Date: Sat Dec 23 10:08:35 2006
Sender: Jeffrey Whitman
I received an email a few weeks ago from the Comish of the SMFHL stating that
there was consideration being given to merge the NOHL & SMFHL into one league?
I believe the reason was due to the lack of new owners in both leagues. I am
curious to know if it is also an "operating cost" situation for DEL?
When I'm not wearing my DEL Hockey Owner/Coach hat, I am a business manager of
a fairly large ($40+Mil/yr.) business. Personally, from a business standpoint,
I see the DEL hockey "product" as something that has huge potential but weak
marketing.
I "stumbled" on Del Hockey about 11 seasons ago and I've been hooked ever
since. I currently own the Pittsburgh franchise in both the NOHL & SMFHL. The
3 emails I get every day from Del are usually my favorite as well as the "News
Releases" from other team owners (especially Anthony Yung's in the NOHL).
I have never really gotten caught up in criticizing the sim's performance nor
do I believe it's even remotely bad at all. However, I do think if the product
could be improved I would have no problem paying more for it.
I'd love to see Del (I guess that's Andy Dolphin?) somehow put resources
towards marketing the product to develop more customers (team owners) rather
than dissolving entire leagues. I've put alot of time into my franchises and I
enjoy playing in both leagues for somewhat different reasons.
I also believe there are several non-programming related ways that the leagues
could be improved to create & retain more interest. Adding things like league
"chat" abilities, more player/team stat info and Owner bios would probably be
fairly easy to accomplish and make the league much more interesting.
Personally, I would love to know more about the other team owners and I wish
there were a little more stats and stat sort options available (but that
probably is a little programming, huh?) in the sim.
Anyway, I just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in and I was also wondered what
everyone else thought.
Date: Sat Dec 23 16:13:57 2006
Sender: Jay Schlegel
I can't recall any discussion of merging leagues before (though that may just
be my poor memory), but I'm not very surprised. ECHL is also down in
enrollment. The hockey message board is the least active on the site. I do
wonder if the merger email was an 'official' discussion, or just a suggestion.
I too would like to see more development and marketing... but that is not a new
issue either. I too would be willing to pay more for a better experience.
If I were to put on my wizard's hat and wish for the sky, I would want to *SEE*
DEL games played out onscreen. Think DEL engine running the game, and a video
game like NHL 2K showing you the PBP onscreen. No, not a joystick interface
(if I wanted that, I wouldn't even be here); I'm here for the coaching aspects.
But boosting the entertainment value wouldn't hurt the marketing either.
Date: Sat Dec 23 18:32:01 2006
Sender: Matthew Reid
I thought that bringing the merger issue to the coaches was very premature.
The Commishes had been discussing it and I hadn't even had the majority of my
questions answered when it was brought forth to the league.
If I had to vote now, I would be against a merger since a merger would involve,
at least to my understanding at this point, the closing of both NOHL and SMFHL
league and piling the coaches into a new league. You wouldn't be able to keep
your current team. If that situation was to arise, I wouldn't join the new
league. I have been with SMFHL Anaheim for a very long time, 15+ seasons I
believe and i'm just not ready to give that up. If the merge was to occur, I
wouldn't continue. Sam had said he was getting a lot of owners saying that they
encouraged and liked the merge so perhaps i'm in the minority.
Again, I just dont have enough basis to make an informed choice, therefore from
the information I do have, my choice would be no.
Date: Mon Dec 25 00:39:30 2006
Sender: AJ Perko
I'll say this.
I'm dead hooked on several DEL sports. Like seriously I don't ever see myself
quitting. (kicked out? maybe)
I had to hunt extensively for these games, I had a fair idea what I was looking
for- just wasn't sure if it existed.
I can't believe I'm in some rare .0001 percentile of people in the world who
want to play DEL?
I've often wondered why Andy doesn't market a little more.
Date: Mon Dec 25 00:41:50 2006
Sender: AJ Perko
oh yeah, and Jay.....
I would love to watch a game played out.
Baseball would proabably be the easiest to create- though it's way over my
head.
Date: Mon Dec 25 10:35:24 2006
Sender: Steve Handley
I agree with Matt, I have been in the SMFHL and the NOHL for a long time, I
would only go forward if I could bring along one of my teams. I would not join
a new merger league.
Date: Sat Feb 3 23:57:43 2007
Sender: Sam Mendes
Either Andy has to find a way to bring in a lot more people or we have to
relize that we'll be playing against mostly cpu driven teams in the future. 16
open teams in NOHL, 12 openings in SMFHL, 9 openings in the IOHL ... we're
talking 37 openings between
3 leagues out of 90 teams. I don't like those numbers and only a couple years
removed from andy's marketing campaign ( I was intrested in doing this back
then but held off on the promise of more people getting involved )
So these talks are in an official capacity or they should be (not sure whats
been talked about in NOHL and its owners) but I'm tired of supporting a league
that can't support itself in numbers. There needs to be a solution. Now if we
stop both leagues and create a new league OR stop one league and move owners to
another league is a different matter, but I think the big picture has to be
thought of here.
Date: Wed Feb 7 12:37:19 2007
Sender: Neil Taylor
I for one would agree with Sam that the leagues should be joined together.
I have a team in both leagues (NOHL Montreal and SMFHL Long Island), and you
only have to at the past winners over the last few years in each league to see
that it is dominated by Pittsburgh and Chicago in NOHL and Tampa and San Jose
in SMFHL, its ridiculous.
I also think it has a lot to do with RFA, which I have whined about before,
with minimal compenasation the big boys keep restocking there talent every
season and the poorer teams just get poorer and weaker.
I sympathise with those that have had franchises for a while, but what a
challenge it would be to start from scratch again and build your team up.
Unless we get more real coaches (Not IOHL Carolinas imaginary friends) in then
merging may be the only option available.
Dolphin Simulation Games is not responsible for the content of posts.
Please report any offensive messages to help@dolphinsim.com.
