Is London Calling?

News has emerged this morning that potentially as early as the 2014/15 season we could have an EIHL team playing out of London following a move by Panthers and Clan owner Neil Black.

This is fantastic news. There hasn't been top flight Ice Hockey in London since 2006, firstly with the London Knights upto 2003 when the Superleague at that time folded, the Docklands Arena was sold and the team decided not to ice the following season and secondly with the London Racers who ceased playing part way through the 2005/06 season when they could no longer find a suitable venue. The positives of such a move are plentiful. Media coverage is bound to increase with a team in the capital and with that an increase in spectator interest in the sport will follow. It will also help with what I think is a little bit of a ignorance to the sport in the south of the country. I was in Las Vegas a few years back with my wife and we were watching an NHL game in one of the bars in The Bellagio (we were only visiting, couldn't possibly afford to stay there!!) when another British couple from Guildford came into the bar and struck up a conversation with the barman. He politely enquired as to whether there was any Ice Hockey in the UK and the couple said no! Luckily or unluckily for the couple we were on hand to correct them and point out we were Panthers supporters, but they had no idea Guildford even had their own team. What I am trying to get at, with Coventry being the most southerly English Elite League team, it is perhaps no surprise that knowledge of Ice Hockey in this country isn't as far reaching as we'd like as this certainly is an opportunity to change that.

A team in London would also give the league chance to expand. Assuming that the team in London played out of the Erhardt Conference then in order for stability and balance we need another team to join the Gardiner Conference. There have been many suggestions and the one I would be most interested in is a team playing out of the North East. I never had the opportunity to watch the Vipers whilst they played in the top flight but have read stories and experiences about visits to their compact rink and wish that I had found my love of the sport a few years earlier. If re-introducing a team to the North East isn't feasible then perhaps Manchester could return to the top flight, people have also suggested Leeds, Liverpool or Dublin. Whatever the answer is, personally I would prefer to see a northern based team as I think it is important for the stability of the league as a whole and particularly for teams such as Fife and Dundee.

I do have one concern though and I don't want to come across as a spoil sport. In my job I deal alot with 'conflicts of interest' and I wonder whether a third organisation owned by Neil Black is one too many. At the moment with Panthers and Braehead playing in different conferences this conflict of interest is diluted a little but should a team in London be formed then Black would have 2 teams playing out of the same conference. I would like to think that the league would undertake due diligence to ensure everything is above board, but the point I am trying to make is that you don't see the same people owning two football clubs in the Championship.

There is also the financial aspect of Black owning 3 franchises. Should Black decide to run the London team under the umbrella of Sportscape Group Limited who is the ultimate parent company of Aladdin Management Limited (Nottingham Panthers) and Clan Entertainment Limited (Braehead Clan) then should a period of financial instability occur then we could potentially see the demise of three teams. A simple look at the accounts for the year ended 30 June 2012 shows that Clan Entertainment Limited owes Sportscape £280,000 and you have to wonder when the Clan are ever going to be in a position to pay that back? Especially when in the Sportscape accounts for the same period Clan Entertainment Limited made a loss of c£94,000 for the year.

Notwithstanding this though, a new London team is fantastic news and shows that the Elite League is thinking of moving forward. We are a long way of having a product to compete with Europe but at least getting the sport back in our nations capital is a step in the right direction.

In other news, the Panthers have this week re-signed Eric Werner for the new season which is a deal which has delighted many fans, myself included. Regarded as one of the best D Men in the league last season, if not the best, this has to be the signing which completes for now a very strong looking Panthers roster. I would have preferred to see one or two more of last seasons players return, if for no other reason than it would have helped the team gel a bit quicker, but understandably they have received more lucrative offers following last seasons success.

I also want to congratulate Braehead on re-signing Ash Goldie for the upcoming season. I think he is a talented player and with 34 goals and 46 assists last year, a move to a Erhardt side wouldn't have looked out of place.