for more information and pictures from Mexico.
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Discuss: |
Like we didn't see this coming?
Brace yourselves...
I hate to see teams go but I guess it happens :/
any predictions?
My son received a main camp invite from a WSHL team today stating that they lost 10 forwards and 6 D and 1 goalie from last season. I noticed this very clearly mass-mailed form letter also went to a friend's son who was "heavily scouted recently", but oddly enough, who hung up his skates over a year ago. These kinds of invites scream "we are drowning, save us" and they prey on families of players who just want to play hockey, probably aren't good enough yet, but can supply the cash to pay for their kid to play. For the record, our copy is now living in the deleted file. Nothing says scam like a "Dear Player" letter.
posted Aug. 14th, 2012 - 11:27pm
Josh Reis says:
The only teams that don't have enough players are the ones that didn't get off their rear ends all summer. I would think twice about heading to any team still begging for players. Now the quality of the players available is a totally different situation. If anyone could harness the NAHL and the WSHL and their wreckless expansion it would be a great justice to both fans and legitimate programs.
It is time for what I have wanted to happen for the past year and a half to happen and the governing bodies to force mergers. A single organization should not have 2-3 Tier III teams. When USA Hockey eliminated the ABCs from the Tier III labels they should have forced the "B" and "C" programs that were feeder teams to the "A" level to disband. That simple move would eliminate 1/4 of the existing teams,strengthening Tier III and the midget leagues at the same time.
This is the smartest thing I've seen about Tier III.
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