7+7=14, hopefully 15, maybe even 16

With the Elite League's announcement that they have extended invitations to all seven current BNL teams to join the EIHL, we could potentially have a 14 team league. In fact, we could have a 15 team league with Manchester coming back on line, which we're all hoping for, or even potentially a 16 team league if the Ayr team is resurrected, which we're also all hoping for. And in a season or two, that could raise to 17 with Milton Keynes exercising their position on the EIHL Executive Board.

There's much speculation flying around the various hockey forums on the internet regarding the pros and cons of such a league, how it would work, what the divisions will be, whether there will be promotion and relegation, and so on. Personally I think it's still early days to be talking about the set up of the league - the seven invitees haven't had chance to mull it over and respond yet, so the EIHL can't give any concrete plans as to a league structure until it knows how many teams it has. However, even though it's early days, it doesn't stop me from climbing onto my soap-box and interjecting my two-penneth!

Based purely on the news as it stands, my opinion is that the most likely outcome will be a 15 or 16 team league with three regional devisions (16 teams if Ayr come back, 15 if not). I don't subscribe to the notion that the BNL teams will be kept in a division of their own, because that won't change much. The geographical splitting is the most logical, and it's along the same lines as a model suggested by Nottingham's Neil Black a couple of seasons ago when the Elite League was being established - a northern division comprising of Edinburgh, Fife, Dundee, Ayr, Belfast and Newcastle, a central division including Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham, and Hull, and a southern division including Bracknell, Basingstoke, Cardiff, Guildford, and London. The travel costs of the teams would be kept lower by employing a similar model of fixtures to the NHL - you play the teams in your division more often than others, but you still play everyone else once at home and once away.

For the fans, this could be the regeneration the sport needs. Much as we enjoyed the rivalries back in the ISL days, it did get a bit repetitive watching Storm versus Sheffield every couple of weeks, and the potential to watch Phoenix take on 15 other teams in the course of a season is certainly a mouthwatering one.

So now, once again, we wait and see what happens.