News has been coming out of Edinburgh and Newcastle this week that both teams are maybe not doing so well financially with Edinburgh pleading for their fans to turn out and show support while Newcastle have revealed this could well be their last year in the EIHL. The current economic climate of which I don’t claim to be an expert on but which I know isn’t going well, has kept fans at home and forced teams to perhaps tighten their belts. Unfortunately for some teams the belt doesn’t get any tighter and they are still losing cash and the upshot of it all is a worrying thought for the EIHL as a whole.

Last year we had ten teams but dropped to eight this season with Manchester and Basingstoke dropping down a level and I’m not sure the league could realistically survive in anything less than an eight team league. Potentially losing Edinburgh and Newcastle would take us to a six team league and while there is no hard evidence I imagine Hull and Cardiff are hardly rolling in cash either. The option for them to head to the EPL along with the likes of Edinburgh and Newcastle might be temping and could leave us with just four EIHL able teams. A no go.

Back in 2002/03 this sort of stuff went on with teams dropping out of the league and leaving just five teams to finish out the season. That year was one of the most memorable in the Giants history thanks to the Continental Cup run and winning the playoffs but league wide it wasn’t memorable from a financial stand point. The Giants almost went bust in that summer of ’03 and it took an overhaul of the league setup and a re-branding of the whole product for the Giants and others to survive. The Elite League was born and now fans are beginning to worry if it is going the same was as the old Superleague.

Spending was cut with the formation of the EIHL and foreign imports limited. Many believed this would see the stabilization of the league for decades to come, but in reality there has been doubt over teams here and there ever since it got underway. The London Racers came and went and then Basingstoke and Manchester dropped down a level. Could the league need another re branding in order to survive yet another potential summer of discontent in 2010?

I sure hope not, but there might not be any choice and the worrying thing for Giants fans should be that whatever way the league decide to go, it may not be beneficial for the Giants.

I’m not privy to the Giants accounts but they seem to be hanging in there rightly in the current climate and setup of the league so keeping it the way it is might well be the ideal scenario, but when it isn’t the scenario for others then you cannot play with just four other teams and you must sit down with the rest of the clubs and figure out what works for all?

The option of lowing the spending and number of imports and even number of games to save on travel costs is a likely outcome regardless of what the three arena teams would prefer. But when you do that you weaken the product and unless ticket prices come down you might well drive away a lot of the fans who stuck with the club when the standard dropped from Super League level to Elite League. The Giants have a big arena to rent and therefore ticket prices need to be at a certain level to meet the costs, but fans will rightfully argue that the standard cannot be watered down further while ticket prices stay where they are. That reason alone might force the Giants to somewhere like Dundonald on a more permanent basis. What that would mean for the Odyssey without its primary tenant is another topic for another day but moving to Dundonald might again push away the fans who enjoy the comforts of the Odyssey.

The Giants, Sheffield and Nottingham might well find themselves being given an ultimatum by other teams. “We’re doing it like this, cutting all these costs and if you want in then great we’ll have a 10 team league, if you don’t then there is the door but we’ll survive better this way.” What other option would the ‘big three’ or four if you count Coventry have?

And finally there is the real worrying prospect. That if a new setup comes into effect the teams feel it not financially viable in anyway to make the journey across the Irish Sea 3 or 4 times a season and would be better off without the Giants. That would hurt and it shouldn’t be ruled out entirely. I know the Giants travel much more than any other team — every time they play away they travel over the sea, but the opposition won’t be at all forgiving if they feel it suits their pockets better to go it alone.

I’m getting way ahead of myself, that is true. Especially when this has been nothing more than some mutterings coming from a pair of teams, but I’ve watched this league throughout the entire decade and if there is one thing I’ve learned it is that the financial problems of teams never goes away entirely. I don’t think we’ve ever had a season without some kind of worry and so when it comes up again it is worth thinking about and worth pondering over what might be for the Giants going forward into their second decade in British hockey.

On the subject: Financial Problems, Future of the League | ALL SUBJECTS |

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