The Return of the Premiership

[Good2Golf]

In Britain, the club you support has nothing to do with how successful, or not, they are. It's based on tribe memory and geographic loyalty. If that didn't exist, there wouldn't be five professional leagues with Ninety two teams in England alone, Scotland, NI and Wales have their own setups. That's not including lower league semi professional clubs, all of which put arses in seats regularly to support them. I support my club because I was, a)born within the sound of the Great Bell of Bow, b) within a mile of their home stadium, and c) they have been my father's, his father's, and so on back to the club forming on the banks of the Thames in 1895.  You don't choose your club so much as inherit it.

I was amazed at the glitz associated with football in England. Had a personalized small-group Director’s tour of Emirates Stadium. To say there is some lavish dogs in the Director’s Suite and surrounding area’s as well as some amazing awesomeness in the players’ lockers (an amazing jacuzzi that looks like a Roman bath isn’t inaccurate), would be an understatement. The only thing I had an issue with during the game afterwards was....VAR.....that should be shot and thrown out...especially when the fans in the stadium don’t hear any commentator feedback whatsoever while “Team VAR” fiddles around with what lost often is a horrendous call...

 

[Kat Stevens]

VAR is a decent idea, poorly designed and executed, and can be a real momentum killer.

 

[daftandbarmy]

In Britain, the club you support has nothing to do with how successful, or not, they are. It's based on tribe memory and geographic loyalty. If that didn't exist, there wouldn't be five professional leagues with Ninety two teams in England alone, Scotland, NI and Wales have their own setups. That's not including lower league semi professional clubs, all of which put arses in seats regularly to support them. I support my club because I was, a) born within the sound of the Great Bell of Bow, b) within a mile of their home stadium, and c) they have been my father's, his father's, and so on back to the club forming on the banks of the Thames in 1895.  You don't choose your club so much as inherit it.

Nailed it.

I 'inherited' my Grandfather's Liverpool regalia. He grew up there so, of course, supported the 'real' Liverpool team (as opposed to those 'Everton people', of course ).

I've never seen them play but always thought it would be fun to wear his scarf to a game one day.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

I was amazed at the glitz associated with football in England. Had a personalized small-group Director’s tour of Emirates Stadium. To say there is some lavish dogs in the Director’s Suite and surrounding area’s as well as some amazing awesomeness in the players’ lockers (an amazing jacuzzi that looks like a Roman bath isn’t inaccurate), would be an understatement. The only thing I had an issue with during the game afterwards was....VAR.....that should be shot and thrown out...especially when the fans in the stadium don’t hear any commentator feedback whatsoever while “Team VAR” fiddles around with what lost often is a horrendous call...

It's the same in most European Countries.  Ice Hockey is very much like this in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

All these countries could in theory easily support multiple NHL style franchised clubs but the club culture is way too strong for it to ever happen.

Sweden - 28 professional mens ice hockey clubs
Germany - 28 professional mens ice hockey clubs
Finland - 27 professional mens ice hockey clubs
Switzerland - 24 professional mens ice hockey clubs
Czech Republic - 30 professional mens ice hockey clubs
Slovakia - 24 professional mens ice hockey clubs

Many of these clubs pay very good salaries as well.  Some have called for an NHL style league in Europe to compete with the NHL but there would be considerable push back and I doubt many would support the franchised clubs.

A recent example of this would be Jokerït, who left the Finnish League a few years ago to play in the KHL because of it's increased prestige and many were not happy with this in Finland and stopped supporting Jokerït as a result.

 

[PuckChaser]

I love watching the Spengler Cup every year for the club atmosphere. Makes an exciting game that much better with 10,000 chanting fans with competing chants. Can't imagine what a NHL playoff game in a 20,000+ seat arena would sound like with that kind of culture.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Sunderland Til I die (Netflix) provides an excellent insight into this.  Imagine iif the Maple leaf players asnd management had to go to a sports bar every couple of months and listen to the observations of their fans....

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

I love watching the Spengler Cup every year for the club atmosphere. Makes an exciting game that much better with 10,000 chanting fans with competing chants. Can't imagine what a NHL playoff game in a 20,000+ seat arena would sound like with that kind of culture.

I've been planning on taking my Dad to it.  He is absolutely crazy about hockey and is a die hard junior hockey fan.  He occasionally does guest play by play for the Moncton Wildcats on the radio.  Canadian Junior Hockey is the only thing we have that is evenly remotely comparable.

Spengler Cup is awesome and HC Davos is a club that is steeped in history.  Davos itself only has a population of 11,000 yet they have a top level professional hockey club, that is amongst the best in Europe, with a 7,000 seat arena.

The focal points of the town are the arena and the church:

Stockholm, Sweden has 6 professional ice hockey clubs in the greater Stockholm area:

Djurgårdens
Södertälje
AIK
Hammarby
Almtuna
Västerås

None of the supporters of these clubs would ever cheer for another club.

Sport in North America is very commercialized and artificial in many ways.

 

[PuckChaser]

Spengler's on my bucket list for sure. I'll have to make sure my kids are old enough to drink though, or one of them will end up being my DD.