I was thinking about Montreal being off today. Miss my Als and their 1974 digs and the odd number of teams that prevents everyone being in action each week.
What would be wrong to have 10 teams in the league with the 10th team being a travel-only team in the east division? This team would play 18 games just like everyone else with all of them away games. This idea was popular and accomplished in the various indoor/arena leagues in the spring and summer months from time to time. Why not here?
The pros are this would speed up the construction of a stadium and adding more home games for each of the original nine teams immediately.
Cons … none
The whole purpose is to get everyone playing on the same holiday weekend.
I think a travel-only team is an interesting idea.
I think you’re underestimating how much a “home” matters to a team. This 10th team will be at a clear disadvantage simply because they would always be the away team in a hostile environment. Playing on the road for 21 weeks would be exhausting.
I thought about finding an existing thread to post this, but this about creating a “travel-only” team concept. That’s the key. It’s not the same thing. It puts pressure on an eastern seaboard city to get moving on a stadium.
The weeks would be reduced away from 21 weeks since there would be an even number of teams in the league. Maybe the season can be reduced to 19 or 20 instead.
If the concept is approved and implemented, equilibrium would kick in and the Atlantic team would get the #1 pick each year based on their record if the team exists over 5 season, etc. They would get suitable talent to counter-act the 100% away game season
It would have been better to put this in an existing thread. This has been proposed before, maybe even by you. It was thoroughly shot down completely and quickly. There are too many reasons to count against this concept, although that is probably a flattering word for it.
The league would have to own the team. It would be very costly. No one would want to play on the team. I suppose that instead of fines they could “sentence” players to play there. That would clean up the cheap shots quickly. Oh, and the team would have no fans. Not even the stub of one leg for this proposal to stand on.
